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REPORT

THE ISLAND OF PORTO RICO;

ITS

POPULATION, CIVIL GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE,

INDUSTRIES, PRODUCTIONS, ROADS,

TARIFF, AND CURRENCY,

WITH RECOMMENDATIONS

HEZNTtY K. CARROLL,

Special CoxrLmissioner for the United. States to 3?orto Rico.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED TO

hon. William Mckinley,

President of the United States.
October 6, 1899.

WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

1899.

REPORT

THE ISLAND OF PORTO RICO;

ITS

POPULATION, CIVIL GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE,

INDUSTRIES, PRODUCTIONS, ROADS,

TARIFF, AND CURRENCY,

WITH RECOMMENDATIONS

HENRY K. CAKROLL,

Special Commissioner for' the "United. States to Porto Rico.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED TO

HON. WILLIAM: McKINLEY,

President of the United States.

October 6, 1899.

WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OT*1

1899.

ICE,

55807

Treasury Department,

Document No. 2118.

Office of the Secretary.

FlflW

, U.

co:nte.jts of eepoet.

Page.

Explanation of words and terms used in this report j 5

Work of the commissioner 7

Character of the island 8

The climate . ... 9

Prevalent diseases 9

The population _ . 10

History of the island , 11

The civil government 15

Government finances 16

Municipal government. 17—

System of taxation *... 20

The codes and courts . _ _ 23

The notarial and registration systems 26

The church and church property ._ 27

The cemeteries 31

The public schools _■ 32

Public charities and prisons ^ . . . 33

Social conditions . _ 35-

Character of the people.. 36

Political parties 37^

Roads, railroads, and communication 38

Commerce and industry 41 —

Agriculture 44

Condition of the laboring classes 48

The tariff 52 . —

The currency and banking . ... 52

Changes under the military government 53- ~~l

What Porto Rico expects from the United States •_ . . 55— J

Capacity for self-government 56-

As to change of language and customs 58

Free commerce between Porto Rico and the United States 59 ■ —

The right of suffrage 61

Departments and salaries 62

Recommendations 63

CONTENTS OF APPENDIX.

Page.

Agriculture— soils, crops, methods, resources 67

Industries - -. 121

Commerce, foreign and domestic 143 —

Means of transportation _ , 156 -\

Census of the population 179

Geographical . 200

Climate. 202

Public health and sanitation . ... 206

Flora and fauna.. - _-'- 222

Insular government — 231

Insular revenues and expenditures _ . . 253

Codes and courts 264

Mortgage, notarial, and registration systems 319

Civil divisions . . . ..-." .. -- 339

Political parties 340

Suffrage and the system of autonomy. 352

System of taxation 366

Porto Rican tariff _. 385 —

Money question 449

Banks and hanking . 498

Postal, telegraph, and telephone service . . 509

Public lands and mines 512

Municipal government. 517

Prisons and charities . ■„.. 588

System of public schools .. 615

Church and church property 651

Law and customs of marriage.. 690

Condition of the laboring classes 712

Demand for free commerce with the United States 766 -~

Opinions of the people on various questions of reform .. 786

EXPLANATION OF WORDS AND TERMS USED IN THIS REPORT.

Abogado. Counselor.

Aguacate. Alligator pear.

Alcaide. Warden of prison.

Alcalde. Mayor.

Alguacil. Constable.

Area. 119.6 square yards.

Audiencia Criminal. Criminal court.

Audiencia Territorial. Supreme court.

Ayuntamiento. Municipality.

Barrio. Division of municipality, ward.

Beneficencia. Charity.

Blanco. White.

Bocoy. Hogshead, holding 1 ,400 to 1 ,800
pounds.

Bagazo. Stalks of pressed cane.

Boriquen. Carib name of the island.

Cabotage. Coastwise trade.

Cacao. Chocolate beans.

Calle. Street.

Camino vecinal. District road.

Candelaria. Feast of Candlemas.

Car eel. Prison, jail.

Carretera. State road, cart road.

Casa consistorial. City hall.

Cedula .personal. Passport.

Centarea. 1,550 square inches.

Centavo. A copper coin; the hundredth
part of a peso.

Central. Sugar mill grinding for a dis-
trict.

China. A sweet orange.

Ciudad. City.

Coche. Coach.

Comercio. Commerce.

Comisario. Head of a barrio or ward.

Comunica ciones. Comm unications,
postal and telegraphic.

Concejales. Aldermen or councilmen.

Consumo. A special tax on articles of
food, drink, and fuel.

Contribuyentes. Taxpayers.

Cuerda. .99 of an acre.

Delito. Crime.

Derechos reales. Royal dues.

Diputacion provincial. Insular admin-
istrative body.

Doble peseta. Silver 40-centavo piece.

El Componte. Name given persecution
by G-uardia Civil.

Escribano. Court clerk.

Expediente. The documents of a case.

Falta. Minor offense.
. Ferrocarril. Railroad.

Finca. Farm, estate.

Fiscal. Prosecuting attorney.

Fomento. Improvement; department
of the interior.

Fresa. A kind of strawberry.

Frutos Menores. Small crops; bananas
and vegetables.

Gastos. Expenses.

Gratificacion. Bonus in excess of sal-
ary.

Gremio. Trade union ; cl ass of taxpayers .

Guardia Civil. A special police force.

Guineo. A small banana.

Gu'ira. A small gourd used as instru-
ment of music.

Hectdrea. 2.47 acres.

Huesera. Receptacle for bones of dis-
interred bodies.

Ingresos. Income.

Jamaica Tren. A primitive process of
sugar making.

Jibaro. A mountain peasant, or ignor-
ant countryman.

Juez dela Instancia e Instruccion. Dis-
trict judge.

Juez, municipal. Municipal judge.

Junta. Board of council.

Ley. Law.

Morenos (brown). Blacks or negroes.

Naranja. A bitter orange.

Notario. Notary.

6 .

Palillos. Instrument of tortnre in the
form of pegs.

Pardos (gray). Mulattoes.

Patente. Tax on opening shops for busi-
ness.

Pecuaria. Pertaining to cattle.

Peones. Peasants or field laborers.

Peseta. Silver piece of 20 centavos.

Peso. Unit of currency, one hundred
centavos ; three-fifths of American dol-
lar.

Pie. One-third of a vara, or 10.945
inches.

Pldtano. Plantain.

Plaza. Public square.

Poblacibn de derecho. Legal popula-
tion.

Poblacion de hecho. Actual popula-
tion.

Presidio. Penitentiary.

Presupuesto. Estimate: applied to bud-
gets.

Procurador. Attorney.

Pueblo. Town, city.

Quintal. One hundred weight.

Real. A fictitious coin of 12-J centavos.

Registrador. Registrar of property.

Sindico. Counsel for municipalities
and supervisor of accounts.

Sueldo. Salary.

Sumario. Summary, or court brief.

Teniente alcalde. Vice-mayor.

Transeuntes. Temporary residents.

Vales. Tickets given laborers instead
of money.

Vara. Unit of cloth measure, 32.835
inches.

Vecino. Neighbor, citizen.

REPORT ON PORTO RICO.

Treasury Department,
Office Special Commissioner for the

United States to Porto Rico,

October 6, 1899.
To the President.

Sir : Under appointment by you to investigate the civil, industrial,
financial, and social conditions of Porto Rico and make report, with
recommendations, I have twice visited the island, under instructions
from the Treasury Department, to which I was assigned for immediate
supervision.

WORK OF THE COMMISSIONER.

The commissioner sailed in the U. S. transport Manitoba October
10, and landed at Ponce October 15. Two days later he crossed the
island, by coach, over the famous military road to San Juan, the capi-
tal, where several weeks were spent in an inquiry into the customs
and currency questions and the system of civil government. Return-
ing to the United States November 15, the commissioner made pre-
liminary reports on these subjects, and sailed for Porto Rico a second
time on the 31st of December. Meantime the offices of the commis-
sion in San Juan were kept open, and much information, statistical,
industrial, and social, was gathered by the secretary, Mr. Charles E.
Buell, and the interpreter, Mr. Alfred Solomon. Early in January a
tour of the municipal districts of the island was begun and the testi-
mony of representatives of all classes of the population was taken.
As the commissioner had been instructed to make his inquiry broad
enough to embrace all subjects concerning the present condition and
future welfare of the people, all interested persons were invited to
attend the hearings, all who offered information were heard, and
numerous statements of individuals and firms, in the nature of memo-
rials, complaints, and recommendations, were received. The tour
embraced the chief cities and districts of the island : Bayamon, Vega
Baja, Arecibo, Camuy, Quebradillas, and Isabela, in the north;
Aguadilla, Mayaguez, San German, and Cabo Rojo, in the west;
Yauco, Ponce, Guayama, and Arroyo, in the south, and Maunabo,
Yabucoa, Humacao, and Fajardo, in the east. The interior towns of
Utuado, Coamo, Aibonito, Cayey, and Caguas, and Isabela II, on the
island of Vieques, were visited, and representatives received from
other places.

The commissioner had a cordial welcome everywhere. Insular and
municipal officials, judges, lawyers, doctors, bankers, merchants,
planters, manufacturers, artisans, field laborers, inhabitants of the

poor quarters in cities — persons of all classes and colors, leaders of
the political parties, natives, Spaniards, Germans, and other foreign
residents — willingly gave testimony, or secured documents, or obtained
information, often at no little pains, and endeavored by every means
to make the investigation a successful one. Statements embodying
needed facts, making suggestions, or asking immediate relief from
oppressive conditions were prepared in various parts of the island
and submitted to the commissioner by deputation or by mail.

CHARACTER OF THE ISLAND.

The United States is to be congratulated on the acquisition of
Porto Rico. It is a beautiful island, well worthy the admiration of
its new possessors, accustomed to the most varied and picturesque
scenery in their own wide domain. All its shores are approachable,
and whether seen from the Caribbean Sea, on the south, or from the
Atlantic Ocean, on the east, west, and north, it presents an attractive
appearance. Its mountains, which refuse to arrange themselves in
natural chains or ranges, rise with charming irregularity, covering
nearly the whole interior of the island, and are visible for long dis-
tances at sea. Mount Yunque, in the northeast, is the highest peak,
reaching a height, according to the General Official Guide of Porto
Rico, of nearly 5,000 feet. The mountains are generally well covered
with verdure, natural or cultivated; even the very peaks are gardens
of the husbandmen, or beautiful wooded areas, or rich pasture lands.
These mountains serve to condense into clouds the vapor which rises
from the sea, and these give frequent and refreshing showers. Scores
of rivers and hundreds of smaller streams carry the accumulations of
these rains by winding ways through the valleys to the sea, furnish-
ing abundance of clear, cool water for the various uses of mankind,
including power for mills, dynamos, and other machinery. Along
the shores, forming a belt of varying width around the island, are
rich alluvial plains. The soil has not been exhausted by centuries of
cultivation, and this luxuriant sea border is ornamented with cocoa
and royal palms and other tropical vegetation. The countless valleys
and extended slopes are also devoted to cane, .coffee, tobacco, and
various other crops of vegetables and fruits. The cultivable area is
large, including practically all the island except the arid sides of
some of the mountains facing the southern coast. The portion under
actual cultivation is but a small fraction of the whole.

The superficial area of Porto Rico has not been scientifically ascer-
tained. The estimates are various, ranging from 3,150 to 3,860 square
miles, the last being the figures given by the Official Guide. These
estimates include, of course, Vieques, Mona, and Culebra, and nearly
a score of smaller islands, as well as Porto Rico itself. The greatest
length of the island is about 115 miles; the greatest width, about 36,
according to the best maps. There are no charts of the coast, the
scientific survey begun some years ago, under Spanish auspices, never
having been completed, or if completed the results were not made
known. There are numerous roadsteads and harbors, the best har-
bors being those of San Juan, Jobos, and Guanica, which are land-
locked. The chief rivers are the Loiza, the Arecibo, the Plata, the
Manati, and the Bayamon, emptying on the north, the Culebrinas,
the Anasco, and the Guanajibo, emptying on the west coast. There
are many other rivers and streams that reach the sea at short dis-
tances apart around the entire island.

THE CLIMATE.

The climate is tropical, but not torrid. Though the heat is con-
tinuous, it is not extreme. The thermometer rarely rises to 100°.'
The highest monthly average on record in nine years in San Juan was
86° (in June, 1878). The hottest day in that period gave a tempera-
ture of 100.8°, but there was only one such day. The temperature is
equable, and rises or falls through a very limited range. The highest
point reached by the thermometer in San Juan in the period from
November, 1898, to July, 1899, inclusive, was 91°, in the month of
June. This was for one day onty, and on no other day of that month
did the temperature exceed 86°. The lowest range in the same period
was 66°. The winter season extends from October or November to
March, inclusive. No really oppressive weather was seen in the capi-
tal during those months in 1898-99. Showers came frequently, but
were of short duration and were mostly at night. Every day the
unfailing trade winds blow from the east or southeast, making the air
delightfully fresh. The nights are cool and comfortable. The sum-
mer season is marked by a slight increase in the average temperature,
much more rain, and a great deal of humidity. The continuity of the
heat and the unfavorable conditions for evaporation of perspiration
make the climate somewhat enervating. San Juan has an elevation
of only about 100 feet. In the mountains the higher elevations dimin-
ish the amount of heat, and Aibonito, Cayey, and Utuado are con-
sidered as remarkably cool cities.

Occasionally the island is visited by a disastrous hurricane. The
first record of one of these tropical terrors was in July, 1515. They
come at irregular intervals and Avith varying degrees of force. The
most violent storm the island ever knew, according to history, was in
August, 1772, when houses were demolished, trees uprooted, planta-
tions flooded, and many people killed. In September, 1806, there
was another visitation of less destructiveness, and still another in
September, 1819. The latter was followed by a famine. The hurri-
cane of October, 1867, was very severe. In August, 1886, the south
coast was ravaged and the coffee plantations in the southwest suffered
severely. The last furious storm occurred August 8, 1899, and was
terribly destructive, particularly on the eastern and southern coasts
and in the interior. Humacao was well-nigh destroyed ; Yabucoa, in
the beautiful valley of the same name south of Humacao, was a heap
of ruins, and but little was left of the old town and port of Arroyo.
The damages at Ponce and at the port of Ponce, on the south, were
extremety heavy. The streets were swept by a flood and many nouses
were torn from their foundations. The crops of coffee and cane were
quite generally destroyed in the east, in the south, and in the interior,
and orange and other fruit trees were uprooted or stripped by the vio-
lence of the wind. Arecibo, on the north coast, directly across the island
from Ponce, also suffered great injuries. Between 2,000 and 3,000
persons lost their lives, and the destruction of live stock was very
great. The fall of rain was enormous, amounting to 11.20 inches at
Juana Diaz, north of Ponce, in twenty-four hours.

PREVALENT DISEASES.

Though enervating, the climate is salubrious. The death rate is
moderate. Yellow fever is not indigenous. Smallpox becomes epi-
demic sometimes, but under General Henry's administration an extra-

ordinary plan was conceived and executed for the vaccination of the
entire population of the island with vaccine produced from native
cattle. The prevailing diseases are consumption and malarial fevers.
With improved sanitation in the cities, already begun under United
States military auspices, the health bill of Porto Rico will compare
favorably with that of countries in the temperate zone. The general
disregard, hitherto, of the primary principles of sanitation makes it
a matter of wonder that the scourges of Porto Rico have been so few.
There was an outbreak of cholera in 1855, chiefly among the colored
population, and it was estimated that 30,000 or more died of it.

A reference to the table of the causes of death in San Juan in the
year 1898 shows, that of 1,151 deaths, 143 were from some form of
consumption, 25 from pneumonia, 44 from congestion of the lungs,
and 49 from bronchitis — a total of 361, or about 31 per cent from
these causes. Of 76 deaths from fever 28 were attributed to malarial,
11 to pernicious, 20 to typhoid, 11 to typhus, 2 to yellow, and 4 to
other fevers. Consumption attacks with great severity the mixed
and black races. Only one-fourth, or 36, of those who died from this
disease were whites; 62 were of the mixed and 45 of the black class.
As the whites constitute about 64 per cent of the population, the
mortality among the 36 per cent of colored people appears remarkably
high. Bowel troubles, such as dysentery and diarrhoea, are quite gen-
eral. There were 83 deaths from these causes, of which 55 were of
white, 13 of mixed, and 15 of black persons, showing that the whites
are specially subject to these diseases. The statistics are not suffi-
ciently comprehensive to show the full effect of lack of proper food;
but it appears that in 50 or more cases anaemia was a chief or collat-
eral cause of death. Dr. A. Stahl, in a pamphlet giving comparative
statistics of the death rate in seven rural municipalities, covering
two years, shows that the months having fewest deaths are February,
March, April, May, and June. Of 1,348 who died in those places in
one year 543 were below the age of 20, and 146 were 60 and upward,
28 having passed the age of 80 and 6 that of 90. There is little which
bears on the question of longevity, except the census of 1860, which
shows, in a population of 583,308, that 2,442 were over 80 years of
age and that of these 73 had passed, the century mark.

THE POPULATION.

The population, according to the census of December 31, 1897, for a
full copy of which I am indebted to the late secretary of state, the
Hon. Luis Munoz Rivera, numbers 890,820, or, including the Spanish
military and naval forces then quartered on the island and the penal
population, 899,203. In 1887 the figures were 802,439, including sol-
diers, sailors, and prisoners, showing an increase in the ten years of
96,704, or a little more than 12 per cent. In the previous decade —
1877-1887 — the increase was 70,784, or between 9 and 10 per cent. The
growth of the population in the last ten years can not, it would seem,
be regarded as unsatisfactory. As to sexes, males are slightly in
excess of females — 448,619 to 442,201. This excess would be consid-
erably increased by the addition of the Spanish militaiy and naval
forces and of the penal population. The excess would not be specially
remarkable in a colony were it not that in 1887 the sexes were not only
more equal in number, but there was a slight excess — 523 — in favor
of the females. This is explainable on racial grounds. The white
males exceeded the white females in 1887 by nearly 6,000, but females

of the mixed and colored classes exceeded the males of the same
classes sufficiently to make up the difference.

A more remarkable fact appears concerning the races from a com-
parison of the two censuses, namely, that the colored classes are
decreasing. The census distinguishes blancos (whites), pardos (gray),
and morenos (brown). In 1887 there were 323,632 pardos and.more-
nos; in 1897, only 317,724, showing a decrease of 5,908. Every pre-
ceding census of which details can be had shows an increase. Between
1775 and 1834 there was an increase of 89,458 free colored persons and
35,246 slaves; from 1834 to 1846 the increase was 49,392 free colored
and 9,398 slaves; from 1846 to 1860, 65,224 free colored, with a de-
crease of 9,480 slaves; from 1860 to 1877 (slaves were freed in 1873),
an increase of 82,617 free colored persons. This large increase for
seventeen years is now followed by a decrease. For the cause of the
decline no explanation is at hand. It is worthy of note that the
decrease appears in all departments of the island excepting San Juan
and Arecibo. The colored population seems to be fairly prosperous
and contented. The occupations generally are open to them, and in
San Juan they are the artisans, carpenters, masons, painters, etc. Of
whites there are, exclusive of Spanish soldiers and sailors and the
penal population, 573,096, or upward of 64 per cent; of mixed, 241,895,
or more than 27 per cent; and of blacks, 75,829, or less than 9 per cent.

There are two distinct census tables, those of the hecho, or actual,
and those of the derecho, or legal, population. The former (890,820)
is made up of residents present and transeuntes, or transient visitors.
The latter consists of resident and ausentes, or absent, citizens of
Porto Rico and Spain, excluding . the transeuntes. Included in the
derecho population were 7,932 Spaniards and 127 foreigners, who were
absent when the census was taken. It is somewhat surprising to find
that 886,442 of the the actual population are classed as Spaniards,
and only 4,324 as foreigners. This is a small number to include all
the citizens of the United States and other countries of America and
the rest of the world living in Porto Rico at the close of 1897.

The most populous of the eight departments of the island are those
of San Juan and Arecibo, on the north, 295,724; Ponce and Guayama,
on the south, come next with 290,961; Aguadilla and Mayaguez, on
the west; third, with 221,557, and Humacaoand Vieques, on the east,
fourth, with 83,578. Drawing a line through the center of the island,
as near as may be from east to west, it is found that 475,856 are north
and 414,964 south of the line. West of a line drawn north and south,
through the center, there is a considerable preponderance, the number
being west 521,055 to 369,765 east. The gains in the last ten years
have been chiefly in the west. Of the 84,109 increase for the whole
island, 64,562 was in the west and 19,547 in the east.

HISTORY OF THE ISLAND.

The island of Porto Rico, which forms part of the Archipelago of
the Antilles, situated betweeu 18° 30' and 17° 55' north latitude and,
including the smaller islands, 68° and 65° 10' west from Greenwich,
was discovered by Columbus on his second voyage. The expedition
which left the port of Cadiz on the 25th of September, 1493, called at
the island of Santo Domingo the 3d of November, and on the 16th, in
the afternoon, sighted Cape Malapascua, in southeastern Porto Rico.
On the 17th his fleet coasted around the south of the island; on the
18th they doubled the Morillos of Cabo Rojo and ascended the west

coast; and on the 19th cast anchor off Agnacla, the northernmost bay
on that coast. The admiral landed and planted the symbol of the
Christian religion on the shore, and, raising anchors, left on the 22d
for Santo Domingo. The supposed place of landing, south of Agua-
dilla, is marked by a monument of granite, erected by the people in
1893, in commemoration of the fourth centenary of the event. The
monument is in the form of a cross and bears the inscription, " 1493,
19 de Noviembre, 1893."

This colonizing expedition had on board Don Juan Ponce de Leon,
who, later, was the captain who subjugated the island. He was a son
of Santervas de Campos, and first saw service in Santo Domingo, in
the district of Higuey, under the orders of Capt. Diego de Valasquez,
the conquerer of Cuba.

Commander Ovando, who was governor of Santo Domingo in 1508,
gave permission to Ponce de Leon to make a journey of discovery to
the neighboring island of San Juan. He embarked from the port of
Salvaleon, in Santo Domingo, in a caravel, with a handful of followers
and a few Indian guides, about the end of 1508. On the way he
called at the island of Mona, then thickly populated by Indians,
traversed the south of the island, making friends with the chiefs
(caciques), and brought his ship to anchor finally in Sardinera road-
stead, about 24 miles west from the capital. From this point Ponce
de Leon and his followers moved on to the bay of San Juan, where he
embarked for Santo Domingo to report his discoveries.

The natives called the island Boriquen. (Some say Borinquen,
some Borinquen, the last being the accepted popular term among the
islanders. Scholars incline, however, to Boriquen as the true Indian
name.) Columbus christened it San Juan de Bautista (St. John the
Baptist). Capt. Ponce de Leon initiated the conquest with some 300
followers, laying the foundations of the first town on the spot known
as Pueblo Viejo (.Old Town), on the shores of the bay fronting the
capital. This town was called Caparra, the name given to it by
Commander Ovando. It was afterwards named the city of Porto
Rico and was transferred to the present site in 1521 by royal order,
on the recommendation of the St. Geronimo order of monks. In the
course of time the island has taken the name of the city, Porto Rico,
and the city that of the island, San Juan. Ponce de Leon took up
his residence in Caparra and sent one of his lieutenants, Cristobal de
Sotomayor, to the south, where the latter founded a village in the
port of Guanica, which, owing to the unhealthiness of the site and
the plague of mosquitoes, did not prosper, and was transferred to the
port of Aguada, contiguous to the village of the cacique Aymamon.

They began to work the mines. The natives, whose number was
about 100,000 in the whole island — although there are historians who
compute their number much higher — soon began to show open oppo-
sition to the conquerors, who forced them to wash the auriferous sands,
to burn lime, and other laborious work. The cacique TJrayoan or-
dered the young Spaniard Salcedo to be drowned in the river Anasco
in order to prove to his people that the Spaniards were not immortal.
The cacique Guarionex set fire to the village which Sotomayor had
founded in Aguada. Lieut. Don Cristobal de Sotomayor himself was
killed by the cacique Guayabana, and the struggle extended in all
directions, forcing the Spaniards to leave the west of the island and
retire to Caparra under the command of Captain Salazar.

Ponce de Leon sent notice of the rebellion of the natives to Santo
Domingo, then called La Espanola, and prepared himself for the de-
fense. He soon, however, took the offensive, beating the Indians in

every battle and terminating the rebellion with the death of the prin-
cipal cacique, Guayabana, who was killed by the arquebus of a sol-
dier. The Indians then submitted humbly to their conquerors, who
enslaved some 5,500 of them, and thus terminated the period of
conquest, initiating the period of colonization.

The colonization was turbulent. The Emperor, Charles V, conceded
the right of governing the island to Don Diego Columbus, and Ponce
cle Leon had to turn the command over to Juan Ceron and Miguel
Diaz, two of Viceroy Columbus's lieutenants. They arrived from
Santo Domingo with some of their adherents, founded the original town
of San German at the estuary of the River Anasco, and started a
reign of intrigue and quarreling among the colonists.

The natives, who were obliged to work on the lands of the Span-
iards, among whom they had been divided into gangs called enco-
miendas, in order to teach them the doctrines of the Catholic religion,
little by little began to decrease. The conquerors began by appro-
priating their handsomest women as spoils of war, and t^hen sub-
jected them to a hard and cruel slavery. Many of them emigrated
to the neighboring islands, not a few committed suicide, while small-
pox wrought devastation among their reduced numbers.

On the 20th of April, 1543, after consulting the Council of the In-
dies, the king ordered the Indians of Porto Rico to be freed. The
bishop of San Juan, on the 20th of March, 1544, informed the king-
that "Indians, young and old, natives of the island, who had been
granted such signal mercy, numbered 60," and according to Bar-
tolome de las Casas, when the Spaniards first arrived at Boriquen,
" it was as full of people as a hive, and as beautiful and fertile as a
garden."

The working of the alluvial gold mines, calculating from the
$669,160 paid to the Spanish crown as a tithe of one-fifth, must have
produced about 13,000,000, although owing to the concealment of the
findings from the fiscal agents the quantity may easily have been
greater. The colonization of the island received a setback by the
emigration to Mexico and Peru. In 1595 the English, under Drake
and John of Aquines, assaulted the capital with a fleet of twenty-four
ships. The Spanish fleet was stationed in the bay and the English
were prevented from taking the city, the general, John de Aquines,,
losing his life in the action. In 1597 the Earl of Cumberland cap-
tured it, but had to abandon it owing to an epidemic of dysentery
which decimated his troops. In 1625 the city was attacked by the
Dutch with seventeen war ships. They captured- the port and the
whole city, but could not take the Morro, and had to reembark with
the loss of their general, Boudoino Henrico. In 1702 the English
attacked Arecibo; in 1703, Loiza; in 1743, the coast of Ponce; and in
1797 the capital, but in each instance were repulsed.

These frequent attacks made the fortification of the capital neces-
sary. The first fortress built was Santa Catalina, begun in 1533 and
finished in 1538. Casa Blanca, the oldest building in the city, was
begun in 1525; the Morro in 1584; San Geronimo and Canuelo in 1608;
the city walls in 1631, and San Cristobal in 1766.

The, population of the island increased little by little. The natives
were replaced by African blacks. In 1765 the island had 29,846 inhab-
itants, besides 5,037 slaves. The end of last century showed 138,758.
According to the last census (1897), there were 899,203 inhabitants.

The first sugar mill was built by Santaolaya, in 1848, near the capi-
tal, and was called Santa Ana. In 1897 there were 25,090 hectares
under cane, and the island exported 63,413 tons of su^ar. The gen-

eral aspect of Porto Rican civilization at the beginning of the present,
century was that of a Catholic colony following a patriarchal life.
There was but little commerce, owing to the fact that exporting was
only permitted to certain ports of the Peninsula, notably Malaga.
Owing to smuggling the treasury could not pay its way, and Mexico
had to send annually about $100,000 to cover the deficit of the island.
There were no public schools.

In 1815 a royal order, styled "act of grace," allowed foreigners
to establish themselves in the island, and many came in from the
French and English Antilles, bringing their capital and their slaves.
The Venezuelan and Dominican emigrants, flying- from the wars in
their countries, came in search of peace to Porto Rico and helped to
swell the population. This marked the overthrow of the prohibitive
system, which had prevailed since the discovery of the island. In
1778 a concession allowed Catholic workingmen to come in, but the
royal decree of 1815 opened the doors, though certain restrictions
adopted jn 1816 somewhat modified the liberality of the decree. One
of these restrictions required foreigners who had not acquired domicile,
under the rules, to quit the island in three months or suffer the penal-
ties prescribed for disobedience. The ' ' golden " age of Porto Rico
began with the date of the order, and the population not only increased,
but agriculture and commerce were greatly developed. The slavery
of blacks, which had begun before the disappearance of the slavery
of the Indians, was abolished on the 22d of March, 1873, by order of
the republican Government of Spain, giving freedom to 34,000 persons.

The history of the island since the beginning of this century is
notable only by reason of the formation of a distinct type of Porto
Rican Spaniard, as opposed to the Peninsula Spaniard, in which the
latter has received all the favors at the hands of the home government,
while the former has been almost entirely excluded from- participation
in the administration of the island. A long list of governor-generals
contains but few names which are mentioned by Porto Ricans with
affection.

The attitude of Porto Rico toward Spain has been one of obedience
and endurance, if not of love and devotion. There have been no
important uprisings since the aboriginal inhabitants made their final
stand early in the sixteenth century and were defeated and enslaved.
Some Colombians in 1825, inspired by the desire to free Porto Rico
as they had freed their own country under the leadership of Simon
Bolivar, landed at Aguadilla and captured some of the defenses, but
were beaten off by the Spaniards and gave up their enterprise. Then
was Porto Rico's opportunity, but she did not welcome it, perhaps did
not see it until it was too late.

In September, 1868, when the revolution broke out in Cuba, an
attempt not very well planned and but weakly supported was made
to throw off the Spanish yoke in Porto Rico. There was an outbreak
at Lares, where a force of 700 or 800 insurgents took the field and
won a few unimportant victories, being finally routed, it is said, by
less than a dozen militiamen. Many escaped and some were taken
and ordered to be shot, but before the order could be executed the
Queen at Madrid had been deposed and political prisoners were
released. An insignificant insurrection was begun in Yauco in 1897
which was soon put down; the prisoners taken were made conspicuous
objects of the Crown's clemency.

There was more or less of persecution by the Spanish authorities
for the last ten or twelve years of the Spanish domination. The civil

guard arrested many persons on suspicion of being members of an
alleged secret society, believed to have disloyal ends in view. In the
first years of that period, when Romualdo Palacio was Governor-
General, the persecution was particularly severe, being known as el
componte, a word borrowed from the negroes of Cuba. Persons were
arrested, generally at midnight, and tortured. The instrument most
used was called the palillos (sticks or pegs). The smaller ends of
three of these pegs, 6 or 7 inches long, were tied close together. The
pegs were inserted, close to the string, between the fingers of the victim,
and the loose ends were pressed together, giving the most exquisite
pain, and crushing the bones. Some were killed by other instruments
of torture. These methods of promoting loyalty were continued until
j 896, when a more liberal and humane policy was adopted for effect,
il is said, on public opinion in the United States.

THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

The civil government of the island was the Govern or- General, and
the Governor-General was the civil government. All power was lodged
in his hands and he was accountable only to Madrid. He was at once
the executive, the legislative, and the judicial head. As Captain-
General, he had chief command of the military forces, and made such
disposition of them as he chose; as Governor-General, he conducted
civil affairs, whether insular or municipal, according to his own
pleasure.

To quote from Senor Munoz Rivera, late secretary of the govern-
ment, whose statement is given elsewhere, "the Governor- General
was absolute master of the destines of the country." He was " sur-
rounded by a number of influential persons to whom he granted
favors and on whom he depended to keep up the appearance of a sys-
tem of representation which was at bottom completely false." "The
budget of the country was voted by the Spanish Chambers." Munic-
ipalities had no power to control their own affairs. They had
to submit all their acts to the Governor- General for approval, and
he "appointed all municipal employees, naming arbitrarily every
employee down to porters and janitors. " He ' 'directed finances through
a manager who was his subordinate, who had under his order the chiefs
of all the other departments." If, as occasionally happened, he was
a wise and good man, seeking the welfare of the people rather than
his own personal enrichment or the advancement of his political
friends, there was less cause for complaint from the people, who were
completely ignored. As the position was one of great power and of
large opportunities for pecuniary profit, it not infrequently went to
those who were prepared to exploit it in their own interests.

The establishment of the diputacion provincial was the first step in
decentralization. This is a feature borrowed from the provinces of
Spain. In Porto Rico it consisted of twelve persons elected by the
people, one each from the twelve judicial districts. It met twice a
year, a permanent committee of five transacting its current business.
The members were unsalaried. It had oversight of the department
of fomento, including public works, roads, the lottery, schools, prisons,
etc. , also of municipal budgets. Its income was derived from terri-
torial taxes and taxes on commerce and industry, of which it received
50 per cent; from special duties collected at the custom-houses and
from earnings of raffles and lotteries. It controlled the expenditure
of upward of 1,200,000 pesos per year. It was abolished by the
United States military government.

The system of autonomy, which was proclaimed November 25, 1897,.
was never fully installed. The war intervened, and the provincial
legislature, which was its most important feature, was dissolved when
Sampson's fleet appeared, and the Governor-General conducted the
government practically on the old plan, except that the ministry, as
provided by the autonomistic law, was retained, as follows: Secretary
of government or of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary of the
fomento or interior, including public works, public instruction, pub-
lic lands, mines, etc., agriculture and commerce, and secretary of jus-
tice and worship. The last three secretaries were subordinate to the
secretary of government, through whom all orders from the Governor-
General and all communications to or from him must pass. The
autonomist law allowed the secretaries or ministers to be members of
one or the other of the two legislative chambers. The Governor-Gen-
eral with his council constituted the executive power. No act of his
was valid unless approved by one of the secretaries, and the secre-
taries could issue no order which he had not countersigned. He had
the power to convoke or dissolve the chambers, to refer objectionable
bills to Madrid for approval or disapproval, and to appoint or remove
the secretaries. All matters of a diplomatic character were in his
hands exclusively and, constituted by the Pope patronato real, he was
the head of the church in the island and practical director of ecclesi-
astical affairs. The legislature consisted of two chambers, the coun-
cil and the house of representatives. The council was composed of
fourteen members, eight of whom were elected, and six appointed by
the Crown ; the house of representatives of one representative for each
25,000 inhabitants, elected by the people. The liberality of this law
is further indicated by the fact that it gave the right of suffrage to all
males of 25 years of age and over. The two chambers were em-
powered to legislate on all insular questions, such as the estimates,
which must be adopted by the Cortes at Madrid , public instruction,
public works, sanitation, charities, etc. It will be seen that the
reforms granted by this autonomistic decree were large in the letter,
taking powers which the Governor- General had exercised unques-
tioned and giving them to the people, who had never been allowed to
participate in the government of their own country. Whether it
would have proved liberal in practical operation is not so certain.
The Government invariably discriminated against Porto Ricans in
favor of Spaniards, and it is also to be remembered that Spanish laws
as written and Spanish laws as administered are not always identical.

GOVERNMENT FINANCES.

The finances of the Government, managed by the hacienda or treas-
ury department, were so conducted that no provincial debt was created.
Sufficient amounts for the various purposes were included in the esti-
mates, which were sent to Madrid for approval, and those amounts were
collected and disbursed. The finances of the cities were conducted on
a similar plan, the provincial deputation exercising so careful a vigi-
lance that such debts as appeared were due to failure to pay the prov-
ince's quota of revenue. In only a few instances were towns or cities
allowed to raise money by large bonded loans. Sometimes a consid-
erable surplus was accumulated in the provincial treasury, from which
the Government at Madrid borrowed on several occasions. The pre-
supuestos or estimates consisted of two parts, gastos or expenses and
ingresos or income. There were two distinct budgets; one by the

provincial deputation, the other by the treasury department, with two
independent treasuries, whose operations are combined in the figures
which follow.

The sources of revenue were classified under five heads, namely: (1)
taxes and imposts; (2) custom-houses; (3) monopolies; (4) state prop-
erty; (5) incidentals. Under the first head were territorial taxes, levied
on urban and rural estates; taxes on industry and commerce, levied on
manufactures and on the income of merchants, doctors, lawyers, etc. ;
royal dues and dues on transfers of property; mining imposts, cedulas
personalesor passports; a 10 per cent tax on the business of railroads,
and the consumo tax on petroleum. Under the second head were
customs duties, fines, and confiscations, warehouse dues, 10 per cent
transitory tax, and special duties on loading and unloading of freight
and the embarkation and disembarkation of passengers. Under the
third head were the monopoly revenues, such as ecclesiastical bulls,
stamped papers for instruments of indebtedness and other legal pur-
poses, postage stamps, forms for" payments to the State, for receipts
and accounts, drafts, insurance policies, bank and company shares,
drafts for the use of the press and custom-house stamps and documents.
In the fourth division, which was insignificant, were included rents
and sales of public lands, tax on quarries, mines, etc. The fifth
division, incidentals, embraced various small items. The estimates for
the financial. year (July 1, 1897-June 30, 1898), including those of the
provincial deputation, amounted to 5,157,200 pesos. Of this total
§3.377,900 was expected from the custom-houses; $1,051,200 from terri-
torial taxes; $312,200 from stamped paper, postage stamps, etc. ; $9,300
from state property; $309,700 from the lottery, and $96,900 from all
other sources.

The estimates of revenues, compared with those of expenditures,
indicated a surplus of over 400,000 pesos. The expenditures were
divided as follows: General obligations, $498,502, all of which went to
Madrid, for expenses of the colonial ministry, losses on exchange,
auditing of accounts, etc., for payments to returned soldiers and
marines, and for pensions, civil and military, pensions, etc., amounting
to $362,700; worship and justice, $423,819, of which $197,945 was for the
support of the clergy; war, $1,252,378; navy, $222,668; treasury,
$260,800; fomento or interior, $2,095,876. In the last sum were
included all the expenditures in connection with the postal and tele-
graph business, the lottery, light-houses, schools and asylums, public
works, the civil guard, which cost $351,633, and the corps of vigilance
and security, which cost $92,293. According to the budgets for
1897-98, it would appear that the cost of the postal and telegraph
service was $295,452 and the income only $128,000; at least, this is the
only amount which is credited to the service in the estimates of income.
The cost of the lottery, of which there were eighteen drawings
annually of 30,000 tickets each, was $23,180. It yielded $309,700,
leaving a net income to the State of $276,520, according to the budgets,
which indicate no other expenses.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

The island is divided into districts, taking the name of the chief town
or city in which is the. seat of the government for the whole district.
There are at present about seventy of these districts, some of which
are as large as counties in the United States. Utuado, in the interior
of the island, is 19 miles long by 10^ broad in its greatest dimensions,
1125 2

having an area, perhaps, of 145 square miles. Arecibo, the second
largest district, lying on the coast, directly north of Utuado, has an
area of somewhat less than 120 square miles, extending 12 miles along
the coast, east and west, and about 10 miles north and south. Some
districts are very small, notably that of San Juan, in which the capi-
tal is situated, which is less than 7 miles long and 2£ miles wide in its
greatest extent. Besides the city or principal town, these districts
embrace other towns or villages, but for the most part the population
in the rural portions is widely scattered. The tendency to concentrate
in villages, manifested in countries like the United States, seems to
have been discouraged in Porto Rico. In many sections the houses
are few and far between. Even on large plantations there are few
families living, ordinarily. The peons or field laborers often walk
long distances to and from their daily labor. Many families live in
comparative isolation, and the majority of the population would
probably, strange as it may seem, be found outside the seats of
municipal government.

In the large district of Bayamon, lying next to that of San Juan on
the west, reporting in 1887 a population of 15,169, only 2,200 were in
the town of Bayamon. The rest were in the rural barrios, of which
there were 18 besides Catano. In the district of Aibonito, on the line
of the military road, only 1,430 out of a population of over 7,000 reside
in the pueblo, or town; the rest are in the 8 rural barrios, 2 of which
return over 1,000 each. Humacao, on the east coast, has two-thirds
of its population outside the city proper, in its 12 rural barrios. In
the same section, the district of Fajardo, which now includes the
former district of Ceiba and part of that of Luquillo, embraces a pop-
ulation of 17,616, of which Fajardo itself has 3,865. The most popu-
lous municipal district in the island is Ponce, which has a popula-
tion of 48,198. Fully two-thirds of this is in the rural barrios. The
distance of these 23 barrios from the city varies from 1 to 13 kilo-
meters. (Five kilometers make 3 miles.) TJtuado, lying in the cen-
ter of the western half of the island, is a typical rural district. It is
second to Ponce in the number of its inhabitants, 41,056. This pop-
ulation is so widely distributed that, according to the General Official
Guide of Porto Rico, the city itself, in 1887, had less than 2,500 inhab-
itants, 3 of the most distant barrios having each a larger number.
The ratio of the population of the citj^, in that year, to the total of
the district, was as 1 to 13. Some of the barrios were more than 10
miles distant from the seat of the municipal government. Mayaguez,
on the west coast, with which Hormigueros has been united, is the
third municipal district in the island in point of population, having
a total of 37,662, of which probably two-thirds will be found in the
numerous rural barrios.

All the barrios of a municipal district are under the jurisdiction of
the mayor and council of the chief city or town. Municipal regula-
tions and supervision are coextensive with the boundaries of the dis-
trict. Where the districts are small and the settlements near, admin-
istration is not difficult, perhaps; but in the larger districts, with
considerable villages and towns outside the seat of municipal govern-
ment, and a large scattered population, the exercise of municipal
functions can not be easy. Each barrio has an alcalde de barrio, or
comisario, who represents the alcalde, or mayor, with the powers of
a police justice.

The mayor and council, constituting the ayuntamiento, are subject
to the ley municipal, or municipal law, which prescribes their duties.

These are more particularly described in the Manual del Secretario de
Ayuntamiento, a volume of nearly 900 pages. Under the old system
the mayor or alcalde was nominated by the Governor-General. The
councilors, whose number is determined by the population, are elected
by vote of the people. Towns of 801 to 1,000 inhabitants are entitled
to one alcalde, one teniente, or vice-alcalde, six regidores, or council-
men, making a body of seven, besides the alcalde who presides, with
increase for every thousand of inhabitants; towns of 9,001 to 10,000
to one alcalde, three tenientes, and thirteen councilmen, or sixteen in
in all; towns of 18,001 to 20,000, one alcalde, five tenientes, and sixteen
councilmen, or twenty-one in all. One of the tenientes takes the
alcalde's place in his absence. The councilmen are not elected by
barrios. Practically the administration is in the hands of those
elected by the city or town proper. There may be representatives
from other parts of the district, but often there are not. Thus the
thirty members of the Ponce council are elected by the city, although,
as already shown, less than half of the population is within the city
limits. Thus the majoritj^ of the people have no direct representa-
tion in the government of the district. The inayor of Ponce, in
answer to questions by the commissioner, said: "All members of the
council are from the city. If they lived in the country they would
never come to the meetings. " The distances and the condition of the
roads would make it impracticable for country members to come to
the weekly sessions. If there were representatives for each barrio,
the member for Guaraguao would have to come 13 kilometers, or about
8 miles; the member for Tibes 12 kilometers, the one for Anon 11, for
Maragiies 9-g-, for Real 9, and so on. On being reminded that many
of the ordinances and appropriations of the council had no reference
to rural needs, and farmers were being taxed for electric lights, street
improvements, fire department, etc., from which they get no benefit,
he said: "You are quite right in that. We make the countrymen
pay for what they don't enjoy. That is one of the things we could
arrange on an equitable basis if we had municipal autonomy." He
stated that in addition to the ayuntamiento Ponce has, in common
with other cities, a municipal junta, or board of thirty members, from
'all parts of the district. This board unites with the council in an
assembly to consider matters concerning the whole district. One of
its duties is to pass upon the budget. It has power to increase or
decrease any item, but not to remove items or insert new ones.

The powers of the mayor and council were quite limited. Under
the regime in existence at the time of the American occupation, the
power of the Governor-General was paramount. He appointed all the
municipal employees, according to Senor Luis Munoz Rivera, and
named the alcaldes, although the municipal law of Spain provides
that they may be elected by the council, if the Governor- General does
not wish to appoint. The mayor and council formed the annual budget
and supplementary budget, setting forth the necessary expenditures
and the expected revenues. Both had to be sent to the insular gov-
ernment for approval, and for every undertaking necessary to the
health or order of the municipality the consent of the Governor-Gen-
eral or secretario de gobernacion was a prerequisite. The police force
could not be enlarged, temporarily even, without such authority. The
mayor and council, in addition to ordinary municipal duties, were
expected to keep the parish churches and the cemeteries, hospitals,
and jails in proper condition, to unite with other ayuntamientos in

the support of the departmental prisons, and to exercise control over
the public schools, under supervision from the capital.

The income of municipalities was derived from the consumo tax on
articles "de comer, beber y arder" (food, drink, and fuel), coming
into the city; from the tax on territorial, industrial, and commercial
wealth (being 7% per cent of the valuation by the State), and from
fines, leases, licenses, rents, etc. The income of San Juan for 1897-98
was estimated at 1598,484. Of this sum, 1127,119 was expected from
the city's 7^ per cent of on incomes, $167,786 from the consumo
tax, $252,000 from a loan, and the rest from fines, rents, licenses,
special taxes on business, appropriations from the State and from
other municipalities for the support of the provincial and depart-
mental prisons. The income from licenses was for construction of
buildings, scaffolds, sidewalks, for street vending, for billiard tables,
cock fighting, prostitution, and even street begging. Special charges
were made for graves and niches for interment in the cemetery. Its
expenses were as follows: For municipal administration, $24,417;
police, $91,145; public instruction, $27,660; beneficencia, $28,972;
public works, $6,550; public correction, $26,351; payments on debt
and for various purposes, $120,635; new public works, $249,163.

The income of the municipality of Ponce was estimated at $287,759
for the same period, 1897-98. Of this, $89,564 was to come from the
usual percentage of direct taxes on income, $28,399 from licenses and
special taxes, $21,871 from rents, and the rest from various sources.
Of the expenditures, $33,200 was to be devoted to the administration,
$52,383 to police, $34,033 to public instruction, $33,748 to beneficencia,
$29,410 to public works, $39,064 to public correction, $51,921 to
various obligations, such as payment of debt, subventions, and the
like, new public works, $13,000. This budget showed an increase
over that of the previous year. The fire department cost the modest
sum of $3,799, including, of course, no salaries.

The provincial and municipal systems embraced all there was of
civil administration in the island. It was a highly centralized form
of government. All the officers, provincial and municipal, received
their positions, with few exceptions, from the Governor-General, and
were removable by him. There were elections for councilmen, for
members of the provincial deputation, and for senators and deputies
to the Cortes in Madrid. The legal voters elected half the senators,
the other half being nominated by the Crown. That was all the
participation the people had in their own government. Moreover,
most of the important offices under the insular government were
filled by Spaniards. The large list of civil pensioners in Spain tends
to bear out the statement, often repeated by natives, that favorites
were sent from Madrid to Porto Rico for a short service that they
might be put on this list, and live comfortably the rest of their days
in Spain.

SYSTEM OF TAXATION.

Customs duties were levied both on imports and exports. There
was also a special tax on the loading and unloading of freight, the
embarkation and disembarkation of passengers, and transitory dues
of 10 per cent on duties on imports. The revenues from these sources,
as has already appeared, constituted by far the largest item of the
receipts of the insular treasury.

There was a system of direct taxation, resting on the basis of income,
and not on valuation. The territorial tax, yielding $410,000 to the

insular treasury, affected urban and surburban property; the indus-
trial and commercial, yielding $240,000 to the insular treasury, included
all kinds of manufactures and industries, all branches of the mercan-
tile and banking- business, and all occupations.

The industrial and commercial tax was divided according to the
population of cities and towns, classified according to character of
business, and graded according to amount of business. There were
six divisions on the basis of population. San Juan, Ponce, and Maya-
guez constituted the first division; towns with custom-houses of the
first class the second; towns with more than 12,000 inhabitants the
third; the other three divisions being graded down from 12,000 to
4,000 and less. Then there were five classes of tariff. The first, with
eight grades, included merchants, wholesale and retail; the second,
importers and exporters, money lenders, transportation, salaries of
officials of banks, railroads, and other companies; the third, the manu-
facture of sugar, rum, machinery, chemicals, chocolate, ice, etc. ; the
fourth, the professions and occupations, and the fifth, patents or new
shops, factories, etc., which had to pay a special installation tax.
Merchants in the first class of the first tariff would pay 130 pesos in
San Juan, Ponce, or Mayaguez ; 104 in Aguadilla, Humacao, etc. ; 72
in Adjuntas, Bayamon, etc.; 52 in Coamo, Camuy, etc.; 39 in Aibo-
nito, Barranquitas, etc. ; and 31 in Dorado, Santa Isabela, etc. Mer-
chants, wholesale or wholesale and retail dealers in various lines of
wares, on commission or on their own account, paid according to the
first grade; retail shops, hotels, and restaurants, according to the
second; pharmacies, shoe, provision, and other retail stores were in
the third ; stationery shops in the fourth, wholesale and retail tobacco
shops in the fifth, cafes for the sale of soda waters, etc. , in the sixth,
boarding houses in the seventh, and shops for the sale of native
flowers and plants in the eighth.

The second tariff embraced salaries, wages, commissions, and the
like. Governors or directors of banks, railroad companies, etc. , paid
& per cent of their wages or salaries, contractors 6 per cent of the
amount of their contracts, banks 10 per cent of their profits ; import-
ers and exporters, receiving and remitting, buying and selling, ship-
ping and conducting banking operations, paid $700 in cities of the
first division. Provincial and municipal officers were not required to
pay tax on their salaries. But no kind of business seems to have
escaped the sharp eye of the State experts. Public baths, balls and
concerts, periodicals, including daily papers, laundries, funeral agen-
cies, gymnasiums, livery stables, all kinds of industries, even the
manufacture of artificial feet were taxed. Blacksmiths paid, accord-
ing to the town in which their business was conducted, from 12 to 3
pesos; architects from 36 to 6; dentists and pharmacists the same;
physicians and surgeons, 48 to 12; nurses and midwives, 18 to 5; vet-
erinarians, 15 to 5; barbers, 8 to 2; lawyers, registers of property, and
notaries, 48 to 16; while carpenters, cabinetmakers, bookbinders,
florists, tailors, milliners or dressmakers, professors of music, lan-
guages, painters, etc. , paid according to their class and grade. Among
the exceptions may be noted washerwomen, barbers without shops,
clerks in commercial houses, and similar classes. Day laborers were
assessed on the basis of one-third the value of half a year's wages.

According to the law, some classes of business and occupations are
agremiable and some are not. A particular class is called a gremio.
The lawyers, for example, would form one, the doctors another, the
merchants another, and so on. The custom was for the State to

announce the amount it needed, and those composing the various
gremios would meet, each gremio by itself, and apportion the amount
among its members on the basis of the tariff.

The territorial tax was levied on the income of real estate, both
urban and rural. It yielded nearly twice as much as the tax on com-
merce and industry. The valuation was made in each municipal
district by a commission of three, with three subcommissioners for
each class of wealth, the three subcommissioners representing, respec-
tively, the largest, the medium, and the smallest class of taxpayers.
These commissioners were appointed at a joint meeting of the coun-
cilinen, with three times as many taxpayers, elected in equal parts by
the three classes of taxpayers. In valuing the income of a farm the
commissioners would fix a certain price for the respective products.
Sugar, for example, was estimated at 13 a quintal, and 75 per cent was
deducted for expenses; coffee, at 112, and $8 was allowed for expenses.
On urban property 25 per cent discount was allowed; on pasture lands
10 per cent.

All taxes were payable quarterly. The amount assessed for the
benefit of the State was 5 per cent, both on urban and suburban prop-
erty. The rate for the municipality varied according to its needs,
but was generally 7 or 1\ per cent. The complaint was quite general
that those who had much property, and ought to have paid large sums,
escaped with small payments. Methods of evasion not unknown in
other countries seem to have been practiced in Porto Rico, including
bribery of officials. A German resident of an interior district told
the commissioner how he got his annual tax reduced by bribery,
learning the trick from older residents. It is charged that Span-
iards were favored by the State at the expense of the natives. Mr.
Andres Crosas, a merchant of many years' standing in San Juan,
but an American citizen, informed the commissioner that a Spaniard
who rented a farm, had agreed to pay the tax on it, which, while he
had it, was only $80 a year. The farm afterwards came into Crosas's
possession, and the tax was raised from $80 to $100. As to the tax on
commerce, he said that formerly he paid $700 a year to the State as an
importer of the first class, and $1,050 to the municipality, making
$1,750 a year. He then had himself placed in the second class and
paid $421 to the State, refusing the municipality's demand for its 1\
per cent.

From this brief review of the sytems of taxation it will be seen that
if the laws had been faithfully administered no person and no article
or form of property could have escaped his or its share of the public
burden. The direct taxes would seem to have been extremely oner-
ous. The earnings of merchants, manufacturers, and other producers
were subject to a tax of 12^- per cent or more, according to the
financial exigencies of the treasuries, provincial and municipal.
For example, if a merchant's income were valued at $10,000 a year,
he would pay in direct taxes $1,250. He would also pay for his
cedula or personal passport, the amount of which was graduated,
according to personal means, from 12 cents up to $25 or more. He
would pay direct taxes on his residence and furniture and on his
horses and other live stock, if not used for labor. If he were just
starting in business, he would pay a patente or tax for the privilege.
And yet the general testimony, as will appear elsewhere in this report,
was to the effect that taxation was not really oppressive, or would not
have been, if it had been impartially assessed and collected. But the
fact that it was so heavy doubtless had an influence in inducing peo-

pie to conceal their property as much as possible and undervalue their
annual income. Articles of common use, such as rice, flour, corn,
charcoal, wines, etc., not only paid heavy import duties, but were
subject, together with fresh beef, milk, and sugar produced in the
island, to a consumo tax at the gates of the municipalities. For ex-
ample, flour, which had paid a duty of $4 at the custom-house per 100
kilos, paid at the city gates $2.50 consumo tax, or a total of $6.50,
which was at the rate of about $3 a hundredweight; rice, the com-
mon article of diet, paid $2.70 import duty and $1 consumo tax;
fresh beef paid a consumo tax of $5 a hundred kilos, or 220 pounds.
This was in addition to the head tax paid the city by the slaughterer.

THE CODES AND COURTS.

There are three Spanish codes, the penal, in three books, with
twenty-five titles and eighty- four chapters; the civil, in four books,
with forty-two titles and one hundred and twenty-six chapters and
nine appendixes, and the commercial, in four books, with twenty-
seven titles. The graver crimes of murder and homicide are set forth
^ in the penal code with very great brevity. The chapters on parri-
cide, murder, and homicide are extremely brief. Parricide is consid-
ered the gravest crime and is punishable by sentences ranging from
"cadena perpetua" (a term usually of thirty years) to death. Mur-
der, when committed under any of the following circumstances, (1)
by treachery, (2) for money or promise of reward, (3) by means of
drowning, fire, or poison, (4) with premeditation aforethought, (5) in
a passion, with deliberation and inhumanity, involves penalties rang-
ing from "cadena temporal" (twelve to twenty years) to death.
Slaves or freedmen committing this crime incurred the penalty for
parricide. It will be observed that treachery is placed first in the list
of aggravating circumstances. The Spanish law is especially severe
in punishing abuse of confidence or betrayal on the part of slaves or
domestic servants. For example, a servant who steals $25 from his
employer could be sentenced, according to Senor Casalduc, a judge of
first instance, in Utuado, to six years imprisonment. The crime is
considered aggravated by the element of treachery. Homicide is
punishable by terms of imprisonment; infanticide with the penalties
of parricide. Distinctions are made between delitos, or crimes,
and faltas, or faults. The difference was thus illustrated by Senor
Fulladosa, judge of first instance, in Humacao. If a peon, passing
through a field of sugar cane, cuts a stalk of cane and sucks it, that
is a falta. If, after having eaten one stalk, he cuts others and takes
them away, he would be guilty, not of a falta, but of the delito of lar-
ceny. The former would be punished by thirty days imprisonment;
the latter by a heavier penalty. The reason given for the distinction
was this: In the first case the man takes a single cane on the spur of
the moment and from a sense of immediate need; in the second the
element of immediate need is absent, and he appropriates the prop-
erty of another for his future use. The penal is the briefest of the
codes.

The civil code is characterized by great attention to minute details,
as is also the commercial code. Marriage, ownership and disposition
of property, laws of inheritance, nature of contracts, etc., are treated
in the civil code, and everything pertaining to mercantile life in the
commercial code, which gives in the fullest detail, the law of mercan-
tile firms or companies, mercantile contracts and the like. There is

a system of legal registration, under the courts, for all kinds of mer-
cantile documents, and the code prescribes the manner in which a
merchant's books must be kept in order that they may have the force
of testimony in law suits.

Besides these three codes are the Ley Hipotecaria, or mortgage law ;
the Ley y Reglamento del Notariado, or notarial law and regulations ; a
compilation of legislation affecting education ; Legislacion de Primera
Ensanza de Puerto Rico — a book of a thousand pages; the Ley de En-
juiciamiento Civil, and the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Penal — relating to
legal procedure; Leyes Organicas del Poder Judicial — defining the
powers of judges, making a considerable body of official legal litera-
ture, which is supplemented by manuals for the various classes of
officials.

The codes and laws are regarded by the lawyers and judges of
Porto Rico as, on the whole, equitable, suitable, and effective. They
concede that reforms of a minor character are needed under certain
heads, but insist that the systems are admirably drawn and are among
the best in use among the Latin peoples. It is in the organization of
the courts and in the methods of judicial procedure that occasion is
most generally found for considerable amendments and changes.

The judicial system of Porto Rico was a very simple one. There
were three criminal courts of the same grade, the audiencia territorial
(criminal chamber) at San Juan, the audiencia criminal of Ponce,
and the audiencia criminal of Mayaguez. These three courts dis-
posed of all the graver criminal cases. Appeals were taken direct to
the supreme court at Madrid. The audiencia criminal consisted of a
president, two justices, with a justice suplente, or supplementary, a
fiscal and an assistant fiscal, a secretary, and the usual court officers.
For the trial of high officials a special court was provided, consisting
of the president, two justices of the audiencia territorial, and two
members, doctors of the law, of the provincial deputation.

The audiencia territorial was constituted as follows: A president,
a president of the hall of justice, five justices, a fiscal and assistant
fiscals, a secretary, fifteen secretaries of the hall of justice, etc.
Appeals in civil cases were taken from the courts of the various
judicial districts to the audiencia territorial, and thence to the
supreme court of Spain.

The island was divided into eleven judicial districts. In each of
these was a judge of first instance and instruction, that of San Juan
having two. He had power to hear and determine civil suits, there
being an appeal from his decisions to the audiencia territorial. His
function in criminal cases was restricted to investigation. ■ He sum-
moned and examined witnesses privately, and made a brief for the
audiencia criminal. He had to prepare a summary of all the testi-
mony, and indicate for what crime the offender should be tried or
why he should be acquitted. If the audiencia considered the case
incomplete, or as requiring emendations, it was returned for comple-
tion or correction.

In every municipal district there was a municipal judge, who had
jurisdiction in civil cases involving $200, or less, and in cases of viola-
tions of municipal ordinances. He could impose fines up to $45, and
imprisonment up to thirty days. Appeals from his decisions were to
the judge of first instance. When a crime was committed, it was his
duty to prepare the case and submit it to the judge of first instance
within three days.

Municipal judges had no salary. Judges of first instance received
from $2,000 to $3,000 a year; judges of the audiencias, $3,000; and
the two presidents in San Juan, $5,000 and $5,500, respectively.

The attitude of the Spanish law toward accused persons differs from
that which characterizes Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence. Under our law
they are regarded as innocent until proved guilty ; under the Spanish
law, according to Judge Fuliadosa, they are regarded as guilty until
proved innocent. The denuncia on which arrest is usually based
may be made by a private person or by the fiscal. The order of arrest
does not state the charge. After arrest the accused is questioned pri-
vately by the judge, and is held incomunicado in the first stage of the
inquisitorial proceedings, no one being allowed to see him or talk
with him for two or three days. He is not permitted to be present
while the judge examines the witnesses, also in privacy, only one wit-
ness being present at a time. Asked by the commissioner why the
accused is not informed of the charge against him when he is arrested,
the judge of first instance at Humacao replied: "Because he might
prepare himself for a defense beforehand; he might put himself in
communication with persons for that purpose ; they are very clever
here." After he learns what he is accused of he may name a lawyer,
but the lawyer has no control over the secret proceedings. No wit-
ness is allowed to disclose and no newspaper to print any of the testi-
mony. The case when completed is passed on to the audiencia for
trial. The summary is examined by the court, which certifies that it
has been properly drawn; the fiscal then examines it and passes it to
the counsel for the defense. On the trial the presiding judge asks
each witness the usual questions as to his age, birthplace, etc. , and
then allows the prosecution and the defense to examine.

The witnesses for the prosecution are first called, then those for the
defense. The testimony before the court may be the very opposite
of that given in the preliminary proceedings; but this contradiction
does not involve per j ury . That only is regarded as conclusive evi-
dence which is given on the trial. This is a comparatively recent
provision of law, the reason for which is said to be, that people were
so much in terror of the civil guard that they would give false testi-
mony before the judge of first instance to conciliate the guard, which
seems to have haled men to prison on the barest suspicion. The com-
missioner attended one session of the audiencia criminal at Mayaguez,
when five men were on trial for burning a*h estate in Rincon and
shooting the wife of the proprietor. Two lawyers sat with the three
judges, all wearing black gowns, with white lace at the wrists. Little
latitude seemed to be allowed to the counsel for the defense, the presi-
dent calling them to order frequently, by ringing a small bell, and
ruling out their questions, though no objection was raised by the fiscal.
The testimony of the wife of the proprietor was contradictory of that
of her husband on minor points. He said there was no light in the
house when the attack was made ; she said there was ; he said the
accused were in front of a group of trees when they shot; she said
they were behind the trees. The president himself got brief explana-
tions from the two witnesses, and refused to allow the counsel for the
defense to go into the matter at all. The court exercised larger
powers than is customary in the United States, asking many ques-
tions itself and limiting the functions both of the prosecution and the
defense. The case was concluded with the written arguments of the
lawyers on both sides.

There is a strong demand for reforms in the courts. Senor Aguayo,
an able and upright judge of first instance, in a statement to the com-
missioner, urged that all secrecy in the preliminary investigation be
removed. He points out as the greatest evil of the system that the
secrecy "produces in the public conscience a sort of terror," and, as
a rule, "witnesses have to be made to testify by force." He insists
that publicity would insure general cooperation; those having knowl-
edge of the case would come forward to testify; that it Would be "a
guaranty against the venality of judges," and that the defendant
could produce all the proof on his side. He would have the jury
system which is in use in Spain introduced immediately. The time
occupied in making the sumario, ordinarily a month or more, was
well-nigh wasted, since it was not conclusive, even in cases where the
summary showed that conviction was improbable. It must, in any
event, go up to the audiencia to be tried or dismissed. Abuses, the
commissioner was told, were numerous. The delays are long and
vexatious. After the sumario, consisting of from 500 to 1,000 sheets,
is in the hands of the court, it may be six months or more before the
trial begins. Sometimes the prisoner is set at liberty before his case
comes on, his- innocence having been demonstrated to the satisfaction
of the judge of first instance; nevertheless, the court may proceed
with the case. Men with malicious intent have, it was said, abundant
opportunity to secure the imprisonment of innocent persons for a
month or more, and yet escape prosecution for making false charges.

The prosecution of minor offenses was made difficult by the dis-
tances the complainant often had to go, the horrible condition of the
roads, and the time and expenses involved. A case in illustration
was given the commissioner by a German farmer living at Gobo,
having his farm partly in the municipal district of Utuado and partly
in that of Arecibo. A man with whom he had had trouble stole his
horse. He pursued, him and got the horse. He immediately made
complaint before the comisario of the district, and next day went
before the judge of first instance in Arecibo. He proved his owner-
ship of the horse and received him in deposito. Then it was dis-
covered that the crime was really committed in the district of Utuado,
and he had to go to that place, almost as far as to Arecibo. There he
was told that the trial would take place at Mayaguez six or seven
months later. He would have to go to Mayaguez with his witnesses,
consuming two days each way, besides the time occupied in the trial.
The law provides for the expenses of witnesses, but it is claimed that
it is so difficult to collect them that the claims are often sold at a con-
siderable discount. The horse was valued at $25. The German had
already lost two days, expected to lose a week more at the trial, and
to pay $50 in expenses. Under such circumstances crimes would, in
many instances, go unreported and unpunished.

THE NOTARIAL AND REGISTRATION SYSTEMS.

The drawing of deeds, wills, and all kinds of legal contracts and
documents was in the hands of notaries, whose number was limited,
so that new members could not be admitted to the college until vacan-
cies occurred. There were twenty-five for the island, two each in the
three larger cities, and one each in cities of less importance. They
were admitted, on competitive examination, by the Crown, and paid,
it is said, large fees for their exclusive privileges. They not only drew
deeds and wills, but were the depositaries for such documents, giving
a bond of security for damages from the loss of important papers. The

dean of the college, Mr. Guerra, informed the commissioner that he
had paid $17,000 for the privilege, which is transferable.

Registries of property are established, as a rule, in those places
entitled to notaries, the work of the one being complementary to that
of the other. The system of registration comprises deeds, mortgages,
wills, and all forms of ownership and transfer of property. The law
requires a registrar to inquire as to the validity of titles which he
inscribes, and holds him responsible for their legality. The registrar
charges fees according to an elaborate scale fixed by law. He was
allowed to charge for inscription, which included only certain parts of
documents, for passing on the validity of the title, and for search-
ing the records. Formerly registrars might charge for correcting
defects in documents offered for inscription, and abuses grew out of
the practice. The system appears to be a good one, although the
charges are complained of as excessive. An increase in the number
of registrars, so as to have one in every municipal district, is very
desirable. Much property remains unregistered, owing partly to the
heavy expenses involved and partly to the feeling of security in pos-
session. Litigation over titles, deeds, wills, etc., is, it is stated, not
very extensive. The expenses of transfers were very great. In the
first place, they were subject to the royal dues; second, to the notarial
charges, which were very heavy; third, to the fees of registration,
amounting sometimes to $12 for property worth $300; and, fourth, to
the cost of the stamped paper, on which all the documents had to be
written. According to the mayor of Guayama, the tax on transfers
was "so onerous that the island is full of deeds which have been held
in hopes of better times, and have not yet paid this tax, thus making
the titles inoperative." The stamped paper cost from 15 cents up to
$25, according to the value of the contract or obligation. Its use was
obligatory in all documents of a legal character, even by judges in the
preparation of a sumario.

Mortgages, which may be referred to in this connection, were gov-
erned by the hypothecary law, which sought the security of the lender
rather than the convenience of the borrower. There are two methods
of foreclosure, one called the executive; the other is a special pro-
cedure. Most of the actions are taken under the latter, and are of a
summary nature. The debtor has no power to intervene, and his
estate may be sold at auction thirty days after proceedings are begun
in the court. Many cases of hardship under the law were reported
to the commissioner, in which owners of plantations were about to
lose their property for a fraction of its estimated value. In accord-
ance with his earnest representations, Governor-General Henry issued
an order, prepared by him, suspending the law of foreclosure as respects
farm property and machinery for one year from January 19, 1899.
The law needs to be reformed in the interest of debtors against con-
scienceless creditors, so as to give sufficient opportunity to the former
to save their property from sacrifice. The mortgages recorded in the
various districts amount to a total of nearly $28,000,000, indicating
that borrowing is extensive. The largest mortgage indebtedness
exists in the registration districts of San Juan, Ponce, Mayaguez, and
San German.

THE CHURCH AND CHURCH PROPERTY.

The Catholic was the state religion, and at the time of the Ameri-
can occupation there were but two churches of any other faith in
Porto Rico. There was a Protestant church in Ponce and another at
Isabel II, in the island of Vieques, both under the auspices of the

Church of England. The latter had been established nineteen years.
The Governor-General, under appointment by the Pope, was patron-
ato real, or civil head of the church. The bishop, with his staff, and
all the clergy were borne on the provincial pay roll, and received
their salaries through the custom-houses of the various districts.
For salaries alone $167,340 was appropriated in the budget of 1897-98,
including $42,400 for the cathedral in San Juan, out of which the
bishop and his staff were paid. For expenses, apart from salaries,
the sum of $26,270 was provided. For other purposes, including sal-
aries of ecclesiastical judges and military chaplains, subventions to
religious sqhools, and Sisters of Charity in the hospitals and asylums,
about $41,000 was set apart, making in all about $235,000 for the
church and various religious purposes. The bishop formerly received
a salary of $18,000 or $20,000 a year, but this amount was gradually
reduced to $9,000. The dean of the chapter was paid $3,000; canons,
$2,000; parochial priests, according to their class, from $1,500 down
to $600 a year. Formerly the church was supported by tithes and
first fruits, and monthly sums from the ayuntamientos. The royal
decree of 1858 abolished tithes and first fruits, forbade fees for the
sacraments, and provided for the church in the budget. The capitu-
lar vicar informed the commissioner that there had probably been
some abuses in the charging of fees by the clergy for baptisms, mar-
riages, and burials, but he did not believe they were extensive. A
priest, who announced that he was about to leave the church, stated
that the fees collected averaged about as follows: Marriage, simple
service, $10; more elaborate service, $16; burial, simple service, $14;
more elaborate service, $22; masses, $1. Several persons told, the
commissioner that they had paid $16 for their marriage service.
After American occupation, the priests having no support whatever,
charged, in some instances, whatever they could get. One American
paid a fee of $65. The clergy were almost entirely Spaniards. Very
few natives were in the priesthood. Reared and educated in Spain,
they did not, for the most part, command the sympathy of the munic-
ipal officers, who were chiefly Porto Ricans, and as there was more or
less friction between Porto Ricans and Spaniards, and the priests
were paid by the Government and were understood to be in entire
sympathy with it, they did not really come into close touch with many
of the natives in their parishes. At the close of the war a number of
the priests, including the bishop, went back to Spain.

There are no monasteries in Porto Rico. Formerly the Dominicans
and Franciscans were established there, but the Government confis-
cated their property in 1837-38, using part of it for public purposes,
selling a part and renting a part. The chapels attached were, however,
not disturbed. Such orders as are now represented are engaged in
educational, hospital, and charitable work.

The churches, which are invariably situated on the chief plazas of
the cities and towns, vary in value and size, according to the popula-
tion surrounding them. They are usually among the best buildings,
though some are old and need repairs. None of them would be called
magnificent. Evidently no great amount of private wealth has been
bestowed for their adornment and furnishing. The assumption that
the church in Porto Rico is rolling in wealth has nothing to support
it. The secretary of the bishopric, Senor Caneja, lectoral canon,
informed the commissioner that the church has no other property
except the churches and parish houses; that by will or gift it is in the

receipt of censos or annual payments for specific purposes, such as
masses, sermons, or other memorial celebrations. These censos are
fixed charges, which must be paid by the holder of the property upon
which they are a claim. When state support was suddenly withdrawn
the church had ho resources. The capitular vicar stated that its con-
dition was lamentable. The people had not been accustomed to the
American system of voluntary contributions; most of them were too
poor to take upon themselves additional burdens, and the priests had
to depend upon the fees they could get and upon their own resources,
which in some instances were ample.

The moment that Spanish domination ended the question of the
ownership of the churches was raised. None of these properties
were registered. The church, under the law, could not register them,
and few or no papers or records of gift or conveyance appear to be in
existence. The capitular vicar said to the commissioner: "The
church has no title in the sense of documents; but it has always
been an understood thing that these properties belong to the church. "
In so far as lands or other gifts were made, the donors, he added,
"did not bother about giving written titles." The municipality, or
the state, generally, gave the ground and in most cases the municipal-
ity built the church. The commissioner inquired thoroughly into
this matter in all the municipalities he visited. In some cases the
surplus in the treasury was used for this purpose; in other cases spe-
cial provision was made in the municipal budget, and in a number of
instances a kind of apportionment was made among the ratepayers
by the ayuntamiento. Almost without exception the alcaldes and
councilmen, questioned by the commissioner, asserted municipal
ownership of the church property. In Arroyo the church, according
to the vice alcalde, was built by popular subscription and turned over,
to the state; in Yabucoa the title is not vested in the municipality,
says the alcalde, but in the state; in Aibonito the town gave $15,00,0,
the state $12,000, and the balance (17,000) was raised by subscription;
in Humacao the church cost $45,000; it was built by the people and
taken over by the state; in Ponce the church property is claimed by
the alcalde as belonging exclusively to the municipality, which caused
it to be registered after American occupation. The fine, large church
in Guayama was built in 1873, from the annual surplus of the muni-
cipal budget and from returns for old taxes; in San German, which
has, it is said, the oldest church in the island, it was conceded that
the property belongs to the church ; in Cayey the church was built by
public funds and the parish house was bought by municipal money;
in Coamo the land was given by the town and the church built by
taxation; in Caguas the church was built by municipal funds.

This brief summary of important testimony, given before the com-
missioner, indicates how the churches were generally built. Some of
the ayuntamientos seemed quite firm in the purpose to hold the
churches as municipal property, but were willing to sell or to rent. In
other cases the proposal to transfer the title to the church was appar-
ently welcomed. There is little question that public funds built in
whole or in part nearly all the churches. The considerations which
seem to me to control the question are these : (1) The churches were
built for Catholic worship, and for no other, by Catholic communities;
(2) they were consecrated by the rites of the Catholic Church; (3)
they have been regularly used for Catholic services, and for no other
purpose, since consecration; (4) their use for this purpose received

the acquiescence of state, municipality, and people; (5) according to
the law, edifices for public worship, no matter by whom built, passed
under control of the church when consecrated; (6) the law did not
allow such property to be registered by the church; (7) no records
or deeds of gift were usually made of donations or transfers of prop-
erty for church uses; (8) under the law of registration, twenty years'
undisputed and continued possession gives valid title.

On the other hand, municipalities claim the ownership of most of
the churches, on the ground that they were built in whole or in part
by municipal funds raised by taxation ; that the payment of such
taxes was obligatory, and that it was not permitted to loyal citizens
to protest against them. Church and state were one, the bishop occu-
pying, in the council of administration and similar provincial organi-
zations, the place next to the governor-general. In one instance,
already referred to, church property was registered without protest as
municipal property, but this was since American occupation. It was
not the custom to register municipal property, though there was no
law prohibiting it. Perhaps this was due to the heavy registration
fees. The fees for registering six pieces of property in Ponce were as
follows : Catholic cemetery in the playa, $379 ; the Catholic church,
$598; the Tricoche hospital, $156; the civil hospital, $81; and the
Protestant cemetery, $13. On appeal to General Henry he relieved
the municipality of the charges and the property was registered free.
The churches have been kept in repair by the municipalities. It is
admitted that consecration gave the church use or control of the edi-
fices, but it is denied that it gave also ownership. The churches in
Yabucoa and Arroyo, according to the alcaldes of those districts,
belong not to the municipality but to the state. If this be so the
question might be raised whether these churches and any others in
the same category do not, under the Treaty of Paris, " belong to the
public domain and as such to the Crown of Spain," and have there-
fore been ceded by the treaty to the United States. But this cession
was made subject to "the rights of provinces, municipalities, public
and private establishments, ecclesiastical or civic bodies," etc. The
churches spoken of as belonging to the state were perhaps property
of the province and not of the Crown. In so far as titles may be
legally established by ecclesiastical bodies, or on the part of the Prov-
ince of Porto Rico, or by the several municipalities, the United States
is evidently bound by the treaty to grant possession. Neither the
municipalities nor the province could be coerced to a surrender of
such churches as may legally be held by them. But if the will of the
Porto Ricans were permitted to have effect with their official repre-
sentatives, the churches, as a matter of simple justice, would be passed
over to the control, possession, and use of the Roman Catholic Church.
The commissioner found that everywhere the majority thought that
the churches ought to be for Catholic worship, but ought to be held
by the people and not by the priests. Some alcaldes and councilmen
and others, including men who were said not to be good Catholics,
insisted that the municipalities should have some return for what they
had expended, either by sale or by annual rental. If the right of
municipalities to control them is established, it is conceivable that
in some cases they might be sold or rented to representatives of other
faiths for public worship of a different order and thus give cause of
offense to Catholics.

The ends of justice could probably be most surely and promptly
reached by creating a special court or commission to investigate the

whole matter, with power to determine each case brought before it,
and give legal title, possession, and use to the rightful owners.

The people seem to be entirely in accord with the American prin-
ciple of separation of church and state, and complete religious liberty.
The capitular vicar urged that gratuities from the state treasury to
the clergy be granted, as a temporary measure, until the church could
organize a system of self-support, but the commissioner found no
second in the island to this proposal. In every municipality he visited
he was told that appropriations for the repairs of the churches had
been discontinued. Other forms of worship have been introduced in
San Juan, Ponce, Arecibo, Rio Piedras, and other places without
demonstrations of hostility. This is no small tribute to the liberality
of a people who have in all the past been accustomed to one form of
religion to the exclusion of others.

THE CEMETERIES.

In this connection the question of control of the cemeteries has been
raised. It is not disputed that these cemeteries were bought and built
by municipal funds. But they were consecrated by the priests as
burial grounds for Catholics, and while the secular owners have rented
and sold graves and niches, issued through municipal judges permits
for burial, and kept the grounds in condition, the priest was allowed
to exercise the right to indicate who were entitled to ecclesiastical
burial. Those not Catholics were buried in unconsecrated ground,
generally a small plot outside the walls. After American occupation
one or two ayuntamientos took action in favor of the secularization
of the cemeteries, but the military government has not conceded that
right. On the contrary, General Henry issued an order confirming to
the priests the right of prohibiting the interment of non-Catholics in
consecrated ground, and at the same time requiring the municipal
authorities, from the proceeds of rentals and fees which they collect,
to pay for the maintenance of the cemeteries.

Ecclesiastical control is claimed, not on the ground of ownership,
but on that of immemorial usage. Priests have always been allowed
to consecrate the ground and to say who should be buried in it, and
the church insists that it gained a right by consecration and continued
control which can not properly be taken from it. The question raised
is a delicate one. It is not the same exactly as that concerning church
property. The church existed for all who chose to attend its services
and accept its offices; but persons could refuse to worship in it or to
patronize it. Not so the cemetery. Those who die must be buried,
and the right to sepulture in a cemetery owned by all the people can
not be denied, it is argued, without substantial injustice. The issue
might be met by having plots for non-Catholics. Where such plots
already exist they are generally outside the walls and are not kept in
proper condition. As new cemeteries are established they will prob-
ably be on a secular basis, with a provision allowing the graves of
Catholics or Catholic portions to be consecrated. Municipalities
should be required to provide ground for non-Catholic burials, suf-
ficient, eligible, and in no way inferior. The custom of disinterment
of bodies entitled only to temporary sepulture, if not dangerous to
general health, is shocking to those not familiar with European usage,
and should be discontinued. The order of General Henry to that
effect is not fully carried out for want of room in the cemeteries.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The system of public schools was antiquated, and few improvements
seem to have "been made. In practice it was decidedly inferior and
insufficient. Most attention was given, naturally, to urban schools,
and these were inadequate in almost every respect. Less attention
was given to schools in the rural districts, where the difficulties were
greatest. Something was done for the boys, but little for the girls.
Indeed, the first rural school for girls is said to have been established
no longer ago than 1880. The general administration of public schools
was under the direction of the provincial deputation. At the close of
the Spanish domination it constituted a bureau of the department of
fomento or interior. The expenses of this administration were in-
cluded in the provincial budget. The pay of the teachers, the rent
of buildings, and the expense of supplies devolved on the municipali-
ties. In every municipality there was a school board, of which the
mayor was chairman, charged with immediate supervision. It was
ordinarily composed of the most intelligent men available, but is said
to have been negligent usually in the discharge of its duties. The
finances of the cities were so often made difficult bv the heavy prior
claims of the state on taxpayers that the appropriations to the schools
frequently suffered. The schools were domiciled in rented rooms,
generally unfitted for the purpose. Only half a dozen occupied public
buildings. Space, light, ventilation, furniture, appliances, and sup-
plies were never adequate, the surroundings were unsuitable, and the
conditions unsanitary. The school age was from 5 to 18. Children of
well-to-do parents usually entered at 5; those of the poorer classes
not until 8. The scholars were generally clothed, but there were
some exceptions among the smaller ones. Very poor parents, seen by
the commissioner, excused their neglect to school their children by
saying they could not give them decent clothes. The school popula-
tion of the island, as reported by Secretary Carbonell, on the 1st of
November, 1898, was 125,695. Of these 27,938 had attended school
and 93,757 had not. Returns in March, 1899, showed that the total
of registered scholars was 26,588, including private schools, and the
average attendance 18,979. According to this, a little more than one-
fifth of the school population were registed and the average attend-
ance was upward of one-seventh. Of the registered scholars 17,521
were boys and 9,007 were girls, the boys outnumbering the girls nearly
two to one. The masters or teachers were required to show the
teacher's title in order to obtain employment. Some were prepared
in the two normal schools or in the secondary institute in San Juan;
many came from Spain. As a rule, they were a faithful, poorly paid
class of public servants. Women taught the girls' schools in all cases,
the sexes being rigidly kept apart. Teachers were allowed to collect
fees from parents able to pay. This, it is said, led to more or less
partiality for the pay scholars. Supplies were furnished to those who
could not buy them. Schools were held every day but Sunday the year
round, excepting feast days and holidays, with morning and afternoon
sessions of about three hours each. Iu summer the afternoon session
was shortened or omitted.

The schools were supposed to be divided into elementary , of first and
second grades, and superior. Of the latter there were only seven.
The system of instruction was generally superficial and not solid, and
theoretical rather than practical. The commissioner visited and

examined many schools, as described elsewhere in this report. He
found the children wonderfully bright and quick. They answered
the questions of the teachers promptly and confidently, but hesitated
and stumbled when asked the simplest questions in geography, arith-
metic, and other studies, indicating that more attention had been
given to the making of brilliant than competent scholars. There were
few general institutions. A conciliar seminary was established for
the priesthood ; the Provincial Institute, recently suppressed, carried
scholars to the ordinary freshman or sophomore year; the College of
the Esculapian Fathers, the College of the Mothers of the Heart of
Jesus, the College of San Ildefonso, the School of Arts and Industries,
and a private academy of drawing constituted, with the normal schools,
all the general educational institutions.

The first great need of this system of education is suitable, sanitary
public buildings; second, a more efficient corps of teachers; third,
more schools, particularly in the rural districts; fourth, larger pro-
vincial appropriations, until the municipalities are in a condition to
support their own schools; fifth, reorganization of the studies and
better text-books ; sixth, effective provincial supervision, such as the
military government has provided, under which great improvements
have been made;' seventh, better normal schools.

The last census does not give returns for literacy and illiteracy
except in certain districts. There are no later figures than those of
the census of 1860, when the population was 583,181. Of this num-
ber 51,250 were literate and 531,931 illiterate. Over 90 per cent were
unable to read. The estimates of present conditions vary; some say
that 15, others 18 or 20 per cent, of the population are literates. Of
the population of Ponce, numbering, according to the census of 1897,
between 48,000 and 49,000, 14,394 can read or read and write. This
is over 29 per cent, showing a gain since 1887, when the percentage
was 24. The population of that district was as follows : Poncenos,
37,203; from other districts of the island and Cuba, 8,493; from the
Peninsula, 2,283; from other foreign countries, 1,021. The floating
population was remarkably small, being only 342. The greatest
amount of illiteracy is, of course, in the rural districts, where the
population is hard to reach with school facilities.

PUBLIC CHARITIES AND PRISONS.

The public charities of Porto Rico are few, poorly supported, and
poorly organized, as a rule. The municipalities make appropriations
for beneficencia, including town doctors, hospitals, aid for the sick
poor who can not get to the hospital, and occasionally for a house for
infirm poor. Every district has a hospital, generally insufficiently
equipped and not well kept, but there are few orphanages and scarcely
any provision for the insane, outside of San Juan, where an insane
asylum is maintained by provincial funds. There is an excellent
asylum for children in San Juan under the care of the Sisters of
Charity, and one or two small orphanages.

There is need of more generous provisions for orphans. Mothers
of illegitimate children very rarely abandon them, but when these
unfortunate women die, the children are often cast on the street, and
live like animals. The people are very kind and helpful to those in
distress. It is the custom when a child is left without natural pro-
tectors for the relatives or neighbors to provide for it. One will give

1125 3

shelter, another food, another clothing, another education, thus divid-
ing the burden. Among the poorest of the poor the commissioner
found a system of mutual helpfulness. When a poor woman falls
sick and her income stops, neighboring women care for her out of their
own slender resources. The poor commonly have a strong prejudice
against the hospitals, and will not go to them unless helpless. They
say those who go in sick come out dead. They differ in their state-
ments about the town doctors. Many said they would not visit the
sick poor without pay; others that they would. Dr. Stahl, of Baya-
mon, says that scarcely one in a hundred of the poor who die has the
attendance of a physician. The Tricoche Hospital in Ponce, estab-
lished by a private benefaction, is one of the best in the island. It
is kept clean and in good order by the Sisters of Charity.

The prisons, of which there is one in each judicial district, with a
penitentiary, so called, for the whole island, in San Juan, besides
ordinary jails, are almost without exception worthy of condemnation.
They are generally crowded, damp, pervaded by foul smells, danger-
ous to health, according to native physicians. With the exception of
separation of sexes, no division whatever is attempted. Young and
old, the first offender and the old criminal are herded together, the
man accused and awaiting trial with those serving long sentences.
The care of the penitentiary at San Juan was undertaken by the
insular government. The cost of maintaining the district prisons is
borne by the municipalities within the district. Many of the prison-
ers in the penitentiary were kept in chains. General Henry abolished
this form of punishment, and put the district prisons under the care
of the province. Much has been done under the military govern-
ment to remedy abuses and improve the sanitary conditions, but
the whole system needs to be reorganized according to modern peno-
logical methods.

Crime, particularly of the graver kinds, is not excessive. The dis-
orders which followed the overthrow of Spanish dominion were of a
serious character; but they did not spring oufc of a spirit of lawless-
ness so much as out of a spirit of revenge. The native who had been
oppressed by Spanish employers used the opportunity to pay off a
Ions: score of personal injuries and insults. The attacks by those
bands were not indiscriminate, and usually the motive was to destroy,
not to appropriate property, to wound oii kill the master himself or
his agent, and not the family. They were soon ended, and not a few
of the guilty ones are serving sentences. Those familiar with the
conditions before American occupation say that the wonder is that
the outrages were not far worse. The prevailing crimes are those of
homicide, and appropriation of property in the various forms of theft,
larceny, and robbery. Burglary is almost entirely unknown. The
summary for the provincial penitentiary shows that there were 4 serv-
ing sentence for murder, 113 for homicide, 168 for theft or robbery,
2 for forgery, 5 for swindling, 6 for arson, 6 for violation, and 1
for abduction. Ten were under 20 years of age. Of 69 in the de-
partmental prison at Ponce, 20 were under sentence for theft or rob-
bery, 27 for wounding, 5 for swindling, and 5 for homicide. Of the
prisoners 30 were white and 39 colored. Of the 308 prisoners in the
penitentiary 131 were white and 177 colored, showing that the colored
classes, forming about 36 per cent of the population, are responsible
for considerably more than their share of crimes. The entire penal
population, according to the census of 1897, was 1,101, or 1 in 817 of
the entire population. The proportion in the United States is consid-

erably greater, being 1 in 766. In 1862, when Porto Rico had 600,000
population and Cuba 1,200,000, the latter had 1 homicide to every
7,100 inhabitants, the former 1 to every 75,000; Cuba 1 assault to
every 1,799 inhabitants, Porto Rico 1 to every 5,120;. Cuba 1 robbery
to every 7,453 inhabitants, Porto Rico 1 to every 15,789; Cuba 1 theft
to every 753 inhabitants, Porto Rico 1 to every 2,112.

. SOCIAL CONDITIONS.

The statistics of births in 1897, elsewhere given, show that about 52
per cent were of legitimate and 48 per cent of illegitimate children.
The births are by no means, owing to a defective law, fully reported ;
but complete returns would not probably make the showing better.
Half or more of the children born are illegitimate, and it follows
that a large proportion of parents are living in conjugal relations with-
out marriage. This does not mean that the people are immoral or that
the sexes are promiscuous in their relations. The social evil is said to
be quite extensive; but marriage is not shunned, with rare exceptions,
for immoral purposes. Various reasons are given for neglecting the
sacrament or ceremony. By some it is ascribed to a want of edu-
cation, by others to the desire to be free from the obligations which
marriage imposes, but by most informants to obstacles which the poor
could not surmount. Two forms of marriage were j>rovided by law, the
civil and the ecclesiastical. The code declared the latter to be the
only form for Catholics, and the former for non- Catholics. Certain
conditions were prescribed for both, such as consent of parents and
advice of grandparents, certificates of age, proclamation of the bans,
etc. The priest required, in addition, confession and communion.
If marriage took place at the church in the morning, it was without
cost, according to the testimony of priests. If it took place in the
evening, as was the custom of the well-to-do classes, a fee was ex-
pected. At most of the hearings held by the commissioner, persons
insisted that these fees were too heavy for poor people, who preferred
to live together unweclded than to meet all the conditions of ecclesi-
astical marriage. It was the general testimony that these persons live
together as faithfully as those under marriage vows, and are rarely
untrue to each other. Many who were questioned by the commissioner
in the poor quarters of Arecibo,Yauco, and other cities, said they would
like to marry for the sake of legitimatizing their children, but could
not pay the expenses. Under the prevailing interpretation of the
law, they could not go to the municipal judge for civil marriage with-
out abjuring the Catholic faith. Moreover, the expenses of this form
were considerable.

< There was another difficulty. In the smaller communities nearly
every family was related to every other family, and often persons
desiring to marry were related to each other within the degrees pro-
hibited by both church and state. Ecclesiastical dispensations were
difficult to get. The commissioner, at the request of General Henry,
in consultation with the secretary of state and the secretary of justice,
drew an order which opened the way to civil marriage for all, remov-
ing delays and obstacles and making it free. The immediate effect
was an increase in judicial marriages. It is desirable that this chap-
ter of the code should be entirely recast in accordance with American
principles, and the onerous provision requiring the mother to present
herself and her child for registry, within forty days after its birth,
under penalty, though she may live in a distant part of the district

and be unable to travel, should be substituted by a more reasonable
and effective system. The deaths were considerably in excess of the
births, according to the municipal returns for 1897. Births are con-
cealed or unreported for reasons already indicated. There are no
recent statistics of longevity. According to the census of 1860, of
583,308 inhabitants, 18,273 were above GO years of age, and 73 above
a hundred.

CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE.

The Porto Ricans are a kindly, hospitable, polite people, very
sociable, and always ready to do Americans a friendly service. If a
stranger in their streets asks the way to any particular point the
obliging native will often go with him instead of simply directing him,
and refuse any reward. Courteous to everybody, they seem glad to
be able to grant a favor. They are cheerful in disposition,. uniformly
kind to one another, and manifest as parents great love for their
children. Cases of brutal treatment of the little ones are rare.
Street brawls and disorders occur occasionally, but respect for. law
and order is very strong, and the people are lovers of peace. Although
they have always been accustomed to the presence of soldiers, they
appear to be grieved that they are kept under a military government.
To the commissioner thej^ said again and again, "We want a civil
government as soon as possible. Let the military regime be shortened.
What have we done that we should be placed under military law?
We have done nothing worthy of punishment." They spoke favor-
ably of the character of the military government, its honesty, effi-
ciency, and devotion to insular interests, but were impatient to have
their civil status fixed. According to Senor Manuel Fernandez
Juncos, one of the leaders of the autonomist party, the chief fault of
the Porto Rican is -'lack of will force," and he urges that education
should be so directed as to counteract this weakness.

Naturally inclined to social intercourse, the conditions tend to
restriction in the indulgence of their inclination. In cities there are
social calls, balls and receptions, and occasional performances, musi-
cal or theatrical, in the public theater, but outside of the cities few
amusements are possible. Visiting is difficult, owing to bad roads,
and family reunions, even, are not common, particularly among the
poorer classes. They are fond of music, especially of string instru-
ments, but are not a reading people. Books and periodicals are sel-
dom seen on their tables. Games and outdoor diversions are not
general, among either young or old, men or women. Balls and dances
are perhaps the most popular and universal diversion. In the winter
season the feast known as candelaria is celebrated, and much is made
of the carnival just before Lent. During the former, which was
observed in January, when the commissioner was in Mayaguez, many
people came into the city from the rural districts and participated in
the processions, balls, etc. It was a time also for games of chance.
The market place and drinking houses were occupied with tables for
all kinds of gambling, which is a passion with the people. Boys and
girls, men and women, who had saved up their centavos and small
silver coins for this purpose, crowded around the tables afternoon and
evening and took their chances. Although this was contrary to law,
the municipal authorities said the custom was dear to the people, and
they thought the play was usually not serious, but a harmless pastime.
In the carnival the good will and good nature of the people are mani-
fested. They open on Sunday with the papelita, small paper disks,

which are showered upon the passers-by in the streets, balconies being-
decorated with paper ribbons of bright colors. Then the maskers, of
both sexes, appear in public and there are several days of fun and
frolic, those thus disguised parading the streets with horns and other
musical instruments in couples and in crowds.

A large class of the men are devoted to cockfights. Every consid-
erable town has its cockpit, to which an entrance fee is charged. A
special breed of cocks is reared for fighting. The exhibition is usu-
ally given Sunday afternoon, and betting is one of the most prominent
features of it. In one town visited by the commissioner the munici-
pal judge was the proprietor of the pit. No moral objection seems
to have suggested itself to anybody, in proof of which it was said
that priests sometimes attended the exhibition. The admission fees
to cockfights are often much larger than those to theatrical perform-
ances. Bullfights have never been popular in Porto Rico. Gambling
is said to be the prevailing vice of the people. The field laborer often
loses a large part of his weekly wages, the commissioner was told, in
games of chance, and a few instances were related of loss of valuable
estates in high play.

The marriage customs are similar to those of Spain, though some-
what relaxed. Men only join funeral processions. Among the poor,
the coffin is carried through the streets on the shoulders of friends,
followed by male relatives. At the grave the body is usually taken
out of the coffin, which is only hired for the occasion.

The newspapers are not numerous. There are several large and in-
fluential Spanish dailies published in San Juan and Ponce. They
give insular news, letters from abroad, and occasionally brief cable
dispatches. They generally represent one or the other of the politi-
cal parties. The oldest newspaper was established sixty years ago.
It was very conservative under the Spanish regime, opposing auton-
omy, and . stating that it preferred cholera and yellow fever to the
proposed reforms. The editor of the oldest daily journal told the
commissioner that there was no liberty of the press till after Ameri-
can occupation ; that the life of a newspaper man was one of ' ' con-
stant martyrdom." He was frequently arrested, and had whole
editions of his paper confiscated, and during the war many columns
of matter were ruled out. When he undertook to publish extracts
from "Christian Doctrine," in place of the deleted matter, the mili-
tary censor forbade it, because people might infer that important
news had been suppressed. 'In November last there were twenty-
seven or twenty-eight newspapers published in the island, in the
towns of San Juan, Ponce, Mayaguez, Humacao, Arecibo, San Ger-
man, and Utuado. In the majority of cases they are said to be
short-lived. There was a limited demand for foreign magazines and
periodicals. Small libraries exist in San Juan, Ponce, and a few
other cities. Among these is the Municipal Library, established in
San Juan in 1880, and the library of the Athenseum, founded the same
year. The former has 7,000, the latter 5,000 volumes.

POLITICAL PARTIES.

The political organizations of Porto Rico corresponded, naturally,
to those of Spain. The General Official Guide of 1896 has a list of
four political parties, as follows: The Unconditional Spanish, the
Liberal, the Autonomist, and the Progressive Left of * the Uncondi-
tional Spanish. After the war but two remained, the Liberal and

those Autonomists who would not acquiesce in the Sagasta plan for
Porto Rico, generally called Radicals. In March last the Radicals
reorganized as the Republican party of Porto Rico, with a declaration
of principles, calling for the retirement of the provincial currencjr,
protection of the island's industries, and free trade with the United
States. The platform of the Liberal party which was organized Octo-
ber 1, 1899, as the Federal party, declares in favor of "a firm and
resolute tendency towards absolute identity with the United States,"
the early establishment of a territorial form of government, the exten-
sion of suffrage to all resident citizens, free commerce between Porto
Rico and the rest of the Union, greater freedom for banking institu-
tions, municipal autonomy and American methods in popular educa-
tion. Its leader, Senor Luis Muhoz Rivera, was secretary of govern-
ment or state under the autonomistic regime and had a very large
following. Party feeling was strong, though for mouths after Ameri-
can occupation no principle, apparently, was at issue. The differ-
ences grew partly out of the history of the struggle for autonomy,
including the first election under it, and partly out of the fact that
one party was in and the other out of office.

ROADS, RAILROADS, AND COMMUNICATION.

There can be no civilization without means of communication and
transportation. Porto Rico had a cheap and fairly effective telegraph
and postal system, both under Government direction, but its roads,
with few exceptions, were bad, and its railroads incomplete and not
altogether satisfactory. There exists on paper a plan for a railroad
system all the way around the island, but the gaps are much longer
than the lines. From San Juan, the French line, so far as completed,
extends along the northern shore westward to Camuy, a distance of
62 miles; then there is a, break from Camuy to Aguadilla of 25 miles;
the line begins again at Aguadilla and goes on to Hormigueros, 34
miles; from Hormigueros to Yauco is another break of 21 miles; the
third part runs from Yauco to Ponce, 22 miles, making a total for
the French company of 118 miles, with breaks of 16 miles, in the
route from San Juan to Ponce — 164 miles.

•From Ponce eastward around to San Juan, about 140 miles, the rail-
road is yet unbuilt, excepting about 14 miles, by the French company,
from San Juan to Carolina. There are three other short lines of rail-
road, one extending from Catano, opposite San Juan, to Bayamon,
4.35 miles; another from San Juan to Rio Piedras, 7 miles, and
another from Anasco, on the west coast, to Alto Sano, 11 miles, with
an extension in view to Lares. The total for all lines is 154 miles.
The railroads are all narrow gauge. The French lines and the line to
Bayamon are 39.37 inches, the line to Rio Piedras 30 inches, and the
Anasco line only 23f inches. The speed of passenger trains on the
French road is about 15 miles an hour on the San Juan-Camuy branch
and less on the Aguadilla-Mayaguez branch,, or ordinary trolley time
in this country. On the Aguadilla-Mayaguez branch it is about 12
miles. There are three classes of passenger fares. For first-class
tickets from San Juan to Camuy the rate is $4.95; second-class, $3.85;
third-class, $2.75, being about 8 centavos a mile for the first, 6 for the
second, and 4-J- for the third. The cost of first-class passage from San
Juan to Yauco, including coach hire, is about $30, using mail coaches;
when the roads are bad, or by private coaches, it may be $40 or $50.
By coach over the military road between San Juan and Ponce, 78

miles, the rate is $30, for one or two passengers. The freight charges
are based on distances, amounts, and speed of trains. The rate
between San Juan and Camuy (62 miles) on a hundredweight is $3,
fast time. By slower trains the prices are arranged in four classes,
ranging from $7 per ton up to $15 between Camuy and San Juan.
There are also special tariffs, in which the following are included:
Sugar, muscovado or refined, from Camuy to San Juan, $4.95 for each
1,000 kilograms, or ton, the minimum price being for 6,000 kilograms;
that is, on any amount less than 6,000 kilograms the price would be
six times $4.95, or $29.70. Coffee pays at the same rate. The freight
on flour, oats, rice, or corn between the same points is at the rate of
$7 a ton, the minimum price being $35. Oranges, lemons, cocoanuts,
plantains, potatoes, etc., pay at the rate of $2.56 per 1,000 kilograms
from Barceloneta to San Juan, 40 miles. According to statements
made to the commissioner at Yaueo, freight rates seem to be about
equal to those by cart when the roads are in ordinary condition. Both
freight and passenger charges are too high in comparison with prices in
general, and both a quicker and cheaper railroad service is desirable.
If the resources of the island are to be developed, improved railroad
facilities are indispensable. The insular government agreed to insure
a net income of 8 per cent to the French company. On behalf of the
latter it is claimed that lower rates would, increase the annual deficit
to be made up by the province, which was about $150,000 in 1898;
but lower rates and more rapid service would doubtless secure more
business and therefore a larger income.

The importance of having a line of railroad around the island can
hardly be overestimated. Nothing has been done recently to com-
plete the project undertaken by the French company, except that the
roadbed has been extended some little distance beyond Hormigueros
toward Yauco. If the belt line were completed it would be possible
to market much of the agricultural produce which can not now be
shipped, or shipped promptly, by reason of bad roads and high cart-
age rates. Quick and cheap rail communication between the various
points and ports on the entire coast of Porto Rico must be provided
at an early day if the resources of the island are to be properly
developed.

Whether short lines to the interior are necessary, there may be two
opinions; they are quite practicable, for there are many rivers which
open the way through the mountains. Electric roads could be built,
equipped, and operated more cheaply, and would, doubtless, be suffi-
cient, except where heavy grades are necessary.

The roads of the island are, in part, maintained by the insular and
in part by the municipal governments. The carreteras, or highways,
are under the control of the bureau of public works, department of
the interior. Those which connect the towns of two or more municipal
districts are in this class. The military road, so called, between San
Juan and Ponce, crossing eight municipal districts, 133 kilometers in
length, is the finest in the island. It is a smooth, macadamized road,
divided into sections, with a house in each for the roadmaster. It
cost, on the average, $15,000 per mile to construct, and requires
$15,000 or more annually to keep it in condition. There are good,
substantial bridges, except in the Ponce district. A branch road
from Cayey to Guayama is of the same excellent character. In the
same category are a few other short roads, notably the one from
Aguadilla through Moca to San Sebastian, and that from the Playa
of Ponce to Adjuntas. The rest of the carreteras, or highways, may

be classified according to degrees of badness. The very important
one connecting the terminus of the »railroad at Camuy with that at
Aguadilla is extremely rough most of the distance, with alternate
soft places. It is a wonder that the coaches, usually of the phaeton
class, are able to endure the strain. The horses, small but willing,
are driven with no mercy. Some of the carreteras are nothing more
than trails; for example, that between Yabucoa and Maunabo. An
American ambulance was got over it once, and the feat is spoken of
as miraculous. "When rain falls abundantly the roads of the plains
and valleys, and, in fact, all which have not a rock foundation or are
not macadamized, are extremely bad. They become so soft that teams
are sometimes actually drowned in mud. Where this danger is not
imminent the roads are rough beyond the power of description. At
Utuado the commissioner was warned not to undertake to go to Lares
without first making his will. Mud holes and hillocks occur in each
track in such confused succession that while the fore wheel on one
side is ascending, that on the other is descending, with the conditions
reversed for the hind wheels.

The caminos vecinales, or vicinage roads, are supposed to be kept
in order by the various municipalities. Few are even in fair condi-
tion. The larger cities give this matter more attention. Ponce spent
in 1897 $13,000 on its streets and $7,200 on its roads; for 1899 the
appropriations for roads and bridges was $3,230; in the district of
Humacao the amount is $2,000, not sufficient, the mayor said, to keep
the three roads in repairs; in Aibonito, nothing. In the important
district of Yauco the vicinage roads are so bad in some places that
coffee is brought down on the backs of mules over mere trails.

The demand for good roads was more general than any other pre-
sented to the commissioner. A memorial from Arroyo stated that
"without roads the riches of the island can not be developed."
Another, from the municipal council of Utuado, said: "Real roads do
not exist from the interior to the coast; only tracks, dangerous even
to travelers, are available, preventing the development of the country
and sapping its life every day;" a delegation from Ponce represented
that "means of transportation to and from the interior of the island
are to-day in about the same primitive state as when Porto Rico was
discovered," and that its "immense natural resources can not be
developed" unless attention be given to this matter. In response .to
the universal request for better roads, the military government has
expended large sums of money, under its own direction, in road build-
ing, but it will require years of ordinary effort to secure a proper sys-
tem for the island.

This subject is of the greatest importance. It is fundamental to
the well-being and progress of Porto Rico. It affects all human
interests — social, educational, industrial, commercial, political. Good
roads increase travel and social visitation; make school facilities
available; lessen the cost of marketing industrial and agricultural
products ; cheapen the price of the necessaries of life ; make commer-
cial transactions easier; facilitate the functions of government, and
render possible a quick and effective postal system. Bad roads are
the enemies ,of civilization. They destroy carriages and wagons and
ruin horses and oxen ; they make the cost of transportation so great
that products are wasted, production is curtailed, and profits eaten up.

At Humacao the commissioner was informed that the shipments
from that port might easily be 20,000 or 25,000 tons a year, instead of
9,000, indicating an annual loss of 11,000 to 16,000 tons. The cost of

transporting a hogshead of sugar, 1,600 to 1,800 pounds, from San
Lorenzo to San Juan is $6. If the road to Humacao were passable it
could be taken to that port for $2, a loss evidently of $4 a hogshead.
The cost of transportation from Juncos to Humacao is so great that
the margin of profit is very small. Planters in Utuado declare that
it costs as much to get coffee from that district to the shipping port
as from the port to Liverpool. In the wet season it costs an extra 25
cents a quintal to send coffee from Utuado to Ponce. At Gobo, on the
border of the districts of Arecibo and Utuado, the commissioner's
party overtook an ox team loaded with merchandise that had been
already two days and a night on the way to Utuado. The planters
and merchants in Humacao, when questioned as to why they did not
raise more rice, pineapples, oranges, and cocoanuts, stated that it was
because of lack of facilities of transportation.

At most of the ports the arrangements for shipping and unloading
goods are of a primitive character. There is no wharf even for small
boats. Passengers must wade or be carried on the shoulders of the
boatmen. The loading of a hogshead of sugar is a serious matter. A
large flatboat, used as a lighter, is brought as near shore as possible
and turned upon its side. The hogshead is then rolled in and the boat
is righted. Port improvements are almost as necessary as good roads.
More coastwise vessels are needed for the island commerce, and some
of the port charges need to be reduced. At Humacao the pilot fee for
each vessel was said to be $28, which is very burdensome, particularly
when only a few goods are landed.

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY.

The policy which has governed in Porto Rico hitherto seems to have
been to put all its energy into the production of sugar, coffee, tobacco,
and cattle, and import most of its food supply. Its crops, under a
system of cultivation not the most advantageous, have been so large
that it could pay its heavy bills for foreign goods, meet enormous
interest charges on its working capital, and have generally a profit
left. The movement of commerce at the custom-houses was indicated
by detailed statistics, published under official auspices. For the cal-
endar year 1897 the importations amounted in value to $17,858,063,
native money, of which $7,152,016, or a little more than 40 per cent,
came from Spain; $3,749,815, or upward of 20 per cent, from the
United States; $1,755,755, a little less than 10 per cent, from England;
$1,445,600 from English possessions; $1,314,603 from Germany; and
the rest from many other countries, including $913,069 from India
and $692,780 from Cuba. The importations from English possessions
consisted chiefly of fish from Canada. From Cuba came manufac-
tured tobacco and chocolate; from Spain, hats and shoes, rice, wines,
olive oil, soap, furniture, and cotton goods; from the United States,
coal, kerosene oil, boards, pork and lard, and flour; from Germany,
rice, beer, cheese, and building materials; from England, coal, corru-
gated iron for roofs, cotton goods, machinery, and cheese; from India,
Belgium, and Denmark, rice; and from South America, jerked beef.
Bacalao (codfish) and rice are the chief articles of common diet. The
importation of rice was enormous — 35,451,874 kilos, or 77,994,122
pounds — far exceeding in weight any other single article, not even
excepting coal. In value it exceeded by a million pesos any other
imported article. Of codfish, 11,244,245 kilos, valued at $1,461,752,
was imported; of flour, 13,852,030 kilos, valued at $969,642; of pork

and lard, 4,649,784 kilos, valued at $1,309,935. Including rice, flour,
fish, pork and lard, vegetables and canned produce, cheese, olive oil,
and common wines, the food importations reached a value of nearly
$8,000,000, or well-nigh 45 per cent of the entire list of foreign
articles.

The exports — $18,574.678 — were in 1897 heavier than the imports,
the balance in favor of the island being $716,615, or, deducting the
articles reexported, $494,478. Coffee leads the list of exports in value.
The quantity exported was 23,504,999 kilos, valued at $12,222,599,
which was less by 3?157,195 kilos and $1,641,741 than in 1896. Next
to coffee, constituting nearly two-thirds of the volume of exports,
came sugar— 57,648,851 kilos, or 126,827,472 pounds (63,413 tons),
valued at $4,007,9,99, an increase both in quantity and value over the
crop of 1896. The value of the tobacco exported was $1,194,318; of
molasses, $403,520, and of hides, $71,852.

The coffee found market chiefly in Spain, France, Cuba, Germany,
and Italy, very small amounts going to other European countries and
the United States. The bulk of the tobacco crop went to Cuba to be
manufactured. The United States, Spain, and Denmark took nearly
all the centrifugal sugar; the United States and Spain most of the
muscovado sugar, and the United States three-fourths of the molasses.
Hides went chiefly to Spain, France, and Germany ; rum to Spain and
Africa; cocoanuts to the United States and Cuba; oranges to the
United States; the chocolate bean to Spain; cattle, of which the
export value was $221,720, to Cuba and other West India islands;
salt to the Dutch islands. Small quantities of vegetables, minor
fruits, chickens, eggs, etc., are also exported.

The imports were carried in 1,135 vessels — 809 steam and 326 sail-
ing. Of the total number 210 were from Spain, 168 from the United
States, 179 from 'the English possessions, 144 from Cuba, and 137
from England.

The commerce of Porto Rico was controlled almost entirety by
Spanish and European houses. Comparatively few Porto Ricans
were engaged in either the banking or the mercantile branch. . The
leading retail merchants were also Spaniards and had Spanish clerks.
The majority of the planters or farmers were Porto Ricans, and the
industries were mostly in their hands. Of the industries, apart from
those belonging to the culture of the soil, which will be described
under "Agriculture," there is little to be said. They are few in num-
ber and small in extent. Salt is produced, notably at Cabo Rojo, by
evaporation; hats, both common and fine, are made in the same sec-
tion, chiefly by women ; there are a few factories of chocolate, soap,
carriages, shoes, sdup paste, matches, ice, tinware, and trunks for
domestic consumption. The manufacture of tobacco has assumed
important proportions since the tariff was established on the raw
material in Cuba and on the finished article in Porto Rico. All the
cigarettes and most of the cigars used in the island are now made
there. Rum is made in considerable quantities from the residuum of
the sugar mills, and some of it is turned into bay rum, artificial bran-
dies, and other liquors. There are sugar mills on many of the estates,
very few of the most approved pattern, and centrifugal and musco-
vado sugars and molasses are produced. The central system needs
to be introduced for the sake of economy. Many mills are in ruins
and vast sums of money have been wasted in niultiptying poor plants.
In the beautiful valley of San German, from almost any point, one
can see twelve or thirteen chimneys, the mills of most of which were long

since past grinding. The triple-effect system is found only in a very
few mills, and these are owned almost entirely by Englishmen and other
foreigners. The old method of pressing out the juice between wooden
cylinders turned by oxen, with open boiling pans, in which the boiling
liquor is skimmed by immense paddles and dipped by hand from one
vat to another, is still used in many places. The waste from this
process, known as the Jamaica train system, is very large, and it is
difficult to see how any margin of profit is left to the producer. Coffee
is prepared in primitive mortars and also by large modern mills,
which strip off the inner husk, polish the berry, and color it for the
European markets. The sorting and much of the cleaning also are
done by hand, women and girls being employed at prices extremely
low. There is excellent clay in the island from which bricks are
made and also rude earthen jugs and roof tiles. The sea is well
stocked with numerous varieties of fish, but comparatively few per-
sons are engaged in catching and selling them, perhaps because of the
difficulty of transporting them in a fresh state. They spoil utterly in
a few hours. Oil was refined at Catano in a small refinery which the
late hurricane destroyed.

Many industries are possible which have not yet been undertaken,
or undertaken in a small and ineffective way. The materials for the
manufacture of soap and candles are abundant, and these articles
command good prices. The cattle industry being large, and good tan
bark from the mangle tree right at hand, tanneries might be estab-
lished to cure hides which are now exported. There are numerous
vegetable fibers, from which sacking, used in large quantities for
sugar and coffee bags, could be made; also cordage, baskets, ham-
mocks, sleeping mats, door mats, now made in small quantities, and
a variety of useful articles. The yucca, from which a small quantity
of starch is made, is easily raised, and the mayor of Fajardo says it
yields a profit of $20 an acre.
pf? • The commissioner questioned the people of Humacao, Yauco, and
/ other cities as to the materials for possible industries, and they gave
long lists of them. The lack of capital was given as the reason why
they have not been established. Perhaps initiative and technical
knowledge are also wanting. It is of the utmost importance to the
future of Porto Rico that its industries should be increased. When-
ever coffee, sugar, and tobacco crops are destroyed by hurricanes,
which visit the island three or four times a century, or bring small
returns on account of low prices, the masses are in danger of starva-
tion; not quick, direct starvation, which is hardly possible in a land
where natural fruits are so abundant, but starvation of the slow kind,
which gradually saps the strength, weakens the will power, and pre-
pares the way for disease. The cry of labor is for more work, par-
ticularly in the cities. The starting of new industries is an economical
necessity, and it should be the policy of the United States to encour-
age it. The prosperity of the island must be built on this basis.
When labor is respected and well employed, the masses become larger
consumers, and all classes of business are benefited. Spain never
encouraged the Porto Paeans to establish any industry in the island
which would unfavorably affect those of the Peninsula. For this
reason its resources have never been developed, have never really
enjoyed a golden age, and the mother country had. a restricted where
\ it might have had an extensive market; for if the masses had been
able to secure constant employment they would have bought Spain's
fabrics to clothe themselves, and consumed quantities of articles that

they have been compelled to do without. In the United States a poor
man carries an umbrella when it rains; in Porto Rico he protects him-
self with a banana leaf. Give the latter the means and he will buy
other things than codfish, rice, and a few garments of cheap cotton
goods.

AGRICULTURE.

This is the chief, almost the only, source of industrial wealth in
Porto Rico. Most of the lands — even the mountains — are susceptible
to cultivation or use for pasturage. One may see on the military road
near Cayey a tobacco field covering the whole side of a mountain from
the base to the summit. The proportion of land under actual cultiva-
tion is difficult to determine. It is not known certainly how much
there is, as the area of the island has not been definitely ascertained,
nor the surface occupied by water and by sites of cities and towns.
The returns of the provincial board of taxation made in 1896 for rural
estates may, however, be taken as a basis for an estimate. Those
returns indicated that 294,973 acres were devoted to cane, coffee,
tobacco, and other crops. > Taking 3,860 square miles, equal to 2,460,400
acres, as representing the area of Porto Rico, it would follow that a
little less than one-eighth of the entire surface was under cultivation
in 1896. Of pasture lands there were 1,116,262 acres and of forests
and other similar areas 657,631, making a total for rural property of
2,068,866 acres. This would only leave 391,534 acres for city and town
sites, streams and lakes, roads, etc. The common estimate of Porto
Ricans is that only one-tenth of the cultivable lands are in actual cul-
tivation at any one time. Partial returns of the bureau of agriculture
at San Juan for 1899 show that in forty-five municipal districts eighty-
one of two hundred and eighty-nine sugar-cane plantations are not in
cultivation. The acreage devoted to the several crops, particularly
to sugar cane and tobacco, varies from year to year. The tax returns
indicate 60,953 rural estates and 50,753 owners.

The lands are usually classified under four heads : Vegas de primera
clase are alluvial lands, particularly valuable for sugar cane and cat-
tle raising ; sobre vegas, higher lands, also alluvial, but not so rich as
those of the first class; mountain lands, often requiring fertilizers,
good for coffee, cattle, and small fruits; and, lastly, mountain tops,
usually covered with forests. Along the coasts are sandy soils, good
for little except cocoa palms, and tracts subject to the action of the
tides, which could be redeemed by banks or dikes. The soils of the
plains and valleys are generally very rich. They have borne crops
for generations without the application of fertilizers, and seem to be
well-nigh inexhaustible. There is a variety of soils — humiferous,
consisting of organic matter ; argillaceous, or clayey ; siliceous, or
sandy, and calcareous, or containing limestone. As classified for
purposes of taxation, the alluvial soils of plains and valle37s are con-
sidered most valuable ; those of highlands, containing loam, with sand,
clay, or lime, fall into the second classs ; lands producing inferior
pasture, into the third, and rocky areas, which grow nothing but
bushes, into the fourth.

The crops most generally raised are, in the order of areas occupied,
according to the agricultural census of 1896, coffee, 121,176 acres;
cane, 60,884; tobacco, 4,222. Besides these are frutos menores, or
minor products, including vegetables and bananas, to the raising of
which 92,576 acres were devoted, and other crops, including oranges,

cocoanuts, and fruits in general, covering 16,115 acres. The lower
alluvial lands of the coast plains and the valleys of the interior are
well suited to cane; the elevated plains and the mountain valleys to
coffee. Tobacco grows well in strong soils of the valleys and mountain
sides. Cane, coffee, and tobacco are grown in every municipal district
save Vieques, which produces no coffee.

Coffee can not be raised without shade, as in Brazil. The coffee
bushes need five years for full development, under the shade of banana
or guava, or other trees. Bananas give both shade and fruit the first
year; guavas and other trees in about five years. The coffee plant
begins to bear full crops at the end of seven years, and continues in
bearing condition to 25 and even 50 years of age. Coffee farms are
exempted from taxes for the first five years. The amount produced
varies from 1 or 1-J to 3 or more quintals per cuerda, a cuerda being
a little less than an acre. The cost of production, including planting,
picking, hulling, drying, sacking, and carrying to market, is estimated
at about $10 per quintal. As the price was only $13 to $15 this year,
there was little margin of profit; but this price was unusually low.
.The average size of the coffee plantations in the neighborhood of
Aibonito was said to be from 80 to 100 cuerdas. The grades of coffee
produced are among the finest, and Porto Rican coffee brings excellent
prices in European markets, for which it has to be polished and
slightly colored.

/The cane fields are found on the plains lying next to the coast line
of the island and in some of the interior valleys. There are two
systems of culture, one called the petty, by which planting is done in
February or March and the crop is cut a year later; in the other,
called the larger method, the planting is done in October and the
entire cutting follows fifteen months later. Many of the lands are
said to need fertilizing, much having been taken from them and little
or nothing given back. The smaller farmers, having but little land,
plant it so continuously that it fails to produce satisfactory results.
On the larger plantations the process of alternation of crops can be
carried out to some extent. Sugar plantations range in size from a
few acres up to 700, 800, and even 1^000. The tendency in recent
years has been to increase the size and diminish the number of plan-
tationsj The planters go back to the days of slavery, which was
abolished in 1873, as the golden days of the sugar industry. Then
they got $5 and $6, where they scarcely get $3 now, and the expenses
of production were then much smaller. Formerly they had sufficient
capital to work their estates and did not need to borrow much; now
they depend largely on borrowed capital, for which they pay from
9 to 16 or even 18 percent per annum, x The fall in prices in the
world's markets has, of course, been due to increased production in
other lands, in which the beet has become the rival of the cane.
While cane producers elsewhere have improved their methods of cul-
ture and manufacture, those of Porto Rico have changed but little.
According to native experts, the production is only from 2 to 4 hogs-
heads of 1,400 to 1,800 pounds each, when it might be 5 or 6 hogs-
heads. They use seed from the same stock year after year. A dis-
ease, affecting almost the whole of the stock, attacks it, and the pro-
priety of changing the seed frequently had not even occurred to some
of the growers. The changa (grillo-talpa), a cricket, commits great
ravages among the young plants, and Spanish experts have failed to
find a remedy. To almost all questions relating to improved methods

the planters gave the uniform answer that capital was required, and
they had no capital. For example, the examination of the planters
of one of the rich valleys proceeded substantially as follows :

Q. What is the present state of the sugar industry? — A. Deplorable.

Q. Due to what cause ? — A. Poverty of owners and of soil.

Q. Why not use fertilizers?-— A. We have no capital.

Q. Why do you not use phosphates from your mountains ? — A. Because we lack
the means to mine them.

Q. Why are you so poor? — A. Because, not having sufficient capital, we have to
borrow at exorbitant rates of interest.

Q. Why do not the planters unite for mutual improvement and defense and the
study of methods ? — A. Because we have no money.

Q. You have many poor mills and few good ones. Why do you not introduce
the central system as an economical measure ? — A. Because we have no capital.

Q. If your cane suffers from disease, why not try new seed? — A. We would, but
we have no money.

Certainly the condition of the sugar industry is deplorable, and the
lack of capital is evident and affects all branches of agriculture.
There is a combination of causes. First, decrease in prices, with no
corresponding decrease in expenses of production and transportation;
second, waste in method of manufacture; third, heavy interest rates;
fourth, onerous direct taxes, amounting to 12^ per cent, or more, of
net profits; fifth, high customs duties on machinery and heavy tax on
the right of importation; sixth, withdrawal of capital by Spaniards
returning to the Peninsula with the Spanish troops. -This last cause
alone, considering the small amount of currency in circulation, would
have serious results. While in other countries falling prices have
been met by increased economy in production and manufacture, in
Porto Rico planters seemed to be caught in a web of difficulties from
which extrication was not possible. It is evident that, apart from the
question of increased capital, at reasonable interest, to work their
plantations, which they unite in urging as the first great need, and
free access to the markets of the United States as the second, they
must give more attention to methods of cultivating and manufactur-
ing their crops, and agricultural experiment stations will be of great
value.

The third crop in value is tobacco. This was formerly a paying
industry. The chief difficulty in growing it seems to be due to the
changa. To protect the young plant from this insect, it is wrapped
in the mamey leaf. This, it is said, affects its growth and its flavor.
Formerly, most of the tobacco was shipped to Cuba, where it was
manufactured. The tariff has shut it out of that market, and much
of it is being manufactured at home. But there is no market except
the home market ready for the manufactured article. The processes
of cultivating and drying need, evidently, to be improved. Experts
claim that the Porto Riean cigars have a green taste.

The other vegetable crops are usually called f rutos menores. They
consist of rice, corn — which is very highly esteemed as food, particu-
larly by the colored people — potatoes, yams, bananas, squashes, toma-
toes, and other garden produce. As seen in the markets, most of
these articles are greatly inferior in size. Potatoes and tomatoes are
scarcely larger than marbles; eggplants, cabbages, and pumpkins
than goose eggs. The explanation generally given is that attention is
absorbed by the chief crops, and the lesser ones are expected to pro-
duce themselves, with little or no cultivation. The prices are gener-
ally good. In the market at Ponce, in March, 1899, small native
cabbages were selling at 10 and 12 centavos, while large imported
cabbages brought 60 centavos a head. The appearance of the vegeta-

ble stands suggests that long use of seed of the same stock and lack
of suitable culture have resulted in degeneration. It would seem that
potatoes and onions equal to those of Bermuda might be produced
and sent to markets in the United States in the winter or early spring,
when the demand for those articles makes the prices remunerative.
The commissioner was told that rice of fair quality is grown without
great labor. As this is preeminently the food of the poor, the natural
suggestion is that more of it should be raised for home consumption.
Annotto, which yields a coloring material, is cultivated quite gener-
ally; and yucca, out of which starch is manufactured, is, it is claimed,
a profitable crop. The soil and climate seem to be well suited to the
cacao, from the beans of which chocolate is made, and the production
could be easily increased if there were better facilities for getting it
to market.

The fruits are such as are common to tropical countries. The
orange, the culture of which is almost entirely neglected, is the finest
fruit the island produces. It is large, juicy, very sweet, and has an
exquisite flavor. The tree is seen almost everywhere, but yields the
best results in the mountainous districts. It is very prolific, and in
January, February, and March it is at its best, and the prices are
remarkably cheap. They could be purchased in some districts at 10
centavos (about 6 cents) a hundred, and an American is said to have
purchased a shipload at $2 a thousand. Few have been shipped to
the United States, owing, it is said, partly to lack of certainty of
transportation and partly to the cost of freightage. Cocoanuts are
produced abundantly, particularly on the sandy shores, where little
else will grow. Bananas grow everywhere in great variety and quan-
tity, and form an important article of food for the poor. They require
little attention and are very prolific. The small and delicious guineo
is also grown. Unfortunately, it is too delicate to ship to other coun-
tries. Among other fruits which are valued by all classes are lirnes,
a .large and sweet kind of lemon, aguacates, or alligator pears, used
for salad and spread on bread instead of butter; nispolas, very sweet
and juicy; corazones, sweet and mushy; fresas, a small wild berry
resembling the strawberry, with the flavor of the raspberry; pine-
apples of a delicious quality; guayaba, of which excellent jelly is
made; grosella, fruit of a tree, used for a dulce, or preserve; man-
goes, tamarinds, and breadfruit. Grapes are also grown. At Fajardo
the commissioner was informed that an excellent quality of Malaga
grapes was raised there, and that three crops a year were gathered.

The most obvious suggestion to those who study the soils and crops
and agricultural methods of the island is the necessity of. improved
culture of all products, and increased attention to vegetables and
fruits. Porto Rico can and ought to raise more rice, potatoes, and
similar articles for its own consumption, if not for export. Its oranges
and pineapples, already very fine, can doubtless be developed by cul-
ture to such a state of excellence as to compel recognition in the
world's markets. But any material increase in native products for
exportation can hardly be expected until better and cheaper facilities
of inland transportation are secured. How the question of roads
affects production is illustrated by the following questions and
answers. Mr. Roig is a merchant, and owner of a sugar mill at
Humacao :

The Commissioner. What crops are raised here in addition to sugar?

Mr. Roig. Corn, beans, yucca, a very few potatoes, some cabbage and other
vegetables. We have a few oranges, also a few lemons, but only enough for our
own use. Oranges are produced here easily.

The Commissioner. Why don't you raise larger quantities of oranges?

Mr. Roig. Because no one has thought of doing so. I think there is more money
in planting cane.

The Commissioner. Do you raise rice?

Mr. Roig. Very little. It flourishes, but it comes cheaper from outside?

The Commissioner. Is it any trouble to raise it?

Mr. Roig. No.

The Commissioner. Why, then, do you import it?

Mr. Roig. All the rice here is raised by the poor people.

The Commissioner. Do you raise many bananas?

Mr. Roig. Only for home consumption.

The Commissioner. Why don't you raise them for export?

Mr. Roig. I am unable to say.

The Commissioner. I think I can tell you why. Your roads are so bad you can
not get them to market. What other crops are raised?

Mr. Roig. Cocoanuts.

The Commissioner. Do you raise many for export?

Mr. Roig. Yes.

The Commissioner. You have plenty of land on which you could grow more for
export, have you not?

Mr. Roig. Yes; we come to what we said before.

The Commissioner. Do you raise pineapples?

Mr. Roig. Yes.

The Commissioner. Do they require much labor?

Mr. Roig. No.

The Commissioner. You don't export any?

Mr. Roig. No; or at least very few.

Perishable products need quick as well as cheap transportation, and
it is obvious that opportunities for sale may be lost by delay, and that
regular service by carriers is a matter of importance.

The raising of cattle is an important and lucrative industry. The
pasture is generally abundant and of good quality, and the expense
account is small. The breed is of African stock crossed with Euro-
pean, and the cattle are large and heavy and Avell suited for the meat
market and for working purposes. The cows are generally poor milk-
ers, the maximum quantity being 8 or 10 quarts a day for each cow.
Doubtless the fact that they are only milked once a day accounts in
part for the small quantity. The quality of the milk is poor. The
oxen are extensively used for plowing and carting, the race of horses
having so degenerated, although originally of the famous Andalusian
strain, that they are chiefly of use for the carriage and the saddle.
A pair of oxen ready for work will bring $100, being worth more than
a pair of ordinary ponies. Besides supplying the. domestic meat mar-
ket, many cattle are shipped to other West Indian islands, chiefly Cuba.
The number of head in the island in 1896 was upward of 300,000.
The chief cattle districts are on the north side. The retail prices of
beef vary from 28 to 40 or 42 centavos a kilo, or 2.2 pounds.

CONDITION OF THE LABORING CLASSES.

Those who depend upon daily wages for support constitute the great
majority of the people. The sources of employment are not numerous.
The raising, harvesting, and grinding of cane require many more
hands than the care and cure of coffee or tobacco; but even on sugar
estates the work is not continuous. Some are kept the year round;
others only during the busiest season. .; The daily wages of the com-
mon field laborer range generally from 35 to 50 cents, native money.
A few of the more skilled get from 60 to 75 cents a day in the mills.
Young boys and the few women employed receive about 25 or 30 cents
a day. Women are rarely seen at work in the fields. Sometimes they

assist at, the mill in putting cane in the carrier which takes it to
the cylinders. Men are paid by the day to work in the tobacco fields;
but coffee pickers and sorters are hired, not by the day, but at so much
by measure. Women and girls are found in' coffee houses doing the
sorting, and also in tobacco factories. In the poor quarters at Arecibo
the women who worked at coffee sorting stated that they made from
12 to 18 cents a day, never more than 24 cents. They received 6 cents
a kettle. Ten kettles make a quintal, or a hundred pounds, and they
could not do half a quintal a day. Laborers in the cane field usually
go to work early in the morning, at 7 o'clock or before, and work
steadily until 3 in the afternoon, when they quit for the day. On one
estate visited by the commissioner they were served once during the
forenoon with bread, presumably by the planter. In the mills the day
is from sunrise to sunset.

The house of the laborer is very small and very poor. In the rural
districts it is built usually of thatch of the palm, leaves of the sugar
cane, or other vegetable fibers. It is placed on four posts, standing
from 1 to 3 feet from the ground. The floor is very uneven and far
from tight. It has generally three rooms, sometimes only two. These
rooms are usually about 6 by 7 or 8 by 10 feet in size. Fortunately,
no sash is needed for the windows in that mild climate. Almost no
furniture is visible. A kettle serves as a sort of portable range. In
this, with a little charcoal or splinters of wood, whatever cooking is
necessary is done. Sometimes a scissors bedstead, without mattresses
or pillows, and with little covering, is seen ; sometimes a sack or two
suspended from the roof does duty as a hammock. These houses are
often occupied by families of five or more, who dispose themselves for
sleep in the different corners of the room, often on palm branches.
For chairs, a box or two must do as substitutes; and as for tables, it
is not every man that can afford one.

In the poor quarters of the cities the houses are often made of
pieces of old boxes or short boards which have served some other
purpose. In Arecibo houses of this class are ranged in rows or groups
on very narrow streets or alleys. Several of these houses the com-
missioner was allowed to examine. In one the husband and wife
were seated on the floor eating their noon meal from a dish and a
little naked child was in the back room crying. There was no chair
or table, only a little wooden stool. Nothing else was visible, except
the small charcoal stove already described. This house, the roof of
which was full of holes, brought $2 a month rental to its owner. The
woman was white, the man black. Other houses in this settlement
were of the same description; some a little larger; some better kept
and with more furniture; others a little l^es comfortable, perhaps.
At one of the larger houses, preparations were being made for the
usual Sunday night dance. Two men were practicing the music on a
home made guitar, accompanied by a guira, a native instrument
made of a gourd, over whose regularly lined surface a short, slender
iron rod was scraped back and forth. Extreme poverty and squalor
were in evidence, but there was no sign of vice and unhappiness.
Living in this neighborhood of kind-hearted, polite, and sociable people
were a woman, said to be over a hundred years old, evidently having
Carib blood, and a helpless woman who had been a beggar. Both
were eared for by those who esteemed themselves better off. The
sick, in these small, crowded, dirty quarters, are not allowed to suffer
for a bit of bread, or fish, or a little soup. The poor quarters of
1125 4 4y

Yauco are on the hillside. The houses were a little better, perhaps,
than those in Arecibo. There were no sanitary arrangements of any
kind, and the water used had to be brought from the river, distant a
mile or more. Now and then a case of thrift will appear where, under
similar conditions as those of the majority a family will have better
food and better furniture and cleaner clothes than their neighbors,
and sometimes own the house they live in. All are industrious, as a
rule, and the only complaint they make is that they can not get work
enough.

The food of the poor varies in quantity and quality, according to
their means. In the house of an intelligent laborer at Yauco the
table was standing when the commissioner visited it. On it were
small plates of rice and codfish. It was then 5 o'clock in the after-
noon, and the family of five were taking their first meal that day, and
said they were thankful for even the small portion they had. A
woman who had been deserted by her husband was supporting four
children. * She paid $1.25 a month rent, and earned about 25 cents a
day picking coffee. Few of the laboring: classes are robust. Tbey
are small and thin and are decidedly anaemic. More nourishing food
may be said to be the universal need, and a less destructive drink
than the native rum. Porto Ricans are not as a rule intern perate.
Those who can afford it drink wine or beer with their meals in mod-
eration; but the tariff and consumo tax on common wines put them
beyond the reach of the poor. The fiery rum does them no little
physical injury. A good supply of pure water is almost everywhere
wanting. It would be a boon alike to the well-to-do and the poor.
The old stone filter's in use are quite inadequate purifiers.

The ordinary household utensils, not numerous, consist of a square
tin case in which oil was imported, with a bar of wood across the top
nailed to the sides to serve as a handle; a fire kettle, like a plumber's;
cucharas and cucharitas, large and small spoons, and cups and ladles
made of the gourd ; washtubs fashioned from the sheath of the royal
palm, the ends being drawn together; mills for coffee and corn, circu-
lar flat stones, and mortars hollowed out of trunks of trees, with the
machete to serve as ax, hatchet, and knife, and fingers as a substitute
for forks.

The rule of the planters appears to have been to pay their laborers
in money once a week. To this rule, however, there were exceptions.
Sometimes they paid in vales or tickets, redeemable at the store of
the proprietors. There were many complaints from workingmen that
what they got at these stores was poor in quality and high in price.
The law required that the wages be paid in money, but the employee
had no means of enforcing it. Workingmen showed these vales to
the commissioner and besought his intervention. On inquiry it
appeared that some of those who paid in this way could not command
the cash at all seasons of the year, and gave their employees the choice
,of quitting work or taking them.

The field laborer is usually illiterate and is bringing up his children
as he himself was raised, entirety without schooling. This is due in
part to the lack of school accommodations in rural districts, partly to
the want of suitable clothing, and in some measure to the failure of
parents to appreciate the importance of education. The clothing of
the poor is of the cheapest description and is very meager. The young
children go entirely naked. Those who have two changes of clothing,
usually thin cotton goods, consider themselves fortunate. As to shoes,

few wear them at all. A committee of iTusiness men in Ponce made
a careful calculation of the number of shoes required annually for the
people of the island. Their estimate was as follows : Fifty thousand
wear four pairs a year; 50,000 wear three pairs a year; 50,000 wear
two pairs a j^ear; 50,000 wear one pair a year. According to this,
150,000 of the 900,000 inhabitants wear shoes regularly, and 50,000
irregularly, leaving 700,000 as belonging to the barefoot class.

The artisans are better educated, have better food, and wear better
clothes. As their work is chiefly in the cities, it is a necessity for them
to be suitably dressed. At the invitation of the commissioner, the
artisans of San Juan, who are organized into a dozen or more gremios
or unions, came to his headquarters one evening and were examined.
There were eleven of them, representing painters, tinsmiths, silver-
smiths, bookbinders, cigar makers, printers, masons, carpenters,
bakers, shoemakers, and boatmen. Nine of the eleven were colored
men, who seem to monopolize the trades, at least in the capital. All
except one wrote his name and occupation in the stenographer's note-
book. They were neatly dressed, well-appearing, intelligent men.
Each spoke of his own trade. It appeared that their freedom of meet-
ing had been restricted, and that they had not been allowed to concert
strikes. The substance of their complaints was that their yearly in-
come is too small to allow them to live comfortably and educate their
children. In most cases their earnings were from $1 to $1.25 or $1.50
a day of ten or eleven hours. They complained of lack of work;
that boys of 15 years or less are allowed to undertake toil too hard for
them, breaking down their physical constitution, and that their trades
were generally overcrowded. Skilled workmen in other cities were
worse off. Coopers, tailors, and others on the average get employment
for only four to six months a year. In Arecibo the commissioner was
informed that many of the artisans were kept away from the hearing
because they had no hats or shoes to wear. The carpenters and
masons suffer because there is little building even in the cities ; the
bakers, because there are so many of them; the tailors and shoemakers,
because so many cheap clothes and shoes are imported; the printers,
because there is so little demand for newspapers. The masons of
Arecibo, numbering thiiiy-six, prepared a circular in January, 1899,
asking those able to do so to build houses on the numerous vacant
lots in that city in order to give masons and carpenters work, but natu-
rally their appeal was without effect. Some of the masons make less
than 75 cents a day. One of them in response to an inquiry said the
conditions had been bad ever since he could remember.

It is evident that the condition of the laboring classes can not be
greatly improved unless agriculture becomes prosperous and minor
industries are developed. This means practically a revolution in the
methods of raising, and marketing crops, and it can not be accom-
plished without the influx of new capital. How this shall be attracted
is one of the problems for those interested in the regeneration of
Porto Rico. It is manifest that the great object to be gained is the
raising of the working classes to a higher level of intelligence, of effi-
ciency as laborers, of power and influence as citizens, and of comfort
and enjoyment as social creatures. Give them remunerative work,
and all the rest is possible. They will then, as has already been said
under another heading, want better houses, better furniture, better
food and clothing, and this in turn will give increased employment to
masons and carpenters and to producers of foodstuffs and the vari-

ous fabrics. The great wheel would turn all the lesser wheels.
Laborers are good consumers when their labor is sufficiently paid,
and there can be no real prosperity in which they do not share.

THE TARIFF.

The commissioner had the honor of making, in December last, a
preliminary report on this subject, which will be found in another
part of this report. Upon the basis of it, the Hon. Robert P. Porter,
special commissioner for the United States to Cuba and Porto Rico,
revised the schedules with the aim of levying, on the average, a rate
of about 15 per cent ad valorem. The change in the value of the
native money in United States currency, which took effect at about
the same time, was taken into consideration. Previously the rate of
$2 Porto Rican to II American had prevailed at the custom-houses;
the new order made $1.66f Porto Rican receivable for $1 American in
customs dues. As Mr. Porter points out, this alone made a "reduc-
tion of 16f per cent in the amount of revenue paid in pesos." The
effect of the new tariff was to give considerable relief to the people,
particularly in the price of foodstuffs and the cheaper grades of cot-
ton goods, and in machinery. All export duties were abolished. A
special report of its operation was made by the commissioner to the
Secretary of the Treasury from San Juan in February, 1899, from
which it appears that at minor points changes are desired. The new
tariff proves, so far, to be a good revenue producer. The receipts for
imports in the first six months of 1899, including less than five months
under the present tariff, amount to $697,902. For the same period in
1896 they were $705,033; in 1895,1606,065; in 1894, $464,987. There
are no returns for 1898. The total amount collected in the year 1897,
according to the official Estadistica General del Comercio Exterior de
la Provincia de Puerto Rico, expressed in United States money, was
$1,489,172; the export duties for the same year were $144,844. It is
not possible with the data available to make an accurate comparison
between the old tariff and the new as to net results. Attention is
called to the statistics of manufacture of tobacco and manufacture and
sale of liquors, gathered with a view to taxation for internal revenue.

THE CURRENCY AND BANKING.

The commissioner's views on the currency were also presented in a
preliminary report. The action of the President in fixing the value
of the peso in United States money was as just a solution of the
problem as could have been reached. It only remains to complete
the process by retiring the native currency when it can be done with-
out injurjf to the interests of the island, and allowing the monej' of
the United States to be the circulating medium of the island. The
depreciated silver of the Spanish regime is a source of confusion in
commercial transactions. Silver dollars and half dollars — American —
of practically the same weight and fineness pass for dollars and half
dollars, while the peso and 40-centavo piece are received at a little more
than 60 cents and 24 cents, respectively. The time for the change will
come when cabotage, or free commerce, is established between ports of
Porto Rico and those of the United States. The people desire a
monetary system which will harmonize with those of other countries.

The currency in circulation is so limited in amount and the banking
facilities so meager that borrowing has been attended with difficulties

and great expense. There is only one bank of issue — the Spanish
Bank of Porto Rico, in San Juan — which had in circulation usually
from $2,500,000 to $3,000,000 of paper money. These notes were
accepted in some parts of the island, but they were not a legal tender,
and did not circulate extensively outside of San Juan. The Terri-
torial and Agricultural Bank, in San Juan, was founded in 1894 on
the model of the Credit Foncier of France. Its nominal capital is
$2,400,000, of which only one-fourth has been realized by the sale of
shares. Its principal business is to make loans on long terms on first
mortgages on real estate, for which it issues hypothecary bonds. These
issues have not exceeded $1,000,000. There were two savings banks
(caja de ahorra), one in Ponce and one in Mayaguez. Their cedulas
(so large that they had to be folded) obtained some circulation. They
were taken as a convenience instead of silver.

There is great need of a banking system for Porto Rico which shall
allow of the establishment of banks in the chief cities and towns of
the island. The Spanish banking law permits the free establishment
of note-issuing banks, provided they are supervised by a governor
appointed bj^ the Government, the limit of circulating notes being
fixed at three times the amount of the paid-up capital. Our national
banks could not meet the urgent demand of the agriculturists for long-
time loans on mortgages on real estate, but they would be of incal-
culable benefit to the merchants and business men. They could issue
notes and thus increase the circulating medium; they could lend on
collaterals for short terms; they would bring banking facilities into
every considerable community, and business transactions would be
largely by check instead of by shipments of silver. The conditions
of the agriculturists are peculiar, and they unite in saying that loans
for periods of from twentj^ to thirty or forty years are absolutely nec-
essary. The Agricultural Bank met their needs in so far as it had
ability; but its scale of business was far too limited, and but few
could get accommodations from it. They suggest the establishment
of similar banks in other cities, or, failing in that, a large increase in
the capital of the existing bank, the guarantee of its securities by the
Government, and their recognition in the stock markets of the United
States.

CHANGES UNDER THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT.

The government of the island, its various civil institutions, its codes
and its courts, the systems of taxation, etc., have been modified in
very important particulars since the American occupation began,
October 18, 1898. It will be useful; perhaps, to indicate the more
important changes. Under Gen. John R. Brooke orders were issued
declaring —

(1) That the political relations of Porto Rico with Spain were at an
end; that provincial and municipal laws were in force in so far as not
incompatible with the changed conditions, and that they would be
enforced substantially as they were before.

(2) Abolishing the use of all stamped paper and stamps of every
kind for documents, public and private.

(3) Exempting all conveyances and contracts from the payment of
royal dues.

(4) Discontinuing the diputacion provincial, and distributing its
duties among the secretaries or ministers.

(5) Directing that appeals should not be sent to the supreme court
in Madrid, but should be heard by the superior court at San Juan.

(6) Abolishing the subdelegation of pharmacy which gave degrees
to pharmacists.

(7) Making the fisheries free to all.

Appropriations for the support of the church ceased with American
occupation, and the Government lottery was discontinued.

Under the military government of Gen. Guy V. Henry, orders were
issued —

(1) Appointing military commissions to try cases of arson and mur-
der which had accumulated in the civil courts.

(2) Closing public offices on Sunday, as far as possible.

(3) Suspending the municipal tax on fresh beef for use of the Army.

(4) Making Christmas and New Years holidays.

(5) Forbidding grants or concessions of public or corporate rights
or franchises without the approval of the commanding general and
the Secretary of War.

(6) Abolishing the municipal consumo tax on articles of food, fuel,
and drink, and providing for additional assessments on the sale of
liquors and tobacco.

(7) Separating the collection of customs duties from that of direct
taxes.

(8) Establishing a new system of land taxation, by which agricul-
tural lands should be taxed according to the several classes instituted,
from 1 peso down to 25 centavos per cuerda, and levying 50 per cent
additional on lands whose owners reside abroad.

(9) Providing for the free vaccination of the people of the island.

(10) Prohibiting the exhumation of bodies in the cemeteries, recog-
nizing the right of priests to control burials in consecrated grounds,
and requiring municipalities to keep cemeteries in repair.

(11) Reducing notarial fees from $1.88 to $1, from 14.50 to $1, from
$11 to $1, and from $1 to 50 cents, according to class of document and
canceling others.

(12) Reorganizing the cabinet, so as to make all the secretaries di-
rectly responsible to the governor-general.

(13) Suspending the foreclosure of mortgages on agricultural prop-
erty and machinery for one year.

-■■>. (14) Appointing February 22 a holiday.

(15) Prohibiting the sale of liquor to children under 14 years of age.

(16) Modifying the civil marriage law.

— (17) Declaring that eight hours shall constitute a day's work.
-t- (18) Creating an insular police.

Under the military government of Gen. George W. Davis orders
were issued —

(1) Modifying the order of General Henry concerning hours of labor,
so as to allow agreements between employer and employee for longer
or shorter .hours.

(2) Naming May 30 as a holiday.

' (3) Allowing the writ of habeas corpus to be issued.

(4) Constituting a board of prison control and pardon.

(5) Continuing the observance as a holiday of June 24.

(6) Creating a provisional court on the basis of circuit and district
courts of the United States for the hearing of cases not falling within
the jurisdiction of local insular courts.

(7) Creating a superior board of health for the island.

(8) Reorganizing the bureau of public instruction and the system
of education.

(9) Relieving the judiciary from all control by the department of
justice, discontinuing the office of secretary of justice, and appointing
a solicitor-general.

(10) Abolishing the sale at auction of the privilege of slaughter of
cattle, .and making it free.

(11) Reorganizing the judicial system of the island, with a supreme
court in San Juan and district courts in San Juan, Ponce, Mayaguez,
Arecibo, and Humacao, and with modifications of civil and criminal
procedure.

(12) Discontinuing the departments of state, treasury, and interior,
and creating bureaus of state and municipal affairs, of internal reve-
nue, and of agriculture, to be placed under the direction of a civil
secretary, responsible to the governor-general, and continuing the
bureaus of education and public works, with an insular board of nine
members to advise the governor-general on matters of public interest
referred to them. •

The reductions in the budget of expenditures have been extensive.
That of 1898-99, adopted in June, 1898, amounted to $1,781,920,
native money. The appropriations for "general obligations," which
went to Madrid, $498,502; for the clergy, $197,945; for the army,
$1,252,378; for the navy, $222,668, making a total of $2,171,493,
ceased to be obligations, leaving $2,610,428 for the fiscal year. A
new budget was adopted for the calendar year 1899, which still fur-
ther reduces expenditures, calling only for $1,462,276. This budget,
if carried out, would have involved a reduction from the proposed
budget of 1898-99 of $3,319,644; but a new budget was formed, as
already stated, for 1899-1900, which appears to call for an increase
over this very moderate sum.

The revenues were reduced by the abolition of stamped paper,
personal passports, export duties, royal dues on conveyances, the lot-
tery system, and other sources of income, amounting, all told, to less
probably than a million of pesos.

WHAT PORTO RICO EXPECTS FROM THE UNITED STATES.

All classes of natives of the island welcomed the American Army,
American occupation, and American methods, and accepted without
hesitation the Stars and Stripes in place of the red and yellow bars.
They had not been disloyal to the old flag; but it had come to repre-
sent to them, particularly during the present century, in which a class
feeling developed between the insular and the peninsular Spaniard,
partiality and oppression. In the short war, some of the natives occu-
pying official positions made demonstrations of loyalty to the Crown
of Spain, as was perfectly natural, but they were among the first to
submit to American rule when the protocol promised cession of the
island to the United States. On the other hand, as the commissioner
is informed, a Porto Rican who had hoped and prayed for American
intervention for fifty years enrolled himself as a Spanish citizen some
months after the war was concluded, and his hopes had been realized.
Porto Ricans generally complained that the former Government dis-
criminated in favor of the Spaniard, who, in the distribution of the
offices, was preferred to the native, and who, aided by the powerful
influence of the authorities, prospered in business as banker, mer-
chant, manufacturer, or agriculturist. They also insist that the inter-
nal improvement of the island was neglected; that agriculture bore

more than its share of the burden of taxation; that the assessments
were very inequitable and unequal ; that education was not fostered,
and that in general the welfare of the people was not the first concern
of their rulers.

They expect under American sovereignty that the wrongs of cen-
turies will be righted; that they will have an honest and efficient
government; the largest measure of liberty as citizens of the great
j Republic under the Constitution; home rule as provided by the Terri-
torial system; free access to the markets of the United States and
no customs duties on goods coming from our ports; a school system
modeled after that of the United States ; the adoption of the English
language in due time and the general adaptation to the island of all
those institutions which have contributed to the prosperity, progress,
and happiness of the American people.

The largest and most representative gathering, since American
occupation, was held in San 5uan, October 30, 1898, without distinc-
tion of party or class with the object of consultation and formulation of
a programme for the future, In brief, the propositions of the congress
as submitted to the commissioner for presentation to the President of
the United States were these : Immediate termination of military and
inauguration of civil government; establishment of the Territorial
sj^stem, with laws common to other Territories of the Union; a legisla-
ture in two branches; suffrage for all male citizens of 21 j^ears of age
or over, the right to be surrendered at the end of the first two years by
those who do not then know how to read and write; judicial reform;
introduction of the jury system; autonomy for municipal govern-
ments; taxation on the basis of valuation; free and reciprocal com-
merce with the ports of the United States; aid for agriculture;
obligatory and universal education; trade schools; savings banks.

This programme of reforms seems to have very general support,
although there is a difference of opinion on certain points. Many
Porto Ricans urged the commissioner to represent them as desiring
that the military regime be made as short as possible, not because the
military governors were in any way objectionable or their rule op-
pressive, but because the civil status of the island should be fixed
with no unnecessary delay. There was no other opinion except
among foreign subjects, many of whom thought that the people were
not yet ready for self-government, and that the firm hand of military
power would be needed for probably two years.

CAPACITY FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT.

The question of capacity for self-government lies at the threshold
of the whole subject. It may be said, without fear of contradiction,
that Porto Ricans have had little opportunity to show their capacity,

/ and such experience as they may have gained in the government of
cities and in minor official positions was under a system not the most

l suitable for developing efficient, independent, impartial, and honest
public servants. They, themselves, see this clearty and admit it.
They condemn unsparingly the old methods, and say that they want
to begin the era of iheir new relations with better institutions, under
sounder and juster principles, and. with improved methods. Their
anxiety to learn fully equals their willingness to accept the American
plan of government. This is not so new to them as manj7 have sup-
posed. Some of them have been educated in American institutions,
not a few of them know our language, and while they might not be

able to pass a thorough examination in American civil government
their aspirations for the past half century have been toward the
United States as a deliverer, and when their allegiance to the Penin-
sula was broken they knew pretty well what the rights and privileges
of American citizenship were. They are quick in intellectual appre-
hension, and have little trouble, either the old or the young, in learn-
ing to read when there is an object to be gained in doing so.

If the desire to assume the burdens of local self-government may
be taken as indicating some degree of capacity for self-government,
the people of Porto Rico certainly have the desire. They may be
poor, but they are proud and sensitive, and would be bitterly disap-
pointed if they found that they had been delivered from an oppress-
ive yoke to be put under a tutelage which proclaimed their infe-
riority. Apart from such qualifications as general education and
experience constitute, the commissioner has no hesitation in affirming
that the people have good claims to be considered capable of self-
government. . Education and experience, although too high a value
ean hardly be set upon them, do not necessarily make good citizens.
Men may be well educated and yet be bad morally. Moral conduct
is the first and most indispensable qualification for good citizenship.
The ignorant and the vicious are often spoken of as though always
in one class. In some measure they are; but so are the intelligent
and the vicious. Education is not the invariable line which separates
good citizens from bad, but active moral sense. m

The unswerving loyalty of Porto Rico to the Crown of Spain, as
demonstrated by the truth of history, is no small claim to the confi-
dence and trust of the United States. The people were obedient under
circumstances which provoked revolt after revolt in other Spanish
colonies. The habit of obedience is strong among them.

Their respect for law is another notable characteristic. They are
not turbulent or' violent. Riots are almost unknown in the island; so
is organized resistance to law; brigandage flourished only for a brief
period after the war and its object was revenge rather than rapine.

They are not a criminal people. The more violent crimes are by no
means common. Burglary is almost unknown. There are many cases
of homicide, but the number in proportion to population is not as large
as in the United States. Thievery is the most common crime, and
petty cases make up a large part of this list of offenses. The people
as a whole are a moral, law-abiding class, mild in disposition, easy to
govern, and -possess the possibilities of developing a high type of
citizenship. The fact that so many of them enter into marital rela-
tions without the sanction of state or church is, of course, a serious
reflection upon their social morality. Half or more of their children
are illegitimate. From this stigma they can not escape. But too much
to their discredit may be easily inferred from this scandalous state of
affairs. Their apparent defiance.of social, civil, and ecclesiastical law
is not due to immoral purpose, but to conditions of long standing,
against which they have deemed it useless to struggle. It is the gen-
eral testimony that persons living together without the obligations of
marriage are as a rule faithful to each other, and care for their off-
spring with true parental love and devotion.

They are industrious, and are not disposed to shirk the burdens
which fall, often with crushing force, upon the laboring class. Their
idleness is usually an enforced idleness. No doubt the ambition of
many needs to be stimulated, for their lot has been so hopeless of an
improvement that the desire for more conveniences and comforts may

have been well-nigh lost. They seem to have few customs or preju-
dices which would prevent them from becoming good American
citizens.

The question remains whether, in view of the high rate of illiteracy
which exists among them, and of their lack of training in the responsi-
bilities of citizenship, it would be safe to intrust them with the power
of self-government. The commissioner has no hesitation in answer-
ing this question in the affirmative. Who shall declare what is the
requisite measure of capacity for self-governmentV It may be put so
high as to rule out all the Central and South American nations and some
of the nations of Europe which have demonstrated practical!}* their
capacity for self-government. Tribes living in a very primitive state
of civilization show capacity to maintain order, to protect their com-
mon interests, and defend themselves against enemies, and to hold
individuals accountable to a more or less crude and imperfect system
of law. Some measure of such capacity is common to the human
race, better developed among some peoples than among others, but
characteristic of all. Porto Ricans are surely better prepared than
were the people of Mexico, or of the colonies in Central and South
America, which have one after another emancipated themselves from
foreign domination and entered upon the duties and privileges of self-
government. Revolutions marked their earlier history with violence
and bloodshed, because they were a warlike people; but out of it has
come increased capacity and steady advance toward settled peace,
with prosperity. The Porto Ricans will make mistakes, but they will
not foment revolutions or insurrections. They will learn the art of
governing the only possible way — by having its responsibilities laid
upon them — and they will fit themselves for the discharge of their obli-
gations by establishing at once a system of free schools that will give
every boy and girl a chance to remove the reproach of illiteracy. The
father who wishes his son to learn to swim does not row him all day
upon the lake, but puts him into the water and the child's fear of
drowning will stimulate to those exercises which lead to the art of
swimming. Let Porto Rico have local self-government after the pat-
tern of our Territories and she will gain by her blunders, just as cities'
and States in our own glorious Republic are constantly learning.

It should be remembered that Porto Rico is not asking for inde-
pendent self-government. The people are far from desiring separa-
tion from the United States. This simplifies the problem and reduces
the risk; for what they might not be able to do if left entirely to their
own resources, they may easily accomplish under the strong protecting
hand of the Government of the United States. The system will be
given them by Congress, their chief executive and a few other officials
will be Americans, and with a strong central insular government, to
which they are accustomed and against which they will not protest,
they may be started on their new career under favorable auspices.

AS TO CHANGE OF LANGUAGE AND CUSTOMS.

The commissioner is convinced by what he saw, heard, and learned in
Porto Rico by contact with all classes, that Avhile many changes and
modifications are desired and are absolutely essential to the future
welfare of the island, the existing institutions and laws, usages, and
customs should not be revolutionized or severely reformed. The
customs and usages and language of a people are not like old vest-
ments, which maybe laid aside at command, but become a part of their

life, and are very dear to them. They will learn our customs and
usages, in so far as they are better than their own, as they learn our
language. A native lady, a grandmother, said to the commissioner:
"Sir, I am glad the Americans have come. We must learn the Eng-
lish language. I shall not learn it; my son will not learn it; we are
too old; but my grandchildren will learn it, the children of the island
will learn it in the free schools which our new metropolis will cause to
be established." The attachment to the language has long and strong-
roots. It will not do and it is not necessary to take any harsh meas-
ures to sever it. Said one of the leading native scholars and lawyers,
an ardent American and a very progressive man : "I love the Spanish
language. I lisped it in my mother's arms; I whispered its soft
words to her who became my wife; I think in it, and in it are all the
beautiful prose and poetry known to me." Both Spanish and English
may be used side by side for years to come.

The codes, civil, commercial, and penal, need to be amended, but
not abrogated or superseded ; the courts to be reorganized, not revolu-
tionized; judicial procedure and administration to be reformed, not
created anew; the system of property registration has some x~>oints
of advantage over our own, and it does not need to be recast, provided
the abuses are remedied ; municipal government requires development,
and the civil divisions of the island should be arranged upon another
plan. The commissioner is convinced that an adaptation of the village,
town, and county system of the United States is necessary to efficient
internal government in Porto Rico. Some of the municipal districts
are as large as counties. The population of the municipal seat is often
but a small fraction of that of the whole district, yet its streets, plazas,
lights, police, fire department, public charity, etc., are maintained at
the expense of the majority in the rural portions who do not enjoy
these conveniences. Township and village organizations would relieve
rural taxpayers, and, what is of even greater importance, encourage
concentration of population, which is now so scattered that it is ex-
tremely difficult, if not impossible, to provide school and other neces-
sary facilities for thousands of people. The county system would
secure equality of assessment as between different towns and villages,
make effective school and road superintendence possible, and provide
natural divisions for courts, registration of property, etc. Attention
is called to Dr. Tomas Vasquey's plea for concentration of peones in
villages as the only method of improving their condition, socially,
morally, and intellectually. Even this reform, however, should not
be forced upon the people. They should be allowed to introduce it in
their own time.

FREE COMMERCE BETWEEN PORTO RICO AND THE UNITED STATES.

In recommending that Porto Rico be given a form of government
modeled after that of our Territories, the commissioner does not for-
get that the fixing of the status of the island, as that of our older Span-
ish Territories of Arizona and New Mexico, involves the abolition of
customs duties between our ports and those of our new possession.
Indeed, that is one of the reasons why Territorial government should
be given. The question of statehood is not now in issue. The power
that grants Territorial rights can grant or refuse statehood, and may
be trusted not to make undue haste, seeing that Territories organized
from thirty-six to fifty years ago have not yet had their pleas for
admission to the Union favorably acted upon. Free access to our

markets is a matter of far more moment to Porto Rico than the possi-
bility of statehood.

Without asking the consent or advice of the people of the island,
we separated it from its relations to the Peninsula, and took it under
our own control. By that action we caused the markets of Spain to
be closed to its products, except upon terms to which the commerce
of all foreign nations must submit in Spanish ports. It sold in Spain;
it bought in Spain. Since American occupation, it finds itself without
a single free market either of sale or purchase. Customs duties bar
it from Spanish ports and from the ports of the United States with
equal rigor. It pays the same rates at its ports for what it buys in
the United States as for what it buys in Spain and other foreign
countries. The embarrassment of unusually low prices for its prod-
ucts is increased by the rates it has to pay to, find either its old or
new customers. The sister island of Cuba, which used to buy
coffee and cattle of it, and manufactured its tobacco, is now foreign
territory.

Under these circumstances she turns to the United States and begs
that reciprocal relations of mother and daughter may be established
and that iii our markets she may buy and sell as freely as Arizona or
New Mexico or Alaska. It is difficult to see how this prayer can be
denied or disregarded. There is but one reason for doing either, and
that is, Porto Rican sugar and tobacco will come into competition
with the sugar and tobacco of the United States. We must, it is
said, protect our farmers. True; but is not Porto Rico ours as really
as Arizona, and are not Porto Rican farmers our farmers? And if
they have advantage in the markets of the United States, shall not
the merchants and manufacturers of the United States have compen-
sating advantage in a new market for their wares and manufactures
in Porto Rico? The Porto Rican sugar crop is small compared with
that of the United States. According to the statistics of the Treasury
Department, our sugar production^ including cane, sorghum, and
beet, amounted in 1896 to more than 383,000 tons; while the island's
total export the same year was a little over 61,000 tons. The com-
parative production of the two countries is as 6 to 1 in favor of the
Union. This does not prove that the free admission of Porto Rican
sugar would not affect our sugar market, but it does not indicate that
it would unsettle it. Of Porto Rico's export of sugar in 1896, 35,512
tons, or somewhat less than three-fifths, came to the United States,
paying dutj^, of course.

The exports of tobacco from Porto Rico in 1896 amounted to
2,215,245 pounds, which was the bulk of the crop, as a comparatively
small proportion was manufactured in the island. The tobacco pro-
duction of the United States, as estimated by the Department of
Agriculture, was, in 1896, 403,000,000 pounds, in round numbers. The
amount of the Porto Rican export is hardly an appreciable quantity
compared with the crop of the United States. It is as 1 to 182. The
value of the former was less than 423,000 pesos, or, valuing the peso
at $1.66f toll American, less than $255,000 American. Our imports
of tobacco leaf in 1895 amounted to 114,745,720.

Practically, so far as the sugar and tobacco producers of the United
States are concerned, leaving the revenues to the Government out of
sight, the admission of these Porto Rican products free would mean
adding about 61,000 to our 690,666 acres devoted to cane and sorghum,
according to the census of 1890, and 4,222 to our 695,301 acres of
tobacco. In the first case the increase would be less than one-tenth;

in the second, less than one one hundred sixty-fifth, or hardly a
healthy annual development.

No doubt the opening of the Government reservations now consti-
tuting the Territory of Oklahoma resulted in a considerable increase
of the agricultural productions of the United States, but no one
thought of raising objection to the settlement of the new lands, because
it was recognized as a natural and satisfactory development of the
national domain. The difference between Oklahoma and Porto Rico
is chiefly geographical. The former provided for an overflow of pop-
ulation from "surrounding States, the latter will furnish a field for
American capital and American enterprise, if not for overflow of
population. It is American and must and will be Americanized.

THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.

The United States may surely venture to show a trust in Porto Rico
equal to that of Spain. It has been seriously proposed that no pro-
vision be made for giving the franchise to the people of that island.
Is the new sovereignty to be less liberal than the old ? Are rights long-
enjoyed to be taken away? Is less to be granted than under the
autonomist decree; less than under the electoral law of 1890? The
question of giving the right of suffrage to a horde of ignorant men
may be a serious one under certain conditions. Educational and
property qualifications may be considered requisite by those who are
distrustful of the masses, but republics are founded on trust of the
body of the people, learned and unlearned. Moreover, it is possible
to be intelligent and at the same time illiterate, as princes and kings
of bygone centuries, and many excellent citizens of the United States,
have demonstrated. The Spanish electoral law of 1890 gave the right
of suffrage to all Spaniards over 25 years of age — "universal suffrage,"
as it was termed. The provision was as follows:

All male Spaniards over 25 years of age who are in the full enjoyment of their
civil rights and are residents of a municipality in which they have resided at least
two years, are electors in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico.

This paragraph occurs both in the electoral law of 1890 and in the
adaptation of that law for the autonomist system, for which it was not
changed, except that the restriction of the right to taxpayers in Porto
Rico was removed. Those who were specially excepted by the law
were noncommissioned officers and privates in the army and navy,
those serving sentence for crime, bankrupts and insolvents who have
not paid their debts, taxpayers in arrears for taxes, and persons liv-
ing on charity — who were not allowed to vote. The voting privilege
extended to municipal coun oilmen, to members of the provincial dep-
utation, and to deputies to the Cortes. Senators were elected by cor-
porations and the larger taxpayers.

If it should be thought wise to modify the Spanish electoral law so
as to restrict the suffrage, the exclusion of all the illiterate would
leave the right to vote as a monopoly of the few. If the illiterate
who have a certain amount of property were included, the number
of voters would be increased somewhat, but would still be a minority.
What Spain thought it wise and safe to concede the United States
ought not to deny, except, possibly, as a stimulus to education. With
this in view, it might be deemed wise to grant suffrage to all males
of 21 years or over (instead of 25 as in the Spanish law), with the
proviso that those who do not learn to read in the next ten years
shall be deprived of the right. The term suggested by the native

congress is two years; but it is manifest that this does not give suf-
ficient opportunity to meet the condition. With no schools and no
teachers, how is the peasant to learn to read'? If he is to be denied
the right of a freeman on the ground of inability to read, it would be
fairer to provide him first with the facilities and opportunity to learn
to read, and then if he fails, after a reasonable time, to improve
them, impose the penalty of deprivation of the franchise.

Any propositions for restrictions, however, will be in the nature of a
curtailment of popular rights conceded by the Spanish law. No such
restrictions were proposed in any of the acts granting Territorial gov-
ernment to New Mexico, Arizona, and other Territories. Neither
educational nor property qualifications were required. As to illiter-
acy, New Mexico has been a Territory nearly fifty years, and yet of its
population above the age of 10 years more than 44 per cent, accord-
ing to the census of 1890, are illiterate. The illiterates of Porto Rico,
estimated on this basis, would constitute between 75 and 80 per cent.

What the effect of manhood suffrage will be under our Territorial
system it is, of course, impossible to predict. Intelligent Porto Ricans
are by no means unanimous in favor of it. They recognize dangers
in the free exercise by ignorant men of the right of participation in
government. But the Territorial system, while granting self-govern-
ment, retains for the legislative and executive branches of the Fed-
eral Government large powers of control. By a provision in the act
creating the Territory of New Mexico ' ' all laws passed by the legis-
lative assembly and governor shall be submitted to the Congress of
the United States, and if disapproved shall be null and of no effect."
This reservation might be made with respect to Porto Rico. It is
also desirable that a measure of control over municipal administra-
tion should be secured to the provincial government. It would not
be wise, in granting municipal autonomy, to leave the cities without
provincial supervision. In an excess of zeal for municipal improve-
ment the mayor and council might contract ruinous debts, mortgage
the revenues beyond the safety line, and lay enormous burdens on
the shoulders of the people. The Spanish system of administration,
whatever faults ruay be charged against it, kept the cities out of debt
very generally. Its motto seems to have been, "Pay as you go, and
contract no obligations beyond the possibilities of the revenues."
Bonded debts were few, and were in every instance authorized by the
provincial government. As the secretary of state, under the Spanish
system, had superintendence of municipal administration, it would
be wise to place a reasonable measure of control in his hands under
the Territorial plan.

DEPARTMENTS AND SALARIES.

As the executive power of the Governor- General of Porto Rico was
exercised through four regular departments, as the people are familiar
with that division of duties, and as the volume of business to be trans-
acted is large, the commissioner suggests that similar departments be
provided for in the legislation by Congress, as follows : State, treasury,
and interior departments, with an attorney-general as legal adviser of
the government, and also to have supervision over the fiscals or dis-
trict attorneys. The treasury would be charged with receiving and
paying out provincial funds, and also with disbursing, perhaps, so
much of the receipts from customs and internal revenue as may be
required to pay the salaries which may be made a charge upon the

United States Treasury. The interior department should be charged
with control over public works, public instruction, agriculture, com-
merce, and industry, etc.

In fixing the salaries of governor-general, heads of departments,
and justices, some regard must be had to what custom requires of
these officials, in the maintenance of dignity of position and in liberal
social entertainment. The Governor-General received a salary of
$20,000, under Spanish domination, with liberal appropriations for
expenses at the palace, visitation of the cities of the island, etc. The
secretaries received $6,000 each, the judges of the supreme court from
$3,500 to $4,500, the judges of the criminal courts $3,500 and $3,750,
and the district judges, $1,700 to $2,250. This was in Porto Rican
xmoney. With the exception of the pay of the Governor-General, the
salaries were not excessive. The extravagance in the salary accounts
of former budgets was not in the amounts of individual salaries, but
in the multiplication of official positions. The government clerks were
in general very poorly paid, receiving from $300, in the fifth class, to
$700 in the first class. There were a great many useless positions,
as the ex-secretary of justice, Seiior Herminio Diaz, has pointed out
elsewhere. In American money the salaries of the secretaries would
be about $3,600, and those of the judges of the supreme court from
$2,100 to $2,700. Rents and living are high in San Juan, compared
with other parts of the island. A salary of $3,600 American, is not
too much for the secretaries, nor $2,500 to $3,000 too much for judges
of the supreme court. That of the Governor-General might be reduced
from $12,000, American, to $8,000, with reasonable allowances for
clerical help and' maintenance of the palace.

The commissioner calls attention to the testimony taken in Porto
Rico at public hearings in alcaldias or city halls, to the statements,
memorials, and resolutions presented to him, to the statistics of the
census of 1897, of the finances, commerce, crops, births, deaths, and
marriages, and much other information given in the appendix to this
report, and begs to conclude with the following recommendations :

RECOMMENDATIONS.

(1) That the Constitution and laws of the United States be extended
to Porto Rico; that all citizens of that province who do not, under
the terms of the treaty of Paris, announce their intention to maintain
their allegiance to Spain be declared citizens of the United States,
and that all male citizens above the age of 21 years residents of said
province at the time of American occupation shall be entitled to vote
at the first election.

(2) That a Territorial form of government, similar to that estab-
lished in Oklahoma, be provided for Porto Rico, with an executive
department consisting of a governor-general, an assistant governor-
general who shall serve as seeretarj^ of state, a secretary of treasury, a
secretary of interior, and an attorney-general, all to be nominated by
the President and to hold office for a term of four years ; a legislative
branch, consisting of the governor-general, and a senate and assembly
to be elected by the people — the senate to consist of 14 members, 2 to
be chosen in each of the seven departments of administration, known
as San Juan, Arecibo, Aguadilla, Mayaguez, Ponce, Guayama, and
Humacao ; the assembly to consist of members apportioned to the popu-
lation on the basis of 1 member to every 25,000 inhabitants; a judicial
department, embracing a supreme court, district courts, and municipal

courts, or justices of the peace, the supreme court to consist of a
chief justice and 4 associate justices, and the district courts, of which
there shall be eleven, as provided under the former government, of
3 judges each.

(3) That the legislative power shall extend to all rightful subjects
of legislation consistent with the Constitution of the United States,
including regulations for the exercise of the elective franchise and
the division of the province into municipal, administrative, judicial,
and legislative districts.

(4) That no bill passed by the legislative branch shall become a law
if the governor-general refuse to sign it, except by a two-thirds vote
of each house.

(5) That the legal voters of the island be permitted to elect a Dele-
gate to Congress.

(6) That the penal, civil, and commercial codes be continued in force,
in so far as they are consistent with the Constitution of the United
States, until a commission, to be appointed by the President, shall
consider, revise, and amend them, and Congress shall have approved
such revision.

(7) That a commission of five persons, three of whom shall be na-
tives of thie island and two of the United States, shall be appointed
by the President to revise and, if necessary, recast the codes.

(8) That provision be made for trial of criminal cases before juries;
also, of certain classes of civil suits.

(9) That the Federal banking laws and the laws relating to patents
for inventions and designs and the registration of trade-marks, prints,
and copyrights be extended to Porto Rico.

(10) That provision be made for the appointment of a commission
of three persons who shall constitute a court of claims to sit in Porto
Rico and hear and adjudicate all claims to property, ecclesiastical and
secular, arising under the terms of the treaty of Paris.

(11) That the mortgage law be so amended as to permit edifices
constructed and used for public worship to be inscribed by registra-
dores (registrars), the same as any other property, on presentation of
proofs of title.

(12) That congregations using church edifices for public worship
shall not be disturbed in the use thereof until the question of legal
title thereto is settled.

(13) That for the period of five years after the installation of the
new civil government the receipts of the custom-houses and internal-
revenue office in the island, after the expenses of collection and the
salaries of the governor-general and other Territorial officers and
other expenses made payable from it have been met, shall be appro-
priated as a school fund for said Territory- to be used in providing
suitable buildings and apparatus for the schools of the island.

(14) That the establishment of counties, upon the American plan,
with cities, towns, villages, and townships as subordinate divisions,
be referred to the governor-general and legislature of Porto Rico, to
be provided for at such time and in such manner as they may deem
best.

(15) That the people of the several municipal districts be allowed to
continue to elect their councilmen ; that the right to elect the alcalde,
or mayor, be conceded to them, and that the revision of the system of
municipal government be intrusted to the governor-general and
legislature of Porto Rico.

(16) That municipalities which own and maintain public ceme-
teries be required to provide burial places for all persons, with no dis-
crimination for or against any in respect to suitability or eligibility of
burial places or in the care of the grounds, and that the general prac-
tice of exhumation of bodies be forbidden, so that perpetual graves
shall be provided for all.

(17) That the amendments respecting civil marriage adopted by the
military government be continued in force until the civil code is
revised.

(18) That in view of the disastrous hurricane of August 8, 1899,
which brought ruin upon the agricultural interests of the island, the
law of foreclosure of mortgages on agricultural property and machinery
be further suspended until January 1, 1901.

(19) That the codes, the laws of the Territorial legislature, and official
acts of the governor-general shall be published both in Spanish and
in English ; that the courts shall be provided with interpreters of the
English language, and that all papers in cases of appeal to the Supreme
Court of the United States shall be in English.

(20) That provision be made for the retirement of the silver coins
of Porto Rico, known as the peso, the 40, 20, 10, and 5 centavo pieces,
and the copper centavo and 2-centavo coins, and their recoinage in
the mints of the United States as United States coins.

(21) That the governor-general and legislature of Porto Rico be
required to make provision for universal and obligatory education in
a system of free public schools, in which the English language shall
be taught.

(22) That the lottery be prohibited ; also the issuing of licenses by
municipalities permitting begging and prostitution.

(23) That a survey be made of the coast of Porto Rico; also of the
harbors and roadsteads, with a view to their improvement.

(24) That an agricultural experiment station be established in
Porto Rico, and the publications of the Department of Agriculture be
made available to the planters in their own language; also, that the
Territory share in the Department's distribution of seeds.

Respectfully submitted.

Henry K. Carroll,

Commissioner.
1125 5

APPENDIX.

TESTIMONY, STATEMENTS, AND STATISTICS, INCLUDING STENOGRAPHIC REPORTS OF
HEARINGS HELD IN PORTO RICO BY THE COMMISSIONER, STATEMENTS AND PETI-
TIONS PRESENTED TO HIM, AND STATISTICAL TABLES GATHERED FROM OFFICIAL
SOURCES.

By Henry K. Carroll, Commissioner.

AGRICULTURE— SOILS, CROPS, METHODS, RESOURCES.

CANE AND SUGAR.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 31, 1898.

Ricaedo Nadal, of Mayaguez, interpreter to General Henry :

Mr. Nadal. I was first a civil engineer and then later started a firm
in New York under the name of Nadal & Cuebas, which was known
at Mayaguez as Nadal & Co. I later came to Porto Rico, and event-
ually went into the sugar business, and that is the business our firm
has now, our plantation being near Mayaguez and known as the Alta
Gracia. ,

Dr. Carroll. Do you manufacture your own sugar?

Mr. Nadal. Yes; everything. We also buy cane from the neighbor-
ing country, which we grind in our mill. The cane is brought there,
and we pay 6 per cent on the weight of the cane, according to the
market prices of muscovado sugar. In reference to the matter of
sugar refinery, the only one in Porto Rico was owned by my family
in Mayaguez, where they have now a tannery building on the same
property. We kept the refinery going from 1858 to 1867, when work
was stopped because we found that it did not pay to refine sugar
here, and we could not export it to the United States owing to the
duty on refined sugar there. The machinery was, therefore, sold out,
and the buildings also. We don't own it now — not even the land.

Dr. Carroll. Do you produce refined sugar at all?

Mr. Nadal. We produce what is called centrifugal sugar. We
send to the United States what are known as first, second, and third
centrifugals, and the residuum, after passing through the last opera-
tion, goes into the still to be manufactured into rum. In order to
make refined sugar these centrifugals are afterwards converted into a
kind of molasses, called "molasse." This process takes place in the
United States and they use the centrifugal sugar of this island.

Dr. Carroll. Is the brown sugar used here at the hotel produced
here iu that state?

Mr. Nadal. Yes. What you have at the hotel is a centrifugal sugar
of the kind probably called first, and it is manufactured generally in
the central factories, as they are called, by the Jamaica method ; that
is, by the open kettle method. Most of this sugar is sent to Spain
and not to the United States on account of the difference in the duties.

Dr. Carroll. If that grade of sugar were sent to the United States
what duty would you have to pay on it?

Mr. Nadal. We pay duty according to its polarization. It' is rated
from 75 degrees up to 88 degrees, and we pay a certain proportion a
pound. The sugar used in the hotel is about 96 degrees; beyond 88
degrees the rate of duty increases in a rapid ratio.

Dr. Carroll. How large is your plantation?

Mr. Nadal. We have about 700 acres of land. We now produce
about 5,000 bags. Our plantation, however, is mostly ruined. We
have a plantation only in name, and if we were to pay what we owe
on it we would have nothing — indeed, we would be even in debt, x

Dr. Carroll. How niany months are required for a crop?

Mr. Nadal. The sugar cane requires from twelve to fourteen
months before it can be cut. We have a petty culture and a larger
culture. In petty culture the land is sowed in February or March
and cut in February of the following year, and in the larger culture
we sow in October, and within about fifteen months later we cut the
cane. That gives a better product. After the first crop we get what
is called the rattoon, which may give a second crop the following
year, according to the fertility of the soil, and we have had crops
repeated for as many as twenty years. The difficulty here has been
that we have been extracting from the soil all the time and not giving
to it; that is, we do not utilize manure to any great extent. The
soil is very rich. You can find land here where the humus is 16
inches in depth. On our plantation the production never went below
65 hundredweight of sugar.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have modern machinery here for sugar
manufacturing?

Mr. Nadal. There are only about two factories in the island.

Dr. Carroll. What does a modern plant cost?

Mr. Nadal. A modern plant with all the latest appliances would
produce something like 35,000 bags, and would cost about $400,000 of
our currency.

Dr. Carroll. How manj^ pounds to the bag?

Mr. Nadal. Generally they weigh 100 kilograms. I am not posi-
tive, however, about that.

Dr. Carroll. About how many sugar plantations are there in the
island?

Mr. Nadal. I do not know. Some of our people engaged in the

I sugar business here use oxen, just as they did three hundred years

■ ago. Of late the plantations have been getting into the hands of a

few planters. The large planters have gradually been absorbing the

smaller ones.

Dr. Carroll. With modern apparatus much more sugar could be
produced?

Mr. Nadal. If we had here in the island the diffusion battery
system we could produce five times as much sugar as we produce
to-day.

Dr. Carroll. Is the land generalty all in use?

Mr. Nadal. Much of our land is going to waste ; that is, they are
using it for grazing purposes. We call that abandoning the land,
although it is a paying business in some districts. In Mayaguez, how-
ever, the cattle business does not pay, because it is too wet there.
In other parts of the island, however, it is a paying business, and the
ranch owners are better off than the sugar planters. They had smaller
taxes because the government did not seem to understand the money
they were making in the business.

Dr. Carroll. Where do the cattle come from?

Mr. Nadal. I think from Africa. We lost a good deal of money
on cattle. I had some Jersey heifers brought here, but we did not
succeed with the business and gave it up.

Dr. Carroll. Do the cows give much milk?

Mr. Nadal. Well, a good cow would give 10 quarts of milk a day,
whereas a good cow in the United States will give as high as 16 quarts.
In the country they give more than they do elsewhere because the
matter of having to milk the cow early in the morning in order to have
the milk in the city at an early hour causes the amount to drop off.

Dr. Carroll. Is there a consumption tax on milk taken into the
city?

Mr. Nadal. No. Referring again to the sugar industry here — this
has been the determining point in favor of annexation to the United
States. That is the certainty in the minds of Porto Ricans that their
sugar would not have to pay any duty on going into the United States,
knowing that such a duty would amount to a bounty on their product,
and this view of the matter has done much to arouse interest in Porto
Rico in favor of annexation. The same thing may be said of all other
_ articles of production which are imported into the United States.
/ 7<The planters are perfectly aware of the advantages to be obtained by
improving their apparatus, the introduction of modern appliances,
etc., but they had not the means to do this. There have been no
banking houses of sufficient means in the island to supply the funds,
and besides the agricultural class thus far has been practically
squeezed to death by the business community. Central factories are
those where all modern appliances are introduced — like vacuum pans,
double and triple effect, etc. The Jamaica system consists of the
open-kettle system of evaporating juice instead of evaporating with
the double and triple effect apparatus as we do in the central factories.
Both processes are used here, but mostly the Jamaica train is used.
We started with the oxen mills, then later we had the Jamaica train,
and finally the central factories, which have the most modern appli-
ances that we are able to introduce. In the central factories besides
grinding the cane^that is produced on the property belonging to the
plantation, they grind also whatever amount of cane neighbors are
^ willing to sell.- The staple product of the island of Porto Rico to-day is
coffee, as sugar used to be the most important article of export ten years
ago. The export is something like 500,000 quintals (100 pounds) every
year. The greater part of this goes to Europe — to such ports as
Havre, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ports in Spain, and the balance
mostly to the island of Cuba — very little of it ever going to the United
States on account of the better prices ruling in the other markets, the
quality of the Porto Rico coffee not being known in the markets- of
the United States. The quality of our coffee is equal to the best
Costa Rica and Savanilla coffee. Some of the planters have already
modern machinery — mounted drying apparatus — so as not to be
obliged to dry the berry in the sun; and the residences of the planters

are good buildings of brick, where they live comfortably. The labor-
ers on the large plantations live in small frame houses, which are
allotted to them by families, and out of crop time they generally are
allowed to have a small piece of land which they cultivate for their
own account in small country produce, like bananas, beans, corn,
sweet potatoes, yams, etc. We grow here also rice. One of the great
drawbacks to the further development of the coffee industry is the
lack of proper facilities for transportation from the interior into the
seaport towns, such roads as there are being almost impassable dur-
ing the rainy season. Coffee is mostly carried into the seaport towns
on mule back, or in carts, when it is possible to do so. The greatest
coffee-growing district in the island is the southwest section, includ-
ing Adjuntas, Utuado, Yauco, Lares, IVlaricao, San Sebastian, Las
Marias, Mayaguez, Aguadilla, and Arecibo. The principal ports of
export of coffee are Arecibo, San Juan, Aguadilla, Mayaguez, and
Ponce.

THE CHARACTER OF THE SOILS.

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1898.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Mr. Francisco T. Sabat, deputy collector of customs at San Juan :

Dr. Carroll. Will you please state the character and condition of
the soils of the island of Porto Rico.

Mr. Sabat. In my opinion, based upon the experience I have had,
the soil can be classed into four kinds: The soil of the coast, called
here, technically, vegas de primera clase, or alluvial soils, which pro-
duce the best food for cattle, and on which are situated the best sugar
estates. Then come soils called sobre vega, which are situated at a
little higher elevation than the coast lands, on the foothills, and are
also used for cattle raising and sugar cane, but are not of such good
quality, possessing less alluvial soil. Then we have the mountain
lands, which contain coffee plantations, some grazing ground for cattle,
and produce small fruits. These lands could be made more pro-
ductive by fertilizers, but in some districts they are of very poor
quality. Lastly, there are the lands of the mountain tops, which are
covered with timber useful for building and decorative purposes, but
are entirely uncultivated. I should add that on the coast there is
much land in the form of jungles which could be reclaimed from the
sea, that is to say, they are subject to the action of the tides, being
covered and uncovered with the flow and ebb. These lands, when
once removed from the action of the sea, will become very valuable
agricultural lands. There are also sandy and clayey soils which pro-
duce nothing but cocoa palms, and are useless for other purposes.

Dr. Carroll. To whom do the lands belong which you say could
be reclaimed — to private parties or to the government?

Mr. Sabat. Some belong to the government under an old law which
grants the government so many yards inland from the tidal line, and
others belong to individuals who have acquired them from the
government.

Dr. Carroll. What crops besides those of sugar, coffee, and tobacco
are raised here?

Mr. Sabat. Rice, but not sufficient for export nor sufficient for
consumption, nor of a quality that can compete with Hamburg rice;

cocoanuts, which are exported chiefly to England just as they are taken
from the palms; corn, which has been produced this year in consider-
able quantities and has been exported to Cuba; oranges, and all kinds
of tropical fruits, such as nisperos (a tropical plum), pineapples, agua-
cates, guavas, etc.; malagueta, from which bay rum is made; the
castor-oil plant; pease, beans, plantains, bananas, patchoulis, and
many other kinds of vegetables and fruits. Cotton also can be grown.

CROPS AND MARKETS.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arecibo, P. R., January 14, 1899.

Mr. Antonio Figaros, representing the firm of Rosas & Co., one
of the largest mercantile houses of Porto Rico:

Dr. Carroll. What is your line of business?

Mr. Figaros. We are general merchants.

Dr. Carroll. We are here to investigate everything concerning the
well being of the island, and would be glad to receive any information
of that kind that you can give.

Mr. Figaros. I will confine myself to matters in the business line,
because we are foreigners now in the island. What I wish for is the
abolition of all export duties.

Dr. Carroll. That has already been done.

Mr. Figaros. Will there be a new impost placed on tobacco?

Dr. Carroll. Probably an internal-revenue tax.

Mr. Figaros. On manufactured tobacco?

Dr. Carroll. Probably on the production of the leaf tobacco also,
as in the United States.

Mr. Figaros. You have to take into account the fact that the prime
value is very small.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to have a full representation on this
point, because I have been asked by the Secretary of the Treasury to
get information.

Mr. Figaros. It would not be advisable to put any tax on the pro-
duction of the article. It would be proper to do so on the manufacture
and consumption of it. The greater part of the tobacco produced in
Porto Rico is of the ordinary class, called bolichi. The greater part
of it is inferior to the grade of tobacco called "fillers." It is exported
to Spain and Germany, and does not bring in to the agriculturists
more than 4 or 5 pesos a hundredweight at the point of delivery, on a
basis of 50 per cent premium of exchange. If Porto Rico were to pro-
duce another class of tobacco the amount produced would be much
smaller. This class of tobacco, which has a good market in Spain and
Germany, can be grown readily all around the coast. It is a tobacco
which does not burn well. As the tobacco industry in Spain is a Gov-
ernment monopoly, they can force the public to accept any class of
tobacco they want to, but the purchasers of the monopoly want to get
the cheapest kind of tobacco they can. This monopoly is farmed out
there.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States an internal-revenue tax is levied
on the manufacture of tobacco, and then the retail dealers have to

pay a certain sum per year. Do you think that system could be
introduced here?

Mr. Figaros. Yes; but it is important to have the export free.
The question you raise, though, ought to be carefully considered,
because of its importance to many poor families who are employed in
the tobacco industry.
-^Dr. Carroll. There are a good many small planters'?

Mr. Figaros. Yes; because anybody can plant a small patch of
ground with tobacco, but coffee and sugar require larger estates.
When the exchange of the money system is put into force here, duty
should be taken off of sugar in the United States. >' If the gold basis
is introduced and the duty is not removed Porto Rico will be ruined.
I think there should be a cutting down in the duty of at least 75 per
cent, if it can not be taken off altogether. It costs, in native money,
something like $2.40 a hundredweight to make sugar, and there is a
constant outgo of money during the time it is being produced and up
to the time it is sold. Another difficulty here now is the tendency of
the peons to demand better wages. I think it would be a sufficient
concession to them if they were paid in gold what they are now paid
in silver.

A Planter. Whatever we pay in silver we would have to pay in
gold after the exchange of the currency. We had gold currency here
in 1868, and we had to pay our laborers then 50 cents gold just as we
now pay them 50 cents silver.

Mr. Figaros. In addition to sugar, I wish to make some remarks
on other crops. Coffee, I know, is admitted free into the United
States, but I consider it important for the coffee industry that the
United States, which to-day has an influence over the Cuban govern-
ment, should see if it can not procure for Porto Rican coffee a prefer-
ence in the Cuban market, or rather an advantageous tariff. Porto
Rico has lost two important markets — the Spanish and the Cuban.

Dr. Carroll. Why do you say that it has lost the Spanish market?

Mr. Figaros. We had an advantage in the Spanish tariff.

Dr. Carroll. But you had to pay a duty on your coffee as well as
on your sugar. Has the duty been increased?

Mr. Figaros. It has been increased considerably. Since the Ameri-
can occupation, the products of Porto Rico have been and will be
considered as foreign when imported into Spain.

Dr. Carroll. Do you know what the rate is?

Mr. Figaros. One hundred and seventy pesetas for every 100 kilo-
grams of coffee is the present rate; that is to say, $2 more than is
charged on coffee from nations which have favorable treaties.

Dr. Carroll. Perhaps we shall be able after the treaty of peace is
ratified to arrange a reciprocity treaty. What did you pay formerly
in Spain?

Mr. Figaros. Sixty-six pesetas. We have only one market now,
the European market, for our best grade. We have no market for
our lower grades. The best grades comprise about 80 per cent of the
production, because coffee is well prepared here. We make three
kinds, and they all go to Europe and are readity sold.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get good prices?

Mr. Figaros. There is no market in the United States. They do
not know Porto Rican coffee there. Drinkers of coffee in the United
States do not see the natural coffee. Grocers and dealers make them
drink whatever they like.

Dr. Carroll. No; the majority of people buy the coffee in the
bean and grind it themselves.

Mr. Figaros. But not most coffee drinkers.

Dr. Carroll. Of course very much coffee is ground and put up in
packages by the dealers, but only the poorer people buy that.

Mr. Figaros. I understand the best drinkers use Mocha and Java
mixed.

Dr. Carroll. I drink a coffee called Java and Mocha mixed in the
proportion of two and one, and I pay from 32 to 34 cents a pound for it
in the bean, roasted.

Mr. Figaros. But it has lost already a large amount of weight.

Mr. Alfred Solomon (interpreter). They "do not drink Porto Rican
coffee in the United States because it is too strong.

Dr. Carroll. They grind coffee coarser in the United States than
they do here.

Mr. Solomon. The dealers in the United States would have made
a market for Porto Rican coffee if the Porto Ricans had not insisted
on coloring it. I had that from the lips of a coffee dealer.

Mr. Figaros. We have here one of the largest plants in Porto Rico.
We polish 300 quintals per day, and it is a beautiful operation. We
make a thorough classification of it, and the coffee is not tinted. It
is polished.

Mr. Solomon. The people of the United States want their coffee
without any foreign substance whatever, and in polishing it, do you
not use some coloring matter?

Mr. Figaros. Yes, but it is only a gram of this indigo for every
quintal.

Mr. Solomon. The amount does not matter. The people there do
not want coffee with any foreign matter in it. I went to a coffee
broker in New York and asked why he could not sell Porto Rican
coffee there. He said because the Porto Ricans will not send it here
as we want it; that it would be possible to sell it to the French and
Austrians if the indigo were left out.

Mr. Figaros. The outer shell is polished and all the bad beans
taken out and classified.

Dr. Carroll. How do you prepare your best grade which you send
to Russia and France?

Mr. Figaros. We polish it. The price of the best coffee now in
Porto Rico is about 15 pesos; the last year it was 25 pesos for raw
coffee. The coffee planters are a little behind in their debts and are
pretty badly off.

Dr. Carroll. Is there anything else you wish to speak of?

Mr. Figaros. About the exchange of money. I would recommend
a rate of 50 per cent premium on gold, the same as a bank at Ponce
and the merchants of Mayaguez. That should be the meeting point
between agriculture and commerce on the money question. If they
make the rate lower than that, it will be very hard. For some time
we have not seen such a rate, but taking a five years' basis you will
find that the average premium is about 50 per cent.
■-"^Mr. Adolf Bahr. I wish to say something about our need here of
! agricultural experts. We have not any here, and it is very important

that Porto Rico should have them.
J Dr. Carroll. For what purpose?

Mr. Bahr. To advise the agriculturists in their cultivation of the
various soils here; to tell them the nature of the soils and what crops
they are best adapted for. Those are things we do not know here;

we go ahead blindly, without any scientific knowledge, in agricultural
matters.

Dr. Carroll. That is not a government matter, is it?

Mr. Bahr. No; but I think such engineers or experts would find
work here.

CONDITIONS IN THE VALLEY OF SAN GERMAN.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner. J

San German, P. R. , January 26, 1899.

Don Joaquin Cervbra and Mr. Santiago Marl

Dr. Carroll. What is the present state of the sugar industry?

Mr. Cervera. Deplorable.

Dr. Carroll. What has brought it to that condition?

Mr. Cervera. Many reasons. It is a very complex question, which
embraces many, aspects. In the first place, poverty on the part of the
owners — Want of ready money; in the second place, the impoverish-
ment of the soil, which does not produce as it used to, this impover-
ishment being due to the want of irrigation and a lack of fertilizers.

Dr. Carroll. This is not true, I believe, of all portions of the island
in which cane is produced.

Mr. Cervera. Nearly all the island is the same in this respect.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not possible to use fertilizers more extensively?

Mr. Cervera. It would be if we had money with which to buy
them.

Dr. Carroll. Hava not the sugar men been making money in the
last ten years?

Mr. Cervera. They have not even covered their expenditures, for
which reason the agricultural industry is in a state of complete ruin.
Formerly planters were opulent ; to-day they are poor.

Dr. Carroll. Is that due to the decrease in price or to the gradual
decrease of the crop?

Mr. Cervera. Owing to several causes — the land does not produce
so much, prices are lower uniformly, and the planters have to pay for
the labor, whereas formerly they had. slave labor.

Dr. Carroll. Has there been any increase of expense owing to
high interest on borrowed money ?

Mr. Cervera. Yes; that is another cause. That is the chief reason
of the ruin of the agriculturist.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that the interest on money is from 9
to 18 and even 24 per cent. What was it formerly?

Mr. Cervera. There was hardly any need of borrowing money in
the old days, as the estates paid well and gave sufficient returns for their
cultivation without the planters having to borrow money. Formerly,
not having to pay for labor, the soil being virgin and the prices being
high, the business used to be lucrative. We used to obtain $5 or $6
a quintal, but to-daj^ we hardlv obtain $3.

Dr. Carroll. What rate of wages do you have to pay ?

Mr. Cervera. One-half a dollar, provincial money, for the ordinary
laborers; the skilled laborers obtain higher wages.

Dr. Carroll. What methods are pursued in the culture of cane?
Is it the same throughout the island ?

Mr. Cervera. With very slight differences the method is uniform
all throughout the island.

Dr. Carroll. Do they give the land a rest after raising cane on it?

Mr. Cervera. Those owning large properties are able to do so;
those owning small properties have to reap the crop every year.

Dr. Carroll. In that case can they not give the land rest by alter-
nating crops?

Mr. Cervera. They do that. They have to do so.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be a good thing to have fewer mills and
adopt the central system of Cuba?

Mr. Cervera. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Have the sugar planters ever formed an association
or society for the promotion of their mutual interests?

Mr. Cervera. There was an attempt at it, but it has never suc-
ceeded.

>^ Dr. Carroll. It would seem to me to be very necessary, if sugar
industry is in a bad condition at present, that such a society should be
formed with a view to investigating and ascertaining, for example,
whether another kind of cane could not be introduced — another kind
that has not the disease that I understand attacks most of the cane —
and whether new processes of culture could not be adopted with
advantage; as to whether central establishments might be put up,
how many there should be, and the introduction of new and improved
machinery; with the object also of determining whether the acreage
given to cane should be increased or diminished in any given year,
based on the condition of the sugar crop in other countries; with the
object also of helping one another in getting loans at a lower rate
of interest, and perhaps in finding better and more remunerative
markets.

Mr. Cervera. Although we feel the spirit of cooperation it has
never given any result in this country.

Dr. Carroll. Can it not, in your judgment, under present condi-
tions be made a success?

Mr. Cervera. If we had money it could. That is what we need.
We can not undertake anything because we have not any money.

Dr. Carroll. But when many come together, some having no
money, some having little money, and some having more, it is possi-
ble to do a great many things in concert which could not be under-
taken individually.

Mr. Cervera. It is not possible. Fifty or one hundred people
would get together, and they could not get enough money together to
form their society.

Dr. Carroll. They might begin such a society without very much
money and gradually go from one thing to another until they had
formed a society which should take under its superintendence the
entire production of cane in the island.

Mr. Cervera. That could be done in a country where the spirit of
association is more general. Out of one hundred planters here per-
haps only six or eight would come in.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States the competition is so sharp that
association is literally compelled by the condition of things. The
self-interest of individual producers compels association. It may
be the sugar industry of Porto Rico has not arrived at a sufficiently
desperate situation to force it to act.

Mr. Cervera. In former attempts at cooperation, whether due to
bad management or not, these organizations have always failed, and

to-day persons are not willing to enter into such arrangements, fear
ing, perhaps, that the results would be the same. Perhaps, inasmuch
as the want of success in former attempts at cooperation has been due
to bad administration, a man of intelligence taking hold of the thing
and administering it to-day might meet with different results.

Dr. Carroll. There is one important point in which it seems to me
that such an organization might be of advantage to all sugar owners,
and that is in the influence that might be brought to bear in behalf
of the sugar owners to mitigate circumstances which they feel bear
with undue weight upon them; in other words, to make representa-
tions with more force to the municipal and insular governments than
could be made by one man.

Mr. Cervera. I think with you in that matter. I wish you to
understand that the country is in an agonizing condition and we want
immediate assistance.

Dr. Carroll. I understood, when I made a visit to Utuado, that
unless something were done to prevent the foreclosure of mortgages
the country would be ruined. Therefore I changed the course of my
visit and went back to San Juan and besought General Henry to sus-
pend foreclosure of mortgages for a year, and he did me the honor to
request me to draw the order. I only state this to show that the
interest of the agricultural industry, which is the paramount indus-
try of the island, is on the heart of those who are in power.

Mr. Santiago Marl That has helped us to a certain extent, but it
has caused the suspension of credit. The coffee crop has been only
half what it ought to be. The price has fallen to a very low figure,
and we have no possible way of getting advances to attend to next
year's crop.

Dr. Carroll. There are certain things the Government can do
and certain things the Government can not do. The recent action
was taken on the understanding that the debtors required a little
longer time in which to seek for money in other channels, and espe-
cially to seek for money at lower rates of interest, and to prevent the
sale of their property at a time when it was realized that it would not
bring more than 25 per cent of its value. Now, the Government can
do this : It can protect the large class of its people who, in the stress
of the results of war, are likely to lose their property; but the Gov-
ernment can not supply the capital; the Government itself can not
lend the money; it can only mitigate the conditions, and possibly
bring about conditions under which the debtor can borrow money at
lower rates of interest, but it can not give him money.

Mr. Marl As none of the bankers at present will lend money, and
there is no assui*ance of any new banks coming here, credit will be
stopped altogether.

Dr. Carroll. One difficulty about your borrowing money is the
impending change of money system. As soon as the change comes
the monej^ that has been put in chests will come out, so that those
who have good credit can borrow money, because there will be money
to lend. One of the largest capitalists in the island told me yester-
day that there was money in the island, but that it was in the chests
of the island waiting for the exchange rate to be fixed. Now that
the rate has been fixed, and now that the Goveimment has taken this
action in favor of the debtor, the debtor ought, as far as he can, pay
his debts.

Mr. Marl The debtor with bad faith can sell his estate to-day and
cheat his creditor.

Dr. Carroll. It is still subject to the mortgage.

Mr. Marl We have three classes of persons here : Those who pay
their debts from pride, those who pay their debts from honest motives,
and those who pay their debts from fear of the law. Most of them
pay from fear of the law.

Dr. Carroll. That is a bad name to give the debtors of the island.

A gentleman present. Mr. Mari is a Frenchman. He is not a
Porto Rican.

Dr. Carroll (to Mr. Mari). Plow do you expect to get your money,
if that is the case?

Mr. Marl Only those will get credit who have something to offer
as a guaranty. As long as this order is not what I understand it to
be, I have nothing further to say about it. Coffee is, next to sugar,
the most important crop of the island, especially because so many
poor raise it. We have to wait five years to get a crop, and if it is
worth nothing, then there is a great loss.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that an organization such as I sug-
gested for the sugar planters would be good. Such an association
could find out the needs of the market in the United States and seek
to introduce that kind of coffee.

Mr. Cervera. At least coffee can go in free, and we poor sugar
planters are out in the cold.

Mr. Marl What will save the country is plenty of money on long
terms and cheap rates of interest.

Dr. Carroll. In order to be able to borrow money on a low rate of
interest, the people must cause confidence to be established by show-
ing their willingness to pay. It is not true that borrowing money
depends absolutely upon the security, because any security may fail,
but the person is always a factor.

Mr. Marl If we have good laws, good faith makes no difference.

Dr. Carroll. That may be, but if a large number do not pay, cap-
ital will not come. That is the first thing to establish. You must
have the people of the United States believe that the majority of the
people here who want to borrow money pay what they borrow, and pay
it if it be their whole fortune.

Mr. Marl As soon as money comes in, a man who has an estate
worth $10,000 and borrows 15,000 on it naturally becomes a good
payer; but if he finds anybody foolish enough to lend him $10,000, the
lender makes him a dishonest man.

Dr. Carroll. The principle of honesty is something from within
and not something from without, and such a man would be dishonest
anyway.

Mr. Marl Countries in which there are poverty and misery are
never honest.

Dr. Carroll. That is an entirely cynical view. That takes the
view that people are not honest unless force makes them such. I
have seen much of the world, and that is not my observation of it.
But this is not matter bearing on my investigation. I don't want to
take away from Porto Rico the idea that the people here are only
honest from force of circumstances.

THE SUGAR CROP IN AGUAD1LLA.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aguadilla, P. R., January 26, 1899.
Fkancisco Estebes, sugar planter :

Mr. Estebes. In the months of November and December, when the
north winds blow, the seas beat up very heavily. The land around
this part of the island is used land, and does not produce good crops.
The average crop is 3 hogsheads of 15 quintals to each cuerda. Some
of the planters use fertilizers, generally phosphates and fish manure
brought in from Boston.

Dr. Carroll. Is there not a great deal of the phosphate in the
mountains that could be gotten out and made available?

Mr. Estebes. There are many phosphate deposits here, but not one
of them is being worked.

PLANTERS AND THE MONEY QUESTION.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Fajardo, P. R., January 31, 1899.
Mr. George Bird, ex-consul of the United States at Fajardo :

Mr. Bird. The planters are almost ruined in this locality. I can
speak for them, because they have been urging their needs upon me.

Their situation is very critical on account of the low price of sugar.
These planters who own great properties, some valued at 1200,000,
can not get together $200. 'The doors of the banking institutions
are practically closed, and some of the planters have been refused
small amounts of money on properties of large value, with first-class
mortgage receipts, at 8 per cent interest. Those are actual cases.

Dr. Carroll. One difficulty has been that, pending the settlement
of the money question, people have hoarded money; but with the
monetary question settled I think money will be easier to obtain, so
that the situation will be relieved somewhat in that respect.

Mr. Bird. Has the money question been solved ?

Dr. Carroll. It has been so announced. The rate of exchange has
been fixed. The details of the system have not come from the United
States yet.

Mr. Bird. The planters regard the situation as so difficult that if it
is prolonged for a year they don't think they will be able to get out
of it. Some of them are just beginning to plant their crops, and are
having difficulty in paying their taxes and their laborers.

Dr. Carroll. I think in a short time money will be easier and
more plentiful, because people don't want to keep it in their chests
when they can get 9 or 10 per cent for it.

Mr. Bird. I understood you to tell me that the President can do
nothing for the sugar interests, and that the present Congress will
not be able to take the matter up.

Dr. Carroll. Yes.

Mr. Bird. We had a kind of a bounty which was given us directly
by the exchange. Now, if our money is turned into gold, I don't
think we can even grind our cane. We can not sell sugar at less than
$3, and that is all we sret now.

Dr. Veve. Our present need is money.

Dr. Carroll. The Government can not deal out money to the
planters. It is willing to do all it can to relieve the situation.

Dr. Veve. We will have to pay our laborers the same as before.
The reduced rates will not benefit the people. The merchant will
get it all.

Dr. Carroll. You can not make me believe that. He may get
more than his share, but he is bound to reduce prices.

THE PRODUCTS OF VIEQUES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Island of Vieques, P. R., January 31, 1899.

Mr. Leopoldo Venegas Jacome. The principal source of wealth
of this island is sugar, and the sugar interests are anxious to obtain a
free market in the United States. If that can not be granted, they
want at least a bonus, which, so far as they are concerned, would accom-
plish the same end. The present money system is an indirect bonus
on sugar, but once the change is decreed the complete ruin of this
island will follow, unless we get some sort of relief.

Dr. Carroll. Don't you think the laboring men would accept an
amount in gold corresponding to what they now receive in silver?

Mr. Jacome. I don't think we would have much difficulty with the
people. I believe it would be possible to harmonize the interests of
the employer with those of the peon.

Dr. Carroll. Would not that solve your difficulty, then?

Mr. Jacome. The price of sugar to-day in the United States, added
to the duty which it pays there, does not allow sugar planters even to
cover their expenses.

Dr. Carroll. Do you raise anything here besides sugar?

Mr. Jacome. Cattle.

Dr. Carroll. No tobacco?

Mr. Jacome. No, and no coffee. We might raise coffee on a small
scale, but sugar and cattle are the only industries.

Mr. L. F. Wolfe. We had an offer here from the house of Bartron
Brothers, who are now established in Santa Cruz. The37 came here
and stated that they were perfectly willing to put up a central factory,
but that all depended upon the free entry of sugar; they could not do
so otherwise. Our sister colony of the Danish Government had also
large amount of duty to pay on sugar in home ports, but they have
taken it off, and the island is going to prosper.

Dr. Carroll. How much sugar do you produce here?

Mr. Wolfe. We produce now from 30,000 to 40,000 bags, and the
island can easily yield 100,000 more. We have three centrifugal
machines here. This proposition that was made by Bartron was
based on the fact that many here would be able to raise sugar if
there was a central factory who are unable to do so to-day, because
they can not afford to put up the necessary machinery.

Dr. Carroll. There are too many poor mills also on the main island.

A Planter. We have four central mills now, but one is not running.

Dr. Carlos Gaspar. One of the most urgent needs of the island
for the benefit of agriculture, which is the basis of its wealth, is the
creation of agricultural experiment stations and experimental culture

fields. A wide diffusion of agricultural knowledge is necessary for
the country, because without it the country can not flourish under
any circumstances. Under the law of the United States I understand
that each State and Territory is entitled to $15,000 for this object from
the Federal Treasury. This place is neither a State nor a Territory
at present, but the sum being so small, I don't see why it could not be
donated immediately for so worthy an object.

Dr. Carroll. Has any attempt been made to have an association
of planters here?

Dr. Gaspar. One did exist, but it went to pieces little by little, as
everything else did under Spanish domination.

Dr. Carroll. Perhaps publications of the Agricultural Depart-
ment, if translated into Spanish and circulated here, would be of great
value.

Dr. Gaspar. Such books would supply the theoretical part and the
professors of agricultural schools would illustrate the practical part,
showing the people how to make use of what they learn from the
books. It will be necessary to give the people ocular demonstration.

Mr. Mouraille. There is a tax now of $20 per man brought here
for laboring purposes, and I think that could be taken off. I import
one hundred or more. If I had not done so I could not have har-
vested my crops.

Dr. Carroll. Where do such laborers come from?.

Mr. Mouraille.. From the Windward Islands and about there.

Dr. Carroll. I understand much complaint has been made in
Porto Rico about the importation of laborers.

Mr. Mouraille. Yes; I have heard of it.

Dr. Carroll. How much do you pay per day?

Mr. Mouraille. From 60 to 75 cents.

Mr. Wolfe. Living here is very high.

The Mayor. We could have brought in Porto Rican laborers, but
this gentleman (Mr. Mouraille) has always fought against Porto Rican
laborers and would never employ them.

Dr. Gaspar. Will sugar be granted free entry this year?

Dr. Carroll. No.

Mr. Gaspar. With the gold standard and without free trade it will
be very hard.

Dr. Carroll. That is what all the sugar planters say, but it is a
situation that can not be helped.

Dr. Gaspar. The rate of exchange is what has held the planters.

Dr. Carroll. But on the other hand there were many who said
that if the money question were not settled business would stop. It
has injured the sugar planters — I understand that — but it is not possi-
ble to admit sugar free into the United States until Congress can take
the matter up.

SOILS AND CROPS IN HUMACAO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Humacao, P. R., February 1, 1899.

Mr. Miguel Argues©, a planter; Mr. Antonio Roig, merchant
and owner of a sugar mill; Mr. Joaquin Masferrer, mayor of
Humacao, and others :.

Dr. Carroll. Will you state the general character of the soil in
this district?

Mr. Roig. It is a sandy soil, generally speaking, though we have
some meadows.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much humus in the soil?

Mr. Roig. Not a great deal.

Dr. Carroll. Then it is a poor soil generally?

Mr. Roig. Yes; I think so.

Dr. Carroll. Is it sandy on the plains and on the mountains, or is
there a difference between the soil of the plains and that of the
mountains? There must be a great deal of humus in the valleys.

Mr. Roig. There is more humus in the valleys, and there is a kind
of clay in the mountains.

Dr. Carroll. This soil of the mountains is specially adapted to
what crops?

Mr. Roig. The lower parts are good for cane — say, halfway up —
and above that, good for grass. They don't plant any coffee here.

Dr. Carroll. What crops do they raise here in a small way, in
addition to the sugar?

Mr. Roig. They raise some corn, some beans, yucca, very few pota-
toes, some cabbage, and other vegetables. We have a few oranges;
also a few lemons, but only enough for our own use. Oranges are
produced here easily.

Dr. Carroll. Why don't you raise larger quantities of oranges?

Mr. Roig. Because no one has thought of doing so. I think there
is more money in planting cane.

Dr. Carroll. Do you raise rice here?

Mr. RoiG. Very little; it flourishes, but it comes cheaper from
outside.

Dr. Carroll. Is it any trouble to raise it?

Mr. Roig. No.

Dr. Carroll. Why, then, do you import it? You have to paj^ cash
for what you imj)ort.

Mr. Roig. All the rice here is raised by the poor people.

Dr. Carroll. Do they raise all they need?

Mr. Roig. No; we have to import it.

Dr. Carroll. Do you raise many bananas?

Mr. Roig. Only for home consumption.

Dr. Carroll. Why don't you raise them for export?

Mr. Roig. I am unable to say.

Dr. Carroll. I think I can tell why. Your roads are so bad you
can not get them into market. San Juan has few good oranges. If
you could get your oranges into San Juan you would get a good mar-
ket there. What other crops are raised?

Mr. RoiG. Cocoanuts.

Dr. Carroll. They cost nothing to raise ?

Mr. Roig. Yes; they do cost something. We have to pay, in the
first place, 25 cents for the plant. Then care must be taken of the
plant or the cattle will come and eat it.

Dr. Carroll. But after it is a tree it take cares of itself, does it not ?

Mr. Roig. No; the leaves have to be washed and the dead leaves
cut away.

Dr. Carroll. Do you raise many cocoanuts for export?

Mr. Roig. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. You have plenty of land on which you could grow
more for export, have you not ? 7

Mr. Roig. Yes; we come to what we said before.

1125 6

Dr. Carroll. Is there anything else you raise here?

Mr. RoiG. We raise annatto. That is a dye stuff.

Dr. Carroll. Do you ever put fertilizers on land for the raising of
cane?

Mr. RoiG. Yes; sometimes a Porto Rican fertilizer, and sometimes
one that comes from Boston. The native fertilizer comes from Cabo
Rojo.

Dr. Carroll. Do you raise pineapples ?

Mr. RoiG. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much labor required in the raising of a crop ?

Mr. RoiG. No.

Dr. Carroll. You don't export any?

Mr. RoiG. No ; or at least very few.

Mr. Argueso. Mayaguez exports more.

Dr. Carroll. Do you raise many cattle?

Mr. RoiG. Yes, and it is a paying business; there is money in it.
There is always a demand for oxen.

Dr. Carroll. Why is that?

Mr. RoiG. Because in other West Indian islands they come to buy
their cattle here.

Dr. Carroll. Don't you sell a great many here in the island?

Mr. RoiG. Yes; we even supply Ponce and Mayaguez.

Dr. Carroll. If your roads were in good condition you would not
need so many oxen, would you?

Mr. RoiG. No; and a yoke of oxen would last longer on good roads.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any industries here in the way of hat
making, for instance, or tobacco manufacturing, or anything of that
kind?

Mr. RoiG. A few cigars are made here, but very few. We raise very
little tobacco.

Dr. Carroll. Don't you think it would be better to have a larger
variety of crops, so that when sugar is low you would have something
to fall back on? It is considered bad policy in the United States to
put all your money into one crop.

Mr. RoiG. We have an insect here that eats plants, such as beans
and tobacco.

Dr. Carroll. You can exterminate that. We have an insect in the
United States that preys upon potatoes and tomatoes, and they have
experimented and have found the best means of destroying it.

Mr. RoiG. The insects here even eat the new canes, so that some-
times they have to plant the cane twice.

Dr. Carroll. Do you use the manure that your oxen and cattle
make?

Mr. RoiG. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you use the ashes from your furnace?

Mr. RoiG. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. In one large mill on the other side of the island they
had a large pile of ashes, and I asked what they did with it. I was
told they threw it on the dump. The proprietor did not know that it
was good for manure.

Mr. Masferrer. I want to rectify an assertion of Mr. Roig con-
cerning the character of the soils in this district. Mr. Roig considers
them to be sandy; I consider them to be silicate-clay soils. Sandy
soil is found chiefly on the coast ; as soon as you get inland the silicate-
clay prevails.

Dr. Carroll. A sandy soil will allow rain water to pass off; silicate-
clay soils will hold the water. Is the soil inland damp?

Mr. Masferrer. The soils are not completely siliceous. They only
hold enough water for the purpose of growing vegetation, but they
don't hold the water altogether. The soil is not spongy. There are
marshy lands to-day which, if they were drained, would be cultivable
lands of excellent quality.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be difficult to drain them?

Mr. Masferrer. No; it would be a simple matter. We could drain
bhem into the river. That is where all should be drained, as we are
below the level of the sea.

Dr. Carroll. Are they used, now as pasture lands?

Mr. Masferrer. They can only be used in a prolonged dry season.

Dr. Carroll. Don't they produce grass in the wet season?

Mr. Masferrer. They produce grass, but there are many leeches
in it, and they attack and damage the cattle.

Dr. Carroll. What are the mountain soils?

Mr. Masferrer. Siliceous clay soils.

Dr. Carroll. Are they adapted to crops?

Mr. Masferrer. Yes; to small crops. There are some also that
will produce cane.

Dr. Carroll. Do planters here observe rotation of crops — that is,
put the land into other crops, or let it lie fallow?

Mr. Masferrer. They use an infamous system of agriculture here.
They sow the cane, cut the cane, plow the land, sow the cane, cut the
cane, year after year, and give the land no rest whatever. The
planter calculates the product of his crop by the cuerda — so many
barrels of sugar to the cuerda — without taking into consideration that
a less number of cuerdas, well attended to, give better results than a
larger number, badly attended to.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any exceptions to that rule in this* district?

Mr. Masferrer. The plan I speak of is general. Planters know
nothing of agriculture. For instance, when they use manure, they
don't know what they are using it for, and sometimes do the land,
more harm than good.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well for the Agricultural Depart-
ment to send down books in Spanish, explaining the best methods of
raising cane and how to conserve the soil?

Mr. Masferrer. They would be very useful, as scientific knowl-
edge with regard to lands here is absolutely wanting.

Dr. Carroll. Do they use the same seed year after year without
trying to get plants from other countries to improve the character of
the cane?

Mr. Masferrer. They don't try to improve the cane. They use
the same seed year after year, and it is usually bad seed.

Dr. Carroll. I should think it would be necessary, in order to
avoid certain diseases which are apt to come to cane which is used
from one stock year after year, that the stock should be changed.

Mr. Masferrer. There is one thing you 'must take into considera-
tion : The planter, for want of money, can not plant what and how
he likes; he must plant what and how he can.

Dr. Carroll. The alcalde of Mayaguez showed me a number of
canes in which there was evidence of a certain disease, which appeared
almost as though a worm had gone through the length of the cane. I
asked him to what cause he attribiited it, and he could not tell. I sug-

gested to him that it might be clue to the fact that one stock of cane
had been used many years and had deteriorated, and that it might be
well to get another stock of cane. He thought such a change might
be well.

Mr. Masferrer. It appears to me to be the only possible remedy,
whenever they have a diseased plant, to remove it and to use fresh
stock; but it is not the custom here to do such things.

Dr. Carroll. General Henry told me that he had cabled to the De-
partment of Agriculture to furnish him with a quantity of seeds for
use among the people of the island; not of cane, but of vegetables.
What class of seeds, in your judgment, would be most useful to the
planters in this district?

Mr. Masferrer. There is a certain difficulty to be taken into ac-
count. Nobody cares to give attention to these small crops, because
they don't give the same commensurate profit as tobacco, coffee, or
sugar, owing to the bad state of the roads.

Dr. Carroll. But they could get enough for home consumption by
dedicating a very small amount of land to the cultivation of these
crops.

Mr. Masferrer. Those persons who give their attention to small
crops do it only as a secondary matter, and leave the growth of these
crops entirely to the favor of nature — that is, if the wind is favorable
and the rain comes at the right time, well and good ; but they don't
give them any attention.

Dr. Carroll. My visits to the various market places of the island
confirm me in that opinion. Tomatoes, such as are offered here,
would not be accepted in the United States at any price. They raise
very large and luscious tomatoes there, and it is the same with all
other vegetables. It seems to me that with the soil here you could
take the place of the Bermudas, and supply the New York market,
which is the best market in the world, with these vegetables. It is
well known that these small crops are very remunerative. If you have
a variety in your crops, you will have larger returns and more certain
returns. Bermuda potatoes sometimes bring $2 a bushel in New York,
when there is an insufficient supply there, and, at times, even more.

Mr. Masferrer. Potatoes can not be grown here well because of
that insect which has been referred to. It attacks the potato at all of
its stages. I once sowed 30 quintals and was able to harvest only 4.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States we have a potato beetle which
is a dangerous insect and multiplies with great rapidity, but they
found finally something to kill it — something that it liked — and they
fed that to it. We have in connection with our Department of Agri-
culture, in Washington, an experiment division in which questions of
insectology are studied, and the Department publishes from time to
time the best specifics for killing certain insects and getting rid of
these pests.

Mr. Masferrer. They established a similar station here once. It
cost the province immense sums of money, but gave no results.

Dr. Carroll. If you will send specimens of these insects to the
Department of Agriculture, with a statement of the damage they do
here, I am sure you will receive directions how to exterminate them.

Mr. Masferrer. That would be a very good idea.

Dr. Carroll. If you choose to do that, I will be glad to forward
them to the Secretary of Agriculture with such representations as you
may wish to make. Tell me when it appears, what crops it attacks

and how it attacks them, and give me some specimens of it, and I will
ask the Secretary of Agriculture to take the matter up.

Mr. Masferrer. This insect was brought in from Peru in some
guano.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any laws for the inspection of imports, to
prevent the bringing in of such insects?

Mr. Masferrer. "No.

ENEMIES OF THE SUGAR CANE.

Yabucoa, P. R., February 2, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. I have come here chiefly to get information and not
to impart information ; therefore I would like to ask a few questions
about agriculture here. I understand that your chief crop is sugar;
that you also raise some tobacco.

. A Planter. Yes. Cattle raising is also a profitable industry.
^ Dr. Carroll. Is the sugar cane you raise affected with any disease?

A Planter. The cane suffers most from the ravages of an insect
which attacks it; so much so that sometimes we have to sow three
and four times. The result is that the cane first sowed comes to
maturity before that which is sowed later, and, as we have to cut it
all together, some of the cane is lacking in saccharine matter.

Dr. Carroll. Have you endeavored to introduce new varieties of
cane?

A Planter. We have written and spoken about it, but it ended
there. However, this would not affect the insect.

Dr. Carroll. But cane that is continued year after year deterio-
rates, and it would, perhaps, be well if you could get a fresh stock of
seed occasionally.

A Planter. We want agricultural experts here. The fertilizers
they sell us are worthless, because, for want of scientific knowledge,
\ we are unable to judge of them.

Dr. Carroll. I promised the people of Humacao, with reference
to this insect that is making great ravages in the cane there and else-
where, that if they would furnish me with specimens of it, I would
send it to Washington and ask the Department of Agriculture to pre-
scribe some specific by which they could kill it off and get rid of
the pest.

Note. — Dr. Carroll then referred to the publications of the Agri-
cultural Department, and stated that, if it was the wish of planters
in the island, he would ask the Department to furnish them copies,
in Spanish, of some of its publications.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me very important that the planters of
Porto Rico, in the various localities, should associate themselves
together for the study of their industry, for the mutual protection of
their interests, and for the advancement of the cause which they have
at heart.

A Planter. There was a society formed for that purpose some time
ago, with its headquarters in San Juan, and with agents in every
town, but, under the old government, apathy and indifference seemed
to hold sway, so that nothing came of the movement. Perhaps with
the change of nationality, the people may change in this respect.
Everybody understands the necessity of association, without having
it demonstrated.

FARMING IN ARROYO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arroyo, P. R., February 3, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What crops do you raise?

Mr. Gautier, planter. Only cane. I have a plantation in Patillo,
another in Maunabo, and one here in the district of Arroyo.

Dr. Carroll. What is the character of the soil in this valley?

Mr. Gautier. I don't know much about that; I should say between
a siliceous and a sandy soil.

Dr. Carroll. Is it a naturally rich soil?

Mr. Gautier. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have to apply fertilizers?

Mr. Gautier. The cultivation of cane was abandoned for some
years, and we are just taking it up again. We have never used fer-
tilizers up to the present, but we think we will have to do so.

Dr. Carroll. Is the crop now a smaller and less important one
than it used to be?

Mr. Gautier. About the same ; but there is far less cane sown to-day
than formerly.

Dr. Carroll. If it produces the same quantity as before, why do
you propose to use fertilizers?

Mr. Gautier. Because the land tires with each successive crop.

Dr. Carroll. Do the planters practice rotation of crops?

Mr. Gautier. No, they plant cane only.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not understood that the raising of one crop con-
tinually on the same land, year after year, will impoverish the land
of elements that that crop requires, while leaving other elements in
large quantity?

Mr. Gautier. Thej^ let the ground rest, and then sow it after the
lapse of a year. No farmer has under cultivation at one time the
whole of his estate.

Dr. Carroll. It is an axiom among the farmers in the United
States that by rotation of crops — the sowing of different kinds of
crops — the soil is rested.

A Planter. That can not be done here ; we have too much money
invested in machinery for sugar making. You must also consider that
sugar not only gives one crop, but several successive crops.

Dr. Carroll. I do not mean that you should abandon sugar, but
have other crops growing simultaneously with it. When we let land
lie fallow, it runs to grass, and that rests it. .We put cattle on it, and
that fertilizes. What is the average production of sugar per cuerda?

Mr. Gautier. About 28 quintals, on an average. In some years,
when there is a drought, there is hardly any production.

Dr. Carroll. What other crops is the soil specially suited for?

Mr. Gautier. Platanos,corn, pineapples, yucca, annatto, achiote —
all small crops. Almost anything will grow on the lowlands of
Arroyo.

Dr. Carroll. Will rice grow here?

Mr. Gautier. That is not raised here.

Dr. Carroll. Do you raise tobacco?

Mr. Gautier. Yes; but it is not a profitable crop, on account of
the drought.

Dr. Carroll. I understand you are considering the "question of
irrigation for this portion of the island.

•..

Mr. Gautier. Yes, we are.

Dr. Carroll. Have you sufficient supply of water for irrigation?

Mr. Gautier. That is the question now occupying the attention of
the engineers; they propose to bring the water from Patillo.

Dr. Carroll. Is that higher ground?

Mr. Gautier. The town of Patillo is not, but the place from which
they expect to bring the water is.

Dr. Carroll. Does Maunabo get all the rain it needs, as Yabucoa
does?

Mr. Gautier. Maunabo used to have plenty of water, but it is also
beginning to suffer from drought. A drought was never known there
in former years.

Dr. Carroll. Would the publications of the Agricultural Depart-
ment in Spanish with reference to the raising of various crops that
you have here be of any great value to planters? The Department is
constantly issuing publications giving results of experiments for the
purpose of disseminating agricultural information. Would treatises
on the culture of cane and tobacco be of value?

Mr. Verges. They should be; I hardly hope that they will be.

Dr. Carroll. Of course I would not ask them to send their publica-
tions here unless the planters desired them and would make use of
them. There are many things that the Department does in our coun-
try. It studies, for example, insectology and prescribes remedies
both as regards insects and diseases which attack crops. It has
scientific men who make a study of those things. These results will
be valuable to the Porto Rican farmers, if they desire them.

Mr. Verges. I think it would be ve^ desirable to have them.
There are many diseases in the cane to-day that we know nothing
about. There is not a man here who can classify lands. I once sent
samples of soil to Mayaguez to be classified, and they said they were
all the same, although I knew that they were entirely different. So
I don't think there are people here who know how to analyze lands,
and naturally an agricultural station here would be a very good thing
for the island. A matter of great interest to Porto Rico is the study-
ing of the different kinds of cane and their diseases.

Dr. Carroll. That has all been studied in the United States, be-
cause we have extensive cane plantations there. Mr. Mayor, are there
any industries here, in either a large way or small way — any manu-
factures?

Mr. Virella, vice-alcalde. We have a cooper shop, but we import
our staves from Portland, Me. We make bay rum for export in small
quantities. We get the malagueta leaves here in the mountains.

Dr. Carroll. Is cacao raised here?

Mr. Virella. Yes, but in very small quantities. It is an industry
which could be developed.

Dr. Carroll. It grows in the mountains, does it not?

Mr. Virella. Yes.

A Planter. But it requires moist land.

Dr. Carroll. Does it pay to raise it?

Mr. Virella. The people here have never devoted themselves to it.

Dr. Carroll. Your chocolate makers have been in the habit of
importing from Venezuela?

Mr. Virella. Yes; the three great industries here are those of
cane, coffee, and cattle.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any centrals here?

Mr. Virella. No.

Dr. Carroll. How many mills are there?

Mr. Virella. Only one.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any centrals in other districts in this part
of the island ?

Mr. Virella. No; from here to Ponce you will not find any. In
Ponce you will find one or two.

Dr. Carroll. Would not the planters save a good deal of money
if, instead of having mills of inferior quality, they were to join
together and have a good one ?

Mr. Virella. Yes ; it would be a great saving of time and expense.

Dr. Carroll. I have found all over the island old-fashioned machin-
ery— wooden cylinders, for example — and they lose one-third of the
value of the cane.

Mr. Virella. There is very little spirit of union here.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me if you formed an association of plant-
ers you could create such a spirit, and it would be much better. You
would be able, then, to use a united influence to accomplish things
necessary to your industry.

SUGAR CANE AND IRRIGATION.

[Hearing before the "United States Commissioner.]

Guayama, P. R. , February 3, 1899.
City Hall, evening session:

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask some planter a few questions.
What crops are raised in the municipal district of Guayama?

Mr. Bird. Coffee, cane, tobacco, and small crops, such as bananas
and beans.

Dr. Carroll. What is the most important crop here?

Mr. Bird. Sugar; after that, coffee; after that, tobacco. Cattle
raising is also an important industry here. I am speaking also for
Salinas.

Dr. Carroll. What are the principal small crops ?

Mr. Bird. Plantains, sweet potatoes, corn, a small quantity of rice,
beans, and malanga (a species of farinaceous root). The last two are
the most important of the small crops.

Dr. Carroll. What is the character of the soils here ?

Mr. Bird. They are very good. We can raise more sugar to the
acre here than can be raised in any other part of the island; but,
owing to the want of rain, crops are sometimes lost.

Dr. Carroll. What quantity of sugar can you raise here per acre ?

Mr. Bird. With all the drawbacks caused by the want of rain, we
can not count on more than 2 hogsheads; whereas, if we could count
on steady rains, we could produce 6 hogsheads.

Dr. Carroll. Has anything been done for the project of securing
irrigation for these lands ?

Mr. Bird. Yes; General Stone was here and got property owners
to vest in him the right to represent them to secure irrigation, but we
have heard nothing further about it.

Dr. Carroll. This matter of irrigation has been studied for many
years in the United States, because we have a large arid portion in
the western part of the United States; and we have much literature
on the subject, which I think I could obtain for you in the Spanish
language.

Mr. Bird. Anything- that improves our minds in any direction must
be useful; we don't lose anything by reading.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any special disease to which your cane is
subject? Is it subject to the ravages of any particular insect?

Mr. Bird. Whatever they may say in other parts of the island,
what we suffer from most here is the lack of water. As soon as we
have a period of drought, cane on my estate begins to suffer.

Dr. Carroll. They showed me, in the western portion of the island,
cane that was suffering from a certain kind of disease. In Yabucoa
they showed me cane that had been injured by the changa.

Mr. Bird. This insect does eat the tender roots of the cane, but
there is a remedy for that. If they would sow the seed on the surface
of the land instead of underneath the land, the trouble would be
avoided, because this insect only attacks the plant underneath. I
have a friend who adopted that system of sowing, and he is never
troubled by the changa. The changa also attacks tobacco when the
plant is small, and to prevent this they transplant it in a wrapping
of maguey so that the changa can not attack the roots. The manager
of the Carmen estate told me that he had gotten rid of them almost
entirely by introducing the mongoose, and I think it must be that
they are being exterminated in the island in that way, because on my
own estate I had many of them formerty, but now they do not bother
it at all.

Dr. Carroll. It is a good remedy if the mongoose itself, in turn,
does not become a plague.

Mr. Bird. It eats chicken and eggs, but on the other hand it kills
the rats. Before I brought it here I used to pay $8 and $10 a week in
killing rats, and now the mongoose does it for me.

Dr. Carroll. How many sugar mills are there in this section; that
is, in this district and that of Salinas?

Mr. Bird. There are eleven altogether, nine in Guayama and two
in Salinas. My cane is in Patillas, bnt I am competent to speak of it
here, as I live in Guayama. If you go to Juana Diaz it would be well
for you to look at a large estate there where in spite of arid lands you
will see what fine cane it produces.

Dr. Carroll. Are the mills here provided with modern machinery?

Mr. Bird. None at all. There is no vacuum machinery here.

THE AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF YAUCO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yauco, P. R., March 6, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. I desire to take up the subject of agriculture, and I
think we ought to begin with Mr. Mejia. I would like him to make a
statement of the conditions and need of agriculture, endeavoring to
give me statements in a concrete form. I want the, facts rather than
the philosophy of the situation, having special reference to the agricul-
tural condition of Yauco.

Mr. Francis Mejia. The agriculture of this district is very much
damaged by drought, and a thorny question arises with regard to want
of work for the laborers. The estates are abandoning work, and their
employees will find themselves without employment. For that reason
we ask that sums of money should be spent in the construction of roads

to give these laborers work. The small proprietor is in a worse posi-
tion than any other because he has no money to work his own farm, nor
can he leave his farm and go to seek work elsewhere. With reference
to the order issued by the secretary of finance, imposing a tax of $1.50
to 25 cents on the various classes of land, some proprietors will find
themselves in a bad position, because their lands are not of equal value.
I understand that a proper appraisement ought and will be made
of their value. As you already know, agriculture is the source of
wealth of the whole island, and especially of the district of Yaueo,
and all these gentlemen here are agriculturists, and they can tell you
how things are in the various barrios in which they live.

Dr. Carroll. Why is it that so many of the peons will be out of
work shortly? Is it that the planters have determined not to plant as
much as they did last year?

Mr. Mejia. Because credit has been suspended, and no one advances
money for the working of the estates.

Dr. Carroll. This is due, I suppose, to the great scarcity of money
in circulation.

Mr. Mejia. That is one of the reasons. Another, that so many
estate owners having suffered from drought have not been able to meet
their obligations, and, consequently, as merchants have not been able
to collect for outstanding debts they are not in a rjosition to continue
advances.

Dr. Carroll. Has not this district raised as much coffee and sugar
as before?

Mr. Mejia. Yes, but the prices have fallen considerably and no one
is buying coffee to-day.

Dr. Carroll. Are you getting no returns at all for your crops of
sugar and coffee? Now is the time you ought to be getting returns
from them.

Mr. Mejia. No; nobody is buying coffee.

Mr. Dario Francheschi. I have not sold any sugar so far.

Dr. Carroll. What is the difficulty? Is there no market for it?

Mr. Francheschi. The prices are very low, and nobody is offering
anything for sugar at all.

Dr. Carroll. What prices did you get a year ago for sugar?

Mr. Francheschi. An average of $4; this year $3 a quintal. This
was for muscovado. Coffee has fallen $8 and $10 a quintal. Last
year we got on the average 25 pesos a quintal, and this year onhy 15.

Dr. Carroll. According to estimates made by coffee planters of
Cayey and Caguas, there seems to be a margin on coffee at 11 and 15
pesos; not much, but some profit for the planter.

Mr. Torres. That may be so in Cayey, because they do not cultivate
there so much coffee as we do here.

Dr. Carroll. They said in Cayey that it costs from $8 to $9 to get
coffee ready -for market. What does it cost here?

Mr. Torres. In this district, calculating the interest sunk on the
estate in machinery, I have paid about 15 pesos per quintal.

Dr. Carroll. Leaving out the interest and counting only the cost
of cultivating, picking, etc., what does it cost?

Mr. Torres. From 10 to 12 pesos, depending on the particular
plantation.

Mr. Mejia. I think the calculation that Mr. Torres makes is a cor-
rect one. It must be taken into account that Yauco lands have to be
manured and Cayey lands do not have to be.

Mr. Antonio Rodriguez. Lands close together differ very greatly,

and it is absolutely impossible to make uniform calculations. Some
land produces more than others, and the abundance of the crop brings
the average up or down.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that you planters ought to endeavor
to have your coffee introduced into the United States, studying the
kinds of coffee desired there and catering to the taste of the people.

Mr. Rodriguez. We are considering that matter now. Up to the
present Yauco coffee has been in great demand, but at present our
warehouses are full and our creditors are trying to buy the coffee at
the actual cost to us.

Mr. Torres. Another circumstance which makes coffee cost a great
deal of money is that the best estates are 5 miles from here, and it
costs a dollar and a quarter to bring a quintal of coffee here, and very
much to take provisions to the estates.

Dr. Carroll. If you had a port at Guanica would you be able to
ship your coffee to better advantage?

Mr. Torres. Yes; we have to-day to sell our coffee to merchants in
Ponce, who try to obtain it for as little as possible. If we had a port
at Guanica we would be able to save the profit made by the middlemen.

Mr. Rodriguez. One of the chief causes of our trouble is that the
wholesale merchants are afraid to let their capital out, by reason of
disorders that have taken place in the island. They have restricted
credit absolutely, and do not trust even their best customers. Men
like myself, who are merchants and agriculturists, who stand in an
intermediary position and deal directly with the small agriculturists,
have not been able to collect what is owing to them, and consequently
can not go on advancing money out of their own pockets, because they
can not themselves get credit from the wholesale merchants.

Dr. Carroll. Then all credit has stopped?

Mr. Santiago ViValdi. Even the alto comercio has no credit in
Europe.

Mr. Rodriguez. This year a coffee crop is earning no profit what-
ever, because we have had to buy our provisions at such high prices.

Dr. Carroll. Cane is raised here by irrigation chiefly, I understand?

Mr. Francheschi. In some parts without irrigation it does not give
results.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have to pay very much for the water?

Mr. Francheschi. At the present time we are not able to irrigate
our lands because the viver has no water in it.

Dr. Carroll. When the river has water what does it cost you per
cuerda to irrigate?

Mr. Francheschi. We pay the laborer who attends to the ditching
25 cents per cuerda. The water costs us nothing.

Dr. Carroll. How long do you keep that up?

Mr. Francheschi. Every week Ave have to let the water in.

Dr. Carroll. How long does the dry season continue?

Mr. Francheschi. That varies. Sometimes we have no drought,
and some years we have a drought of six or eight months.

Dr. Carroll. You ought to have been spared the drought this
year considering the various other visitations you have had. When
you have plenty of rain you raise very fine cane, do you not ?

Mr. Francheschi. Yes, very fine.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any margin in sugar this year, at $3?

Mr. Francheschi. Last year we sold our sugar at about $5, which
left us some profit. This year we will lose, as has been the case, with
the exception of last year, for several years past. We count on no

other salvation than the free introduction of our sugar into the United
States market, and while that is being obtained the only thing that
can save us will be the establishment of banks here letting us have
money at low rates of interest.

Dr. Carroll. It will be a somewhat difficult matter to bring in
capital, because capital in the United States is conservative like cap-
ital in Europe and other countries, and the fact that you are in dis-
tress down here would make capital hesitate to come here for invest-
ment.

Mr. Torres. The one thing is the cause of the other. The mere
fact of not having capital is the reason of our bad position. If we had
been able to get capital in time we would not be at the mercy of
speculators.

Dr. Carroll. But under the order of General Henry none of you
who have mortgages on your lands will have to pay more than 12 per
cent.

Mr. Torres. The order of General Henry was made with the best
of intentions, but it is one of the reasons credit has been paralyzed
here, because those who have faithfully paid their interest are suffer-
ing on account of those who have not.

Dr. Carroll. As to those who have not paid their interest the order
provides that mortgages may be foreclosed. The order is only for the
benefit of those who keep the interest paid.

Mr. Torres. The order would have been splendid if capital had
flowed behind it.

Dr. Carroll. Suppose the order 'had not been issued at all; what
then? Would it have been better?

Mr. Torres. If the order had not been issued a great many estate
owners would have lost their estates, but credit would not have been'
paralyzed and those who keep up with their obligations would have
credit.

Dr. Carroll. If it is bad, perhaps General Henry would be willing
to recall the order.

Note. — To this suggestion there was prompt dissent.

Mr. RoiG. Credits were paralyzed here before the order was issued.

Mr. Rodriguez. I think the reason that banks do not come and
establish here is because they do not know the status of Porto Rico,
and that is one reason why the territorial question should be settled
as soon as possible. In regard to Porto Rico 'paying its expenses, I
would mention that once we had a surplus of a million and a half,
and sometimes more than that.

Dr. Carroll. You have contributed to the war in Cuba?

Mr. Rodriguez. Yes ; Porto Rico has always been paying, but has
never received anything, owing to the burnings and lawlessness in
every part of the island. Some capital has been reduced to ashes, and
those who can get their money in are doing so and are not likely to let
out money when they know they are liable to suffer the same result.

Dr. Carroll. What other kinds of crops are raised here besides
coffee and cane?

Mr. Vivaldi. The tobacco crop here is important.

Dr. Carroll. Does tobacco pay well ? '

Mr. Vivaldi. Yes, it does, and it is one of the most important in-
dustries, because it gives employment to a great many people.

Dr. Carroll. Are you raising this year more or less than last year?

Mr. Vivaldi. A great deal less, because no one is advancing any
money to enable the small planters to sow.

Dr. Carroll. Have you sold all of last year's crop?

Mr. Vivaldi. No; the greater part of it is still in the island.

Dr. Carroll. How are the prices now as compared with those of
last year?

Mr. Vivaldi. This year they are very low; in the northern part of
the island they sold tobacco as low as $2 a quintal, and after sending
it to Germany have had to send money behind it to pay expenses. I
have tobacco, and I would not dare to send it to the United States,
because I don't know what prices I would get for it.

Dr. Carroll. You don't send any tobacco to Cuba now?

Mr. Vivaldi. No.

Mr. Torres. That is one of the chief reasons tobacco has fallen in
price.

Dr. Carroll. On the other hand you don't import from there ciga-
rettes and cigars. That is a benefit.

Mr. Vivaldi. There is not sufficient consumption for the tobacco
raised in the island.

Dr. Carroll. But it is a good thing to have your own market.

Mr. Vivaldi. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Have you tried to see whether you could get your
tobacco into the United States?

Mr. Vivaldi. No ; nobody has. I have spoken to export merchants
here, and they have always told me that it was impossible to send any
there. We want free entry, so as to get our tobacco into the States.

Dr. Carroll. The only criticism that I have heard of Porto Rican
cigars is that the tobacco is too green.

Mr. Vivaldi. I have cigars three years old. If they are not dry
now they never will be.

Dr. Carroll. What other crops are there?

Mr. Mejia. Small crops, such as corn, for local use. The principal
crops are coffee and tobacco.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to know what the small crops consist of.

Mr. Mejia. Beans, corn, rice, plantains, potatoes, but very few.

Dr. Carroll. Is any attention paid to the cultivation of these small
crops?

Mr. Vivaldi. Very little.

Mr. Mejia. We produce sufficient for local consumption. We can
not produce large quantities, because of the drought.

Dr. Carroll. Can you not use irrigation for these small crops the
same as you do for cane?

Mr. Vivaldi. Yes ; but there is not sufficient water.

Dr. Carroll. What kinds of fruit are grown?

Mr. Mejia. Oranges, pineapples, bitter oranges, cacao, mangoes,
nisperos, small bananas, aguacates (alligator pears), mamey, and
guavas. We could raise more if we had good roads. We raise, also,
pepinos (cucumbers). T have a great many oranges on my estate, but
the cost of freighting them down to the wharf would be more than I
could get for them.

Dr. Carroll. The chinas (sweet oranges) are as good as any raised
in the United States, and if you could get them to New York you
would have a market for all of them.

Mr. Vivaldi. Many are sent from Mayaguez to New York; also
pineapples are sent from there. Only those that are produced near
the coast, however, are exported. The others would not stand the
expense of the rough roads. The great bulk of the orange crop is in
the mountains.

Dr. Carroll. If the oranges were known in the United States you
could sell your entire crop there at good prices.

Mr. Mejia. I spent $350 in bringing fruits from the United States,
and trying to acclimate them here, but they all died.

Dr. Carroll. Have you tried to introduce your oranges in the
United States?

Mr. Mejia. No ; there is no road by which I can get them down.

Dr. Carroll. Does it cost very much to raise pineapples? Are
they raised without much labor and expense?

Mr. Mejia. No; it does not cost much, and a great quantity are
produced in San German, but then here they cost a great deal, because
of the expense of bringing them in. They sell here in Yauco at from
10 to 20 cents each.

THE CROPS AND THE DRY SEASON.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Coamo, P. R., February 6, 1899.

Mr. Francisco Fernandez, coffee planter, and others:

Dr. Carroll. Are there any planters here who can give me some
idea about the soil of this district and what crops are raised, and the
advantages and disadvantages that are experienced by planters in
raising their crops and getting them to market?

Mr. Fernandez. The principal crop of this district is coffee.

Dr. Carroll. What other crops are raised?

Mr. Fernandez. Tobacco, a small amount of cane, and small fruits
and vegetables. We also have cattle.

Dr. Carroll. What are the fruits that are raised here?

Mr. Fernandez. Oranges, pineapples, mangoes, guanavinos, mamey,
nisperos, guavas, and others.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many pineapples raised?

Mr. Fernandez. None of these are raised; they all grow wild.
They are a beautiful fruit, but they are left to rot in the fields. This
might become the most important crop of the district.

Dr. Carroll. Why are they not cultivated?

Mr. Fernandez. For the want of local markets, and the difficulty
of getting them to distant markets.

Dr. Carroll. You have a good road here, both to Ponce and to San
Juan, at all times of the year.

Mr. Fernandez. The difficulty is to get them from the center to
this road.

Dr. Carroll. Where are they grown?

Mr. Fernandez. In the mountain lands, 600 meters above the sea
level. To bring them down from there would" cost more than they are
worth.

Dr. Carroll. Have you tried bringing them down on ponies?

Mr. Fernandez. Yes.

Colonel Santiago. Pineapples grow splendidly everywhere, and
better with irrigation ; but here in the countiy there is no demand for
them, and they don't export them owing to the difficulties they have
passed through of having communication.

Dr. Carroll. Is there no demand for them in San Juan and Ponce?

Mr. Fernandez. They are too far away. It is too expensive to get
them there.

Colonel Santiago. We have never sown them; that is, we have
never gone into the business regularly.

A Planter. The amount of the duty on coffee is more than the value
of the coffee itself in the ports of the United States.

Dr. Carroll. No; it has been free for many years.

A Planter. We want tobacco also to be free.

Dr. Carroll. That is another question. You will have to wait
until Porto Rico becomes a Territory of the United States.

A Planter. If at the ports of the United States you could charge a
duty on coffee coining from other countries, it would be a benefit to
Porto Rico.

Dr. Carroll. You must remember that the merchants of the United
States who export to Porto Rico pay the same duties as the merchants
of Spain or any other country. While that state of things continues
you must expect to pay duties on things that go into the United States.
It would be hardly fair to charge a duty on seven-eighths of the coffee
the people of the United States consume to benefit Porto Rico when
we have no free market here. How many months of dry weather do
you have?

A Planter. The dry season continues six months. We have rain
from August to December and in the month of May.

Dr. Carroll. Is there no possibility of irrigating any of the lands?

A Planter. With very little outlay we could bring the river Bar-
ranquitas here and use it for irrigation purposes.

Dr. Carroll. Have you ever had a competent engineer to examine
into the matter?

A Planter. We don't need an engineer for that; anybody can see
at a glance that we can get water from the north shore down here. The
greater part of the water running through Barranquitas could be
brought here.

Dr. Carroll. Still, you would not want to undertake any extensive
irrigation works without having the opinion of a competent engineer
and plans by a competent engineer?

A Planter. The country is too poor to attend to irrigation works
itself, but in Guayama they paid $25,000 to some English engineers to
study the subject. These engineers have left and the people have
nothing to show for their money.

Dr. Carroll. Have they no plans to show for it?

A Planter. I consider it lost until capital comes here to attend to
it. They have the plans, though.

Dr. Carroll. Does coffee suffer any from the dry season?

A Planter. Not on the high lands, but it suffers on the low lands.
Coffee sown at a lower altitude than 500 meters suffers from the dry
season, but above that altitude it does not.

Dr. Carroll. Why does it not suffer above that altitude?

A Planter. On account of the dew above that altitude, the air is
much more humid. Coffee is sown on the lowlands, but in some dry
seasons it dies altogether.

. COFFEE RAISING.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.!

Aibonito, P. R., February 6, 1899.
Mr. Manuel Caballer, mayor of Aibonito, Mr. Jose E. Santiago,
coffee planter; also Mr. Tomas Sifonte and Mr. Theodore Gonzales,
coffee planters.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any manufactures of any kind in Aibonito?

Mr. Caballer. None whatever, so far as I know.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any planters here who can tell me about
agriculture in the district of Aibonito?

Mr. Santiago. I am a coffee planter and can probably give you the
information you want.

Dr. Carroll. What is the chief crop of this district?

Mr. Santiago. Coffee.

Dr. Carroll. What other crops are raised?

Mr. .Santiago. The next most important crop is tobacco, besides
which there are small crops not worth taking into consideration.

Dr. Carroll. What about oranges, bananas, cocoanuts, and fruits?

Mr. Santiago. They don't cultivate them.

Dr. Carroll. Would they grow here well, if cultivated?

Mr. Santiago. Yes, they would; but I don't think to any great
extent.

Dr. Carroll. Is the weather too cold for them?

Mr. Santiago. The climate is good for fruit.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much dry weather?

Mr. Santiago. Droughts have occurred, but they are not usual.
The ground, however, is worn-out and is naturally poor.

Dr. Carroll. Do you use fertilizers on it?

Mr. Santiago. Up to the present, no.

Dr. Carroll. What is the ordinary crop of coffee per cuerda?

Mr. Santiago. From 2 to 3 quintals on the best lands. There are
some lands which don't give more than l-J. Coffee is not a productive
crop here, and there are heavy expenses connected with it.

Dr. Carroll. Is the coffee you grow of the ordinary class?

Mr. Santiago. No; it is very fine cofiee. In the exposition at
Paris I got a prize for the coffee" I exhibited. What we are in need of
is machinery to work it better.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost to have the coffee picked, per
cuerda?

Mr. Santiago. It costs $6 per cuerda.

Dr. Carroll. What are the other expenses of getting coffee ready
for market?

Mr. Santiago. We have to pass it through the machinery. We
have to dry it; in fact, a long process has to be gone through.

Dr. Carroll. I want to get at the expense of it.

Mr. Santiago. We don't prepare it for exportation.

Dr. Carroll. Well, what does it cost for drying it?

Mr. Santiago. It costs about 50 cents a quintal for hulling and
drying.

Dr. Carroll. Where do you send it?

Mr. Santiago. To Ponce.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost to e-et it to Ponce from here?

Mr. Santiago. It costs 30 or 40 cents, according to whether the
carts are plentiful or not.
Dr. Carroll. What do you get for it at Ponce?
Mr. Santiago. This year from 14 to 15 pesos a quintal.

Mr. Sifonte appeared before the commissioner and was questioned
as follows :

Dr. Carroll. What is the general character of the soil in this
district? Is it washed and quite thin on the top of the mountain?

Mr. Sifonte. The land is not regular at all. In some parts the
soil is deep, and in other parts it is thin. You will find it in veins of
varying quantity.

Dr. Carroll. If a man wanted to plant a coffee farm how would
he proceed, having an open field to begin with?

Mr. Sifonte. First he would clean the ground and then plant shade
trees.

Dr. Carroll. How do you clean the ground?

Mr. Sifonte. By cutting off the surface with a machete.

Dr. Carroll. What kind of trees do you plant for shade?

Mr. Sifonte. Plantains and guava.

Dr. Carroll. How long does it take to get those trees ready to
furnish the proper amount of shade?

Mr. Sifonte. The guava trees require five years, but the other tree
gives a shade at the end of a year, and meanwhile gives fruit.

Dr. Carroll. And when do they plant the coffee trees?

Mr. Sifonte. In October.

Dr. Carroll. At the end of the first or second year, or immediately
after planting the shade trees?

Mr. Sifonte. A year afterwards.

Dr. Carroll. How long is it before the coffee trees begin to bear?

Mr. Sifonte. Five years.

Dr. Carroll. When do your trees bear their best crops?

Mr. Sifonte. When they are 7 years old.

Dr. Carroll. Do they then decrease in the amount they yield?

Mr. Sifonte. Our climate sustains the coffee tree in full bearing
for many years; even up to fifty years.

Dr. Carroll. Do you pay any taxes on land that is newty planted
in coffee trees?

Mr. Sifonte. No.

Dr. Carroll. Does the law allow you five years in which to get
your plantation ready for bearing before imposing a tax?

Mr. Sifonte. No; two years only have been allowed.

Dr. Carroll. Do you agree with the gentleman who has just testi-
fied as to the cost of picking the coffee, of hulling it, and getting it to
Ponce to market?

Mr. Sifonte. I am of the same opinion; and I would say that our
coffee, put down in the market, costs us $10 per quintal, everything
counted, including the planting, the cleaning, the picking, the condi-
tioning, the sacking, and the carrying to market.

Dr. Carroll. Then the margin of profit for the planter is not very
much, if he only gets 14 or 15 pesos per quintal?

Mr. Sifonte. This year, at present prices, our coffee costs us almost
as much as we get for it.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many merchants here who buy coffee from
you?

Mr. Sifonte. There are, on a small scale.
1125 7

Mr. Theodore Gonzales was then questioned by the commissioner,
as follows :

Dr. Carroll. What is the average size of a coffee farm, in cuerdas,
in this neighborhood?

Mr. Gonzales. From 80 to 100 cuerdas.

Dr. Carroll. You have heard the questions asked these other gen-
tlemen. Do you agree with them in their answers?

Mr. Gonzales. Yes.

NEED OF FERTILIZERS.

[Hearing before the United States Comniissioner.]

Caguas, P. R., February 27, 1899.
Mr. Vicente Munoz, ex-mayor of Caguas :

Dr. Carroll. You are a planter?

Mr. Munoz. Yes ; but not, of cane.

Dr. Carroll. What do you plant?

Mr. Munoz. Tobacco, coffee, a small amount of plantains, and
small fruits in general.

Dr. Carroll. What is the general character of the soil in this
valley; is it rich?

Mr. Munoz. Within a small radius it is fairly good, but the rest of
it is not of much value. Everything is grown, but everything grows
very sickly.

Dr. Carroll. What is the cause of that ; haven't you rain enough
here?

Mr. Munoz. It is owing to the want of technical knowledge of how
to use the soil, to the want of money, and to the rude methods we
have always employed.

Dr. Carroll. What crops are best produced here by this soil —
coffee and tobacco?

Mr. Munoz. In one part cane, in another coffee, in another small
district tobacco, and in still another forage.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many cattle raised here?

Mr. Munoz. Very few.

Dr. Carroll. Do the planters ever use fertilizers on the soil?

Mr. Munoz. No; for want of money.

Dr. Carroll. Does the island not produce fertilizers?

Mr. Munoz. On the island proper there is none, but the island of
Mona produces fertilizer. Owing to the cost of getting it here the
price is prohibitive. The agriculturist is in a worse position than the
laborer here, because at the end of the day or week the laborer gets
his pay, but the agriculturist gets no pay, and if he does not get some
one to help him out he is in a bad way.

Dr. Carroll. You are in a better j)osition than the agriculturists
of some other districts, because you have good roads and communi-
cation with Ponce and San Juan.

Mr. Munoz. It is of small account to have good veins if you have
no blood to course through them. We need cash and credit very much
here. Owing to the late happenings in the island, men who sustained
the agriculturists by credit have retired their credits altogether.

Dr. Carroll. Isn't it a fact that agriculturists have to j3ay too
high a rate of interest to allow of much profit on their crops?

Mr. Munoz. Agriculturists here, unless they have a most extraor-
dinary- crop, can never pay what they owe, and each year they get
deeper and deeper into debt, and after eight or ten years they have
to give up their estates and become workmen themselves.

Dr. Carroll. Did the order of General Henry, suspending execu-
tions on agricultural property, afford any relief here?

Mr. Munoz. Those who were hopelessly in debt were benefited,
but those who had not got to that condition were not greatly benefited.
The order preventing the collection of the consumption tax appeared
at first a very beneficent one, but it was really quite the other thing.
We are buying bread and meat at the same prices we were before,
and instead of the people of the city, who consume the bread and meat,
paying the tax the extra taxation has been put on us.

Dr. Carroll. It has been put on the liquor dealers?

Mr. Munoz. The agriculturists pay it indirectlv.

Dr. Carroll. The tariff has relieved the agriculturist somewhat?

Mr. Munoz. The price of food stuffs has not come down here.

Dr. Carroll. What do you pay for bread?

Mr. Munoz. Six cents in town; I pay 7 cents in the country.

Dr. Carroll. How much was it before?

Mr. Munoz. It was 8 cents for a pound, light; now they sell a full
pound for 6 cents.

Dr. Carroll. It was 8 cents in San Juan, and now it is 4 cents.

Mr. Munoz. But the agricultural laborers do not eat either bread
or meat.

COFFEE AND TOBACCO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cayey, P. R., February 28, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What are the chief crops raised here?

Mayor Munoz. Coffee and tobacco.

Dr. Carroll. Some corn?

Mayor Munoz. A small quantity, only, for local consumption.

Dr. Carroll. Is any cane raised here?

Mayor Munoz. There was only one sugar grower here and he gave
it up.

Dr. Carroll. Does not cane grow well here?

Mayor Munoz. Yes; it is very fine land for cane.

Dr. Carroll. • Then is it more profitable to raise coffee and tobacco?
•Mayor Munoz. Naturally; cane requires a great deal more capital'
than coffee and tobacco.

Dr. Carroll. What kind of soil is found here?

Mr. M. Planellas, president of agricultural society. The northern
and eastern parts of the district are clayey. There is also humus
soil, and under that there is a layer of pyrites. In another part of
the district there is volcanic soil; that is found especially in the
southern part. We harvest 30,000 quintals of coffee here and 5,000
quintals of tobacco. Less has been sown this year than last.

Dr. Carroll. What is the number of workmen, approximately, on
coffee and tobacco estates?

Mr. Planellas. I estimate that about 4,000 people are given work
in the country districts of this municipality. The minimum salaiy is
37 cents and the maximum 50 cents a day. Most of the agriculturists

100

pay in cash, and any peon of good character can live on the estate
and have a house bnilt for him by the owner.

Dr. Carroll. There is an agricultural society here. What is its
object?

Mr. Planellas. The society was formed last year, with a view of
trying to obtain annexation and get into a position to take advantage
of the benefits of it. This is the first society that has ever been formed ;
this is absolutely the first step that has been taken. One of the points
which our programme includes is the betterment of the peon class.
One object of the society has been to prepare the ground for the intro-
duction of our coffee into the United States. We are thinking of
sending an agent there to work the field and get a market, but we
have been laboring under the idea that coffee paid a duty there. The
danger of the situation is that if the agriculturist does not soon find
a market for his produce he will have to shut down, and that will
throw many out of work.

Dr. Carroll. What is your port for the shipment of coffee?

Mr. Planellas. San Juan, principally.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost to get your coffee there?

Mr. Planellas. Forty cents a quintal.

Dr. Carroll. Is it nearer to San Juan than to Ponce?

Mr. Planellas. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do the planters sell the coffee here or in San Juan?

Mr. Planellas. They sell it here.

Dr. Carroll. How much do you get for it here?

Mr. Planellas. Ten pesos per quintal for current classes.

Dr. Carroll. Is that with the shell on it?

Mr. Planellas. No; all prepared.

Dr. Carroll. How much for the fine?

Mr. Planellas. Fourteen pesos.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much margin for the producer?

Mr. Planellas. Very little ; at 10 pesos it hardly covers the expense,
of production. Last year coffee brought as high as 35 pesos a quintal.

Dr. Carroll. Is 14 pesos now the highest?

Mr. Planellas. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Why should there be such a shrinkage for the best
coffee? As I understand they never send the best coffee to the United
States or to Cuba or Spain, but to Germany and France.

Mr. Planellas. We send the best coffee to Spain and France.
France consumes only a little, however; the chief part was consumed
in Spain. The reason we sent most of it to Spain was that the exchange
on Spain gave us a larger return.

Dr. Carroll. They raise coffee in Cuba, do they not?

Mr. Planellas. Very little.

Dr. Carroll. Then, if they raise only a little, they must import
coffee.

Mayor Munoz. The Brazilian coffee, which is much cheaper, will be
brought in, as the poor people use it. Our inferior coffees are better
than the Brazilian first-class coffee.

Dr. Carroll. Can you not produce them as cheaply as they produce
them in Brazil?

Mr. Planellas. No; in Brazil they don't have to use shade trees;
they can plant them out in the open, and here the expense of raising-
coffee is in the protection of the coffee.

Dr. Carroll. The freights are cheaper from here to Cuba than
from Brazil to Cuba, are they not?

101

Mr. Planellas. Somewhat cheaper, but that would not make up
for it. Fifty years ago, when coffee paid no taxes, when munici-
palities hardly existed, and we had slave labor, we could compete
with Brazil, but to-day we can not compete with Brazil, which has
cheaper labor.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost to get coffee ready for market.

A Planter present. From 8 to 9 pesos per' quintal.

Another Planter. The most important point to the agriculturist
has not been mentioned ; that is, that the agriculturists have no money
and no bank. They have to obtain their money through merchants
who exact payment in crops; these crops are subject to fluctuation,
according to the demand from outside, which causes fluctuations in
San Juan. So that really the agriculturist is Bt the mercy of the mer-
chants, and until he gets better facilities for getting money it will
always be so.

Dr. Carroll. Under the present laws the agriculturist may be an
exporter.

A Planter. We can not do it because we havn't commercial rela-
tions with Europe and the United States. We wouldn't know how
to proceed, and have to deal with the merchants anyway. The very
richest of the agriculturists have seen themselves on the brink of
ruin. They have had no outlet for their crops, and could get no
money to attend to the working of their estates. Without exception,
they are in a very difficult position.

Dr. Carroll. If you think the merchants are charging you too
much, you should form an association and have an agent and find
your own markets. What one man can not do a great many men
can do.

A Gentleman present. As the agriculturist nearly always owes
the merchant he has to meet the debts with coffee. The fault is with
the merchants of the capital. The merchants here can not offer a
higher price than they are authorized to offer by the merchants there.

Mayor Munoz. I think the real reason for the condition of affairs
which exists at present is the transitory state through which we are
passing. It is not a question of merchants or prices, but of an upset con-
dition of affairs. When we find our neAv markets we will settle down
upon a satisfactory basis. We want your assistance and that of the'
United States to the end that Porto Rican coffee shall be protected as
a national product against Brazilian and others.

Dr. Carroll. That is, you want the United States to impose a
duty on coffee from other countries'?

A§ Planter. In any form.

Dr. Carroll. By bounty? That ought to come out of your own
treasury.

Mayor Munoz. I think a duty ought to be imposed on othercoffee.
* Dr. Carroll. Would that be fair to the 70, 0000, 000 consumers in the
United States'? It seems to me that one trouble with the planters
here is that you go too much on the credit basis and not enough on
the cash basis; in other words, you pay out what would be your prof-
its in interest, which, I understand, runs as high as 18 per cent, and
it would seem to me better to pass through a starvation period, if
necessary, for a year or two in order to get on the cash basis.

A Planter. I think that as soon as American capitalists come in
to take the place of Spanish capital that has been withdrawn the
country will get on a better footing.

Dr. Carroll. The more money you borrow the worse you are off.

102

A Planter. No, it will give the agriculturists breathing time in
which to wait for better prices.

Dr. Carroll. Suppose the better prices vou wait for do not come?
What then?

A Planter. We would have money at lower interest than we now
pay, and, at least, would have the benefit of the time for waiting.

Dr. Carroll. What inducement have you to offer to capitalists to
lend money at a less rate of interest than you have been paying?
You say that the prices are so low that you can not make expenses.

A Planter. We would give our property as a guaranty.

IRRIGATION.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 3, 1899.
Mr. Robert Graham:

Mr. Graham. I have been here thirty-eight 3Tears. My business is
engineering, and I know the island pretty well. There are very con-
siderable openings here for capital from outside. There are large
claims lying uncultivated which could be made very valuable by
bringing water to them. There is no difficulty in bringing the water
to them, except the difficulty of the money necessary to do it. Gen-
eral Stone went into this question of irrigation very closely. He
traveled all over the district and we traveled a great deal together.
He was delighted with the whole thing, and he was quite certain he
was going to do big things; that firms in the United States would go
in for it right off, and I have been surprised to find that he has been
disappointed altogether. His disappointment, however, is no reason
why we should not try to secure irrigation here.

Dr. Carroll. I had a talk at Guayama at the alcaldia. There were
a number of planters there, also at Arroyo. Thej^ have plans at
Arroyo, but no plans at Guayama with respect to irrigation. It seems
to me important in order to bring this question properly before capi-
talists in the United States that there should be plans, with estimates,
so that the people can judge somewhat with regard to it.

Mr. Graham. That is so, and the plans have been all worked out in
first-class style and copies of them remain in the office of the depart-
ment of public works in San Juan. Estimates also have been made
and copies have been supplied to different people. It is not easy to
snPPty copies, except of superficial plans, but the matter has *been
brought so plainly before a number of people that it seems surprising
that it has not been taken up. A little more than a year ago the
scheme was nearly taken up by a London syndicate of capitalists.*
The American war came on and they said, "We will wait and see what
will happen." After the war they were ready to come. I told them
they were too late. I had been speaking with General Stone, and
naturally considered that Americans would go into it and give us
Englishmen no chance, and I wrote to that effect. An enterprise of
this sort requires capitalists to send out capable men to look into it
and finally get the concession good for the whole ground, make their
own plans, and make such calculations as modern ideas and experi-
ence may suggest.

Dr. Carroll. You have a system of irrigation in this district?

103

Mr. Graham. Yes; we have irrigation in the Ponce district and it
is a pretty complete system. We take the water from various rivers.

Dr. Carroll. Does that water ever fail in rivers?

Mr. Graham. Yes; when we have long spells of dry weather it gets
scarce; but the districts of Guayama, Arroyo, and Salinas have no irri-
gation at all to speak of. The matter has been worked out and looked
into by different engineers and all have found it perfectly feasible, and
there could be no doubt about the success of it, because landed pro-
prietors are willing to bind themselves in advance, to pay so much per
acre for the use of the water.

Dr. Carroll. What is the sj^stem that you have here?

Mr. Graham. It is just gravitation. They take the water high up
in the river, dam it slightly, build brick conduits, and bring the water
to the estates.

Dr. Carroll. How is it distributed on the estates?

Mr. Graham. By a main ditch which runs along the high part of
the field and smaller ditches or furrows so arranged that the water
runs along the furrows. The furrows are from 3 to 4 feet from each
other. The cane is planted in a hill and the water runs over the roots
of the cane.

Dr. Carroll. Is that system costly?

Mr. Graham. The first cost is considerable, but after it is once
established the system is not a costly one.

Dr. Carroll. For a field of 100 cuerdas, say, what would it cost
the owner per annum?

Mr. Graham. You would have to keep two men constantly employed
and that would cost about 60 cents a day, gold.

Dr. Carroll. Is the water pumped from the river?

Mr. Graham. No. They take the water up higher than their own
property. For Guayama and Salinas the water would be taken up in
the hills and a reservoir made. The original scheme would cost
$700,000, but the water that has to be brought down would give 1,600
horsepower for electric lighting. That would light all the lights
around the coast here.

Dr. Carroll. Would it turn all the sugar mills?

Mr. Graham. No, but it would haul all the cane. The mills require
heavy power; but they will have plenty of power for their purposes.
The electric-light scheme was not included in the original irrigation
scheme. It is only lately that this scheme has been thought of at all.
Connected with this scheme is the central factory.

Dr. Carroll. That would be a matter of economy also for the
planters, because their present system is-a costly one.

Mr. Graham. They are losing when they are grinding just one-
third of the whole crop. It is equivalent to one-half of what they
make.

Dr. Carroll. Yes; that is evident to a passer-by.

Mr. Graham. The bankers have gone into a little speculation in
this district. They bought a thousand acres the other day and are
going to put up a factory.

Dr. Carroll. Where is that?

Mr. Graham. Between Guayama and Salinas.

Dr. Carroll. Do they expect to irrigate it?

Mr. Graham. Yes, and I think they are expecting that one day the
general irrigation scheme will be introduced.

Dr. Carroll. Has it always been as dry in these southern districts
as it is now?

104

Mr. Graham. Not quite. Twenty-five or thirty years ago we did
not suffer so much from dry weather.

Dr. Carroll. The mountains have been denuded, I suppose?

Mr. Graham. Yes, and the cutting down of the timber has done a
great deal of harm.

Dr. Carroll. Can not that be remedied by planting forests?

Mr. Graham. Very slowly, because the land is the property of pri-
vate owners and they would not plant lands from which they would
derive no benefit.

Dr. Carroll. That would be of benefit to the whole district, and
possibly you would have a natural supply of moisture.

Mr. Graham. We may have rains in April, but we may not get them
in that month.

Dr. Carroll. Have you plenty of rain in the summer?

Mr. Graham. No, not plenty. We may get showers from now on
to July, sometimes later, but we can not count on the weather from
January to September. Sometimes we get rain in that period and
sometimes we don't. The estates that don't have irrigation can not
make anything in this sort of weather.

AVERAGE CROPS OF SUGAR AND COFFEE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Plainfield, N. J., May 26, 1899.

Senor Lucas Amadeo, a coffee planter of Utuado, P. R. :

Dr. Carroll. I should like to ask a few questions as to coffee and
sugar.- I have been unable to get the average production per acre or
cuerda of coffee and sugar.

Senor Amadeo. The production of sugar there varies according to
the location of the plantation and according to the method of cultiva-
tion. Along the coast there are some places where the ground bein<>-
well watered, will produce from 3% to 4 hogsheads per cuerda

Dr. Carroll. From 1,400 to 1,800 pounds per hogshead?

Seiior Amadeo. Yes. The average production will fall as low as
2 hogsheads m other localities, where the ground, perhaps, is not as
good and the methods of culture are not adequate.

Dr. Carroll. Much depends, 1 suppose, also on the character of
the mills.

Senor Amadeo. I believe that with modern mills and modern
methods the production on good lands would be from 5 to 6 hogs-
heads per cuerda. On the plantation of my father I have, even with
the crude method of oxen, obtained sometimes 5 hogsheads per
cuerda.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the average for the land under culti-
vation is 2 hogsheads per cuerda?

Senor Amadeo. That is about the most they will give, taking into
consideration the manner in which it is cultivated now; it must be
borne in mmd that present methods of culture in the island are inad-
equate to produce what the same farms might yield if riahtlv culti-
vated. ft J

_ Dr. Carroll. What would probably be the value of the residue or
juice or molasses to the hogshead left over after the sugar has been

105

made? I want to get at the value of a cuerda in cane, made up into
sugar, molasses, and rum.

Senor Amadeo. Calculating that the cuerda will give 2 hogsheads
of sugar, it will then give 30 per cent molasses and 10 per cent rum ;
the sugar represents 60 per cent.

Dr. Carroll. Do the 2 hogsheads include the molasses and rum?

Senor Amadeo. No.

Dr. Carroll. I ask these questions because Judge Curtis, of the
colonial commission, made a statement to the effect that the sugar
growers of Porto Rico were not' so nearly had off as they made out.
He said they could easily make $120 gold per acre.

Senor Amadeo. I don't see where Mr. Curtis gets his authority from
upon which to base that statement, because you must take into account
the cost of production.

Dr. Carroll. Would a cuerda produce $120 worth without regard
to the cost ?

Senor Amadeo. No.

Dr. Carroll. I don't see how it is possible.

Senor Amadeo. As long as the production per cuerda is 2% hogs-
heads or less there is no profit. The profit really commences when
the production is from 3 hogsheads up. The plantations spend a
great deal of money. I know of plantations near Ponce which pro-
duce 800 hogsheads and spend from $35,000 to $40,000 a year in the
production of the crop.

Dr. Carroll. Now, with regard to the ordinary production of coffee
per acre, I think you have stated to me that the most liberal estimate
is from 35 to 40 quintals an acre.

Senor Amadeo. The amount you mention was produced under
exceptional conditions on one of my pieces of land, and I have other
pieces which sometimes produce about the same; but taking a gen-
eral average, and taking into consideration that the cultivation is so
poorly undertaken there in that respect, we get about 4 quintals per
cuerda. There have been years in which the production has exceeded
6 quintals on an average. Last year the production was poor.

Dr. Carroll. That includes all classes?

Senor Amadeo. In years like the present you might calculate, per-
haps, 4 quintals upon all the grounds, but in past years it has been
lower than that.

Dr. Carroll. What are the classes or grades produced? What are
they called?

Senor Amadeo. It is divided into about three grades. The first
and the best is produced on the large plantations, where they have
their own mills and where they undertake the whole operation.

Dr. Carroll. What is that called — caracolillo?

Senor Amadeo. It is called haciendo coffee. Caracolillo coffee is
picked out from that. They are the round beans.

Dr. Carroll. Yes, and I understand they grow on the higher
branches.

Senor Amadeo. No; it grows indiscriminately.

Dr. Carroll. It consists of one berry in the cascara?

Senor Amadeo. Yes. The second grade is that produced by the
different commission merchants that buy up the different crops and
take them into the city and sort them ; and the third grade is that pro-
duced on small properties, where the}'" dry their coffee crudely, and
where the whole process, in fact, is crude.

Dr. Carroll. What classes are polished for the European markets?

106

Senor Amadeo. The first two grades.

Dr. Carroll. What will you do now with your third-class coffee?
You used to send much of it to Cuba.

Senor Amadeo. We don't know where to send it; it is at its lowest
price there.

Dr. Carroll. It really makes good coffee,, does it not? The beans
are irregular and broken, but I understand it makes good coffee.

Senor Amadeo. It is only a question of looks. Very often the cof-
fee that is dried in its own bean, as is done in the case of the third-
class coffee, tastes even better than the other grades.

Dr. Carroll. Is it better than the cheap grade produced in Brazil,
called Rio?

Senor Amadeo. Yes, much better.

THE NEEDS OF AGRICULTURE.

[Memorial of Mayaguez planters submitted to the Commissioner.]

We, the undersigned property holders and agriculturists in the de-
partment of Mayaguez, being desirous of cooperating as far as our
scanty forces allow for the welfare of this island, beg to state: That
the coffee growers of Mayaguez, Las Marias, and Maricao some years
ago began their work anew, arising out of the prostration to which the
industiy had been for some time subjected. At this date the planta-
tions are in very good condition, owing to the fertility of the soil and
the careful work which has been bestowed on them; but as the mer-
chants of Mayaguez have absolutely cut off credits, the only source on
which we count for the development of agriculture, the day may
arrive (and it is not far off) when the coffee industry may die for lack
of funds with which to attend to its needs. As the poor classes live
on the work given by the agriculturist, if that work be suspended they
will be reduced to the utmost misery. For a year this condition has
been threatening, and cases of starvation have already occurred, and
will occur frequently, for want of work. To save the situation, a sad
one for both owner and workman, to combat the tyranny of the specu-
lator and usurer, to place the coffee industry on a footing of progress,
to free the laborer from his condition of anaemia, and enable him to
earn enough to buy food with the wages of his honest labor, and to
lift the agriculturist from the penury which overwhelms him, and
enable him to meet his obligations and his social duties, there is urgent
need —

First. That the money question be settled, giving the peso a value
of 50 cents.

Second. That agricultural banks be established by American corpo-
rations to loan money at low rates and for long terms on mortgages.

Third. That full freedom be given for Americans, our fellow-country-
men, to establish themselves so as to introduce competition and put
an end to Spanish and German monopoly, which, owing to lack of com-
petition, sells its merchandise dear, and scourges agriculture by the
low prices paid for produce. The merchants are interested only in
sending their capital to their respective countries, leaving our country
bare, greatly to our prejudice.

Fourth. That lawyers, notaries, and court clerks' fees be limited to
rates made generally known by a published tariff.

107

Sixth. That every citizen be allowed to conduct his own litigation
without obligatory reeom'se to procurators, as these, together with
" shysters," whose only idea is to draw the agriculturists into litiga-
tion with or without reason, cause great prejudice to agriculturists.
Sixth. That agricultural tools and machinery be exempted from all
duties.

Seventh. That the so-called " cuota imponible"be annulled for a
number of years, owing to the onerous state of present conditions.

Eighth. That the ayuntamiento of this city, together with General
Henry, work for the annexation to the district of the neighboring ones
of Maricao and Las Marias, as those districts impose heavy taxation to
meet the salaries of their unnecessary employees, ,to the exclusion of
important work, such as roads and education; and that preference be
given to these branches so completely neglected.

Knowing your good wishes and the good wishes of the President of
the great Republic, we await with faith and enthusiasm the speedy
change of the situation to one of prosperity for Pofto Rico, which,
once the traces of the fatal Spanish domination are wiped out, will
be, like Kentucky, the American paradise and the garden of America.
Julio P. Beauchamp, Marcelino Beauehamp, Alades Beau-
champ, Adolfo Fenellas, Francisco Linares, M. Rodri-
guez Perez, Manuel Frabal, Juan N. Aran, Tomas
Per,ez, Antonio Rivera, Juan Rivera, Sandalio Rivera,
Julio Vincenty, Pr. Victor M. Rivera, Adolfo Gonzales,
Jose G. Rivera, Jose Ignacio Rivera, Juan de Mata
Rivera, Maximino Lacour, G. Torrella, Pablo Beau-
champ, Ernesto Surra, Pedro Paoli, Jose G. Rivera,
Gregorio Castillo, Francisco Cepaller, Jose Luis Ortiz
Rentes, Joaquim Vincenty, Amego de P. Tandredo
Hernandez, A. Ortiz, Alcedes Beauchamp, Artuco To-
rrella, Carlos M. Beauchamp, Domingo Rivera, Jose A.
Rivera, Cipriani Rivera, A. Luego de Julio Tratar,
Juan Torrella, Amego de D. Teodoso, Agapito Journet,
Venancio Gonzalez, Francisco Aran, Zine Lapetegin,
V. Forestier, Ricardo Rivera, Julio C. Rivera, Luis
Esteva.

DEPREDATIONS OF THE CHANG A.

Eustaquio Milland, resident of Yabucoa, property owner and town
councillor, respectfully states that no study is more worthy of consid-
eration than that of the method of extirpating the pest called changa,
the cause of ruin to our crops and decay of agriculture in this district.

Agriculturists are interested in (taking advantage of) your visit,
placing under the scalpel of a scientific commission of the savior
Republic the insect known as Grillo talpa (mole cricket) and finding
a means of extirpating it, all steps taken by the experts named by
the Spanish Government having failed. It is quite impossible for the
agriculturist to sustain the struggle caused by this enemy of labor,
who to evade persecution burrows under the ground down to one-half
meter depth and makes its nest, producing its young by thousands
and feeding on the first shoots until the plantation succumbs to its
attacks.

The mamey leaf used because of its toughness and bitter flavor to

108

wrap around the young tobacco shoot, to protect it from the ravages
of the pest, prevents the full growth of the plant and affects its qual-
ity, thus defeating its object. It also attacks cane, rice, garden stuff,
and everything green.

Note.— The field laborers of this district earn 50 cents Porto
Rican daily, and are paid in provisions from the store of the estate,
at prices much above those charged at retail in the towns. Can noth-
ing be done for these unfortunates?

THREE NEEDS.
STATEMENT OF SENOK J. COLON.

We are in need of roads. The want of them makes it difficult
at times for even carts to move. Our port, which does not allow the
entrance of ships of large draft, could easily be deepened, as its bot-
tom is chalky. Our countrymen, who are peasants, should be grouped
m villages, so that. efforts for their education shall not be without
result. The cultivation of our fields is made difficult by the lack of
modern implements and an insect called "changa," which destroys
the greater part of the sowing. Up to the present time we have not
been able to find any method of destroying this troublesome animal.

ENLARGEMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

Patillas, P. R., March, 1899.
Senor Jose Amadeo, M. D. :

The economic future of our fertile island will depend on a greater
extension being given to the cultivation of cane, coffee, and cacao in
the mountain zone, where there is still a great quantity of land fit for
these crops. Tobacco will also play a part as one of the most valuable
products, as already in both London and other places in Europe cigars
made at Comerio, Cayey, Juana Diaz, Patillas, and other districts of
the island have been well received. In the whole of the granite region,
from the famous district of Mamey toward the east until arriving at
Manaubo and Yabucoa, magnificent meadows, uplands, and crests
are found which produce this plant in fine quality. It constitutes a
branch of no despicable value, as time will show.

It is also important to increase the cultivation of minor crops, such
as rice, corn, beans, plantains, sweet potatoes, and other tubers,
which will serve our growing poorer classes as cheap and abundant
food, and will free us from the ruinous importation of cereals
and other articles from foreign lands, thus saving money for the
increase of our own wealth. To arrive at this result it is necessary to
stimulate the small producer in every possible way, among these by
equitable taxation. Legislation will help powerfully toward agricul-
tural progress. The extinction of feudal laws favorable to concen-
tration gave rise to the spread of agriculture in Europe. In China,
where property is well divided and intense cultivation is practiced as
m no other part, nobody can neglect his piece of land, but has to pro-
duce something. Above all, the rights of proprietors are the rights
of society in general.

109

The arbitrary destruction of forests has converted much of our land
into waste, and fuel and building wood are already scarce. It is indis-
pensable that forests should be planted with indigenous trees and
suitable ones brought from other climates. This would increase wealth
and modify the temperature of hot zones to the benefit of public
health in general. The cocoanut alone, which grows so easily on our
coasts, offers a hope. By the lands of the maritime zone and the
small islands lying around, Porto Rico should be covered by this
beautiful and generous tree. Jamaica and Cuba export yearly mil-
lions of dollars' worth of cocoanuts, bananas, pines, oranges, lemons,
tomatoes, and other fruits, which we can also produce in abundance.

The cultivation of flowers, particularly of the orchid family, of
which there are many indigenous and exotic examples, attended to
with care, would be a remunerative industry. By increasing yearly
the area of our coffee plantations, the fruit of which has acquired fame
as one of the finest in the world, by the production on our mountain
sides of cacao, equal in quality to any of the South American, as can
be seen by visiting any of the magnificent plantations existing in this
district, there would be no reason why this country should perish if a
friendly hand were held out to help it.

Few regions of the globe in this latitude and of the same area pro-
duce so many kinds of valuable fruits, without counting the numerous
alimentary substances, as does Porto Rico.

THE VARIOUS CROPS.

, Guayama, P. R., January — , 1899.

STATEMENT OF MAYOR CELESTINO DOMINGUEZ.

The agriculture of this country consists of the planting of sugar,
which is still done in the manner observed by our grandfathers,
science not yet having taken a hand in the work. Unscientific and
irrational systems are still in vogue, and the work is intrusted to over-
seers, who have no further knowledge than that acquired by many
years of practice.

Coffee, to-day the principal crop of the island, worth perhaps about
10,000,000 pesos per annum, also suffers from the lack of scientific
cultivation. Our coffee is reputed to be the best in the world. The
principal coffee districts are Yauco, Mayaguez, Las Marias, Maricao,
Lares, and Utuado. The ports of export are San Juan, Ponce, and
Mayaguez. Most of it goes to Cuba, Germany, and France. Free
coasting trade will create a great demand for it in the States, as the
Americans, who are used to Brazilian coffee, do not know ours, and
consequently can not appreciate its fine qualities.

Cacao. — There are a few plantations of this tree in the island. The
quality is excellent, of second class, like Guayaquil cacao. It can be
grown anywhere in Porto Rico, and its extension would be beneficial.

Tobacco — Is produced in large quantities and of excellent quality,
being equal to Cuban leaf. The principal producing districts are
Comerio, Cayey, San Lorenzo, Caguas, and Patillas. About 3,000,000
pesos is the annual value of the crop.

Minor crops. — Plantains of several kinds, names, corn, yauticas,
rice, beans, gandules, etc., are grown all over, and form the princi-
pal foods of our peasants (jibaros).

110

Other products. — Building and cabinet woods, in great variety and
of excellent qualities, form a source of wealth.

Roads. — There is a central road, starting from Ponce and passing
through Aibonito, Coamo, Cayey, Caguas, and Rio Piedras, leading to
the capital. It is 134 kilometers long. Another, from Guayania, 88
kilometers long, joins the central road at Cayey. Both are well built
and are not inferior to roads in any country. There a/re also several
roads around the coast, which, for want of attention, become impassa-
ble in the rainy season. As to roads in the interior, they are few and
bad.

For cane the lands are prepared by plowing with the primitive
system of oxen; then the land is banked up, leaving furrows between.
When the planting season arrives, usually March and April, the seeds
are placed in the furrows and covered by the earth removed before-
hand. This operation is called minor cultivation, and there is another,
called major cultivation, practiced in the months of September and
October, the cane not being ready for grinding until about twelve to
eighteen months after planting. The irregularity of the rains in this
district do not allow of a fixed time for harvesting, we haying had
droughts lasting as long as twenty months. The farmers live with
their eyes turned skyward, to find out if they are to be favored by
rains. Their position, always one of uncertainty, is at times a des-
perate one. A plan of irrigation was made in 1865 by an English
engineer, Mr. Whebben, the cost of which was to be about 1,000,000
pesos, and which was never fostered by the Spanish Government. If
the American Government would protect the project and push it to
completion it would be the salvation of this part of the island, which
would become prosperous and flourishing, giving far larger returns of
sugar and benefiting the inhabitants.

Coffee is a mountain plant, sown on high lands. It requires mois-
ture and shade for its proper growth. The old routine and primitive
methods are still in vogue. The land is cleared of weeds, and in holes
of about the depth of a hand the seeds are sown. As this plan requires
some months for the coffee to appear, it is rarely used, being substi-
tuted by that of transplantation from nurseries, in which the plant
has grown to about one-half yard in height. The plants are placed in
the ground at distances of three yards from each other. I have seen
large trees bearing fruit thus transplanted. The first crop is given at
the fourth year. It is always weakly and scarce.

The rdanting of tobacco is a delicate operation and is usually per-
formed on the lands skirting the rivers. It can, however, be grown
anywhere. The land needs little preparation — a turning over and weed-
ing superficially — and then transplantation from the seed nurseries.
The seed is usually sown in August, the transplanting being done in
November, December, and January.

Technical sugar schools. — Porto Rico, during the year 1897, has
exported 57,648,851 kilograms of sugar, including muscovado and cen-
trifugal. Calculating the consumption in the island itself to be the
tenth part of that exported, we have a total production of 65,413j736
kilograms during the year. For the manufacture of such an impor-
tant quantity of sugar there is not in the whole island an individual
who can claim the title of a chemical expert. Owing to the want of
a technical school in Porto Rico, those who devote themselves to the
preparation of this product have no further knowledge of the matter
than that acquired by routine, and for this reason, and owing also to
the fact that they have not the slightest scientific knowledge, they do

Ill

not obtain all the results which the sugar industry should give, as they
allow a large portion of the saccharine matter to go to waste.

According to the memorandum issued by the assessors at the begin-
ning of last year in the island, 25,090 hectares of cane (a hectare being-
equal to 2.471 acres) are under cultivation. The districts which pro-
duce the most are the following, in the order given :

Hectares, i Hectares.

Ponce 2.618 | Yabucoa 922

Juana Diaz 1, 718 j Maunabo 762

Vieques _. 1,398 Yauco ... 681

Arecibo 1, 391 I Humacao 658

San German ■ 1,093 j Pati lias 648

Fajardo 973 j Cabo Rojo 621

This gives a total of 13,483 hectares (33,316 acres'), which represent
more than 53 per cent of the total cultivation of sugar cane in the
island.

In 1888, according to statistics of well-known veracity, there were
at work in the island:

Estates with steam vacuum sugar machinery ". . 20

Estates with ordinary machines worked by steam 140

Estates with ordinary machines worked by oxen 286

In 1898 the proportion was altered in the following manner:

Estates with steam vacuum sugar machinery 50

Estates with ordinary machines worked by steam 100

Estates with ordinary machines worked by oxen . _ 100

It is an absolute necessity that there should be established here
such a school as already mentioned on the same principles as those
conducted in the United States.

AGRICULTURAL DECADENCE.
STATEMENT OF SENOR P. SANTISTEBAN Y CHARIVARI, SPANISH MERCHANT.

San Juan, P. R. , October 28, 1898.

Agriculture. — Calls for special study on the part of the Government
in order to better its condition.

In spite of the fact that the country has paid 17,000,000 pesos for
the liberation of the slaves, who were almost exclusively the property
of the agriculturists, and the fact that the island — and principally com-
merce— has been kept down since 1879 by the circulation first of Mex-
ican silver and later of colonial silver — in spite of this unfortunate
condition of affairs generally, agricultural products have usually
obtained high prices in the world's markets. But agriculture to-day
is perhaps poorer than in the year 1879, and commerce is obliged to
advance money to it to carry it on and to prevent its disappearance
altogether.

It is difficult to explain the different causes which could have pro-
duced this agricultural decadence, but I think it can be attributed to
a great extent to the lack of an economic system among the agricul-
turists themselves. They have become accustomed to routine. They
lack necessary implements for good and cheap cultivation ; they do
not make use of the necessary fertilizers for worn-out lands; they
have no system of irrigation to replace the want of rainfall, and they

112

do not employ measures for reclaiming productive lands which are
under water. In general, our agriculturists are not possessed even
of the rudiments of horticulture and have not even the good sense to
choose the best seeds for planting.

THE NEEDS OF AGRICULTURE.
STATEMENT BY SENOR LUIS CENAL.

Fajardo, P. R., November 6, 1898.

,We lack entirely the mechanical improvements necessary to enable
the industrial branch of sugar producing to prepare the sugar in the
form required by the market consuming it. Our machinery can only
produce raw and muscovado sugar, and it is well known that the article
in this state does not enjoy a staple value sufficient to encourage its
production. This district is rich and extensive, lending "itself favor-
ably to the establishment of central mills with a margin of profit, and
thus dividing the industry into its two natural parts — the agricultural
and manufacturing — and giving hope to the agriculturists and mutual
benefit to state, province, and locality. In this district there are
twenty-six sugar-cane estates, of which fourteen are idle owing to the
financial crisis we are passing through. Besides these, there are a
large number of properties fit for this class of crop, which could be
converted into an important and profitable nucleus of the industry.

The abandoned cane estates are run to pasture, but as this is not
making proper use of the lands, it can be calculated that 75 per cent
of the district is, properly speaking, unproductive.

We have to sell our crude sugars to local commission agents, whose
expenses and commissions greatly reduce the value of the article.

I think that the district could support two central mills of the first
order, which would divide the production among them.

There is also a lack of capital in the district, which fact should
receive due attention, as well as the cultivation of minor crops, for
which excellent land exists and which have not been taken into account
in speaking of the special fitness of the district for sugar cultivation.

The installation of the two mills would make the district a flourish-
ing one both agriculturally and commercially, as we possess one of
the best ports of the island.

Owing to the connection between commerce and agriculture, the
former can be said to be decaying also.

Speaking of the general needs of the island, that of treaties is of
great importance, taking into consideration that one day the opening
of the Panama Canal will make this port of great maritime importance
commercially.

As regards manufacturing there is great opportunity for the estab-
lishment of fibrous textile, paper, beer, and chemical factories, and
of the working of the numerous minerals that the country produces.

As regards roads, without in any way deprecating the construction
of a belt line of railroad, there is great need of cart roads over which
our produce could pass from the interior to the principal markets of
the island without the expense of transport being greater than the
profits, as at present is the case.

113

THE SMALL FARMER.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR ETTSTAQUIO TORRES.

Guayanilla, P. R., November 7, 1898.

Agriculture, which has been languishing and is impoverished, is
overwhelmed by enormous tributes, wanting facilities afforded by an
agricultural bank, and fighting an unequal fight with the merchants,
owing to the fact that the difficulties of the money system closes to it
foreign and national markets.

From this cause originates the general depression of the country,
especially of the laboring class. This class do not earn enough to
buy food, and their ranks are being swelled enormously by small pro-
prietors who, wanting in means to till their small farms, are obliged to
sell them. This is the reason why public wealth is concentrating in
the hands of a few capitalists in each town ; and also why so many
uncultivated lands are seen, their owners, owing to their great extent,
not being able to give them attention.

Solve as soon as possible the money question; protect, instead of
limiting, the free establishment of banks; open free markets for
the export of our agricultural products, and it will soon be seen how
our agriculturists will prosper and flourish.

AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.
[Extract from report of Jose C. Barbosa, M. D. , as commissioner for the Philadelphia exposition. ]

My principal efforts have been directed toward obtaining the great-
est possible variety of samples of coffee and tobacco, and we shall
therefore be able to present 300 of the first and 200 of the latter, not-
withstanding that the period is but little favorable for the obtaining
of samples of coffee, owing to the time of harvesting of the last crop
being passed and the new crop not being ready until about the same
date that the exposition will be inaugurated.

In spite of this, my efforts being seconded by the good will of the
agriculturists, we shall be able to present a large variety of samples
of coffee of superior quality. The same holds good with regard to
tobacco, of which, a greater part being in store, owing to the complete
paralyzation of its sale, we have been able to obtain the very best and
finest selected samples.

The sugar industry has been suffering for a long time in Porto Rico
owing to low sale prices. The want of capital has been the cause of
the generally imperfect development which the good quality of the
soil should have led us to expect. This has brought with it the dis-
couragement of those persons making a business of this industry
and has caused a great number of sugar plantations to be abandoned
and the land Used for other classes of products.

Nevertheless, the ninety samples which will be presented are suffi-
cient to show the immense advantages which could be obtained by the
introduction of machinery, the investment of capital in this direction,
and of the necessary protection for the complete development of this
industry, thus opening a future for sugar growers in Porto Rico.

We shall have sixty samples of different classes of textile materials.
These form a branch of wealth which to-day is not exploited, owing to
1125 8

114

want of capital. Textile materials are found here in great quantities
and varieties, but abandoned and uncultivated and without use for this
reason. It is advisable to show them in the exposition in order to
allow manufacturers in the United States to appreciate the advantages
which they could obtain by a cultivation of these rare materials, and
their use in factories, which would give labor to many, would cheapen
the cost of living, and would bring us foreign capital by the establish-
ment of manufacturing centers which contribute so largely to the
wealth and prosperity of a country.

The superior quality of our achiote, which grows wild, can be greatly
improved. I have, thought it convenient to call the attention of
farmers to the importance of this product, which obtains the price of
12 pesos a hundredweight, and can be collected almost without any
expense. A number of samples will be presented in the exposition,
so that its quality shall be known and a good market for it be opened
up. .

Our rice, as will be seen by the samples shown, is of fine qualit}7, and
competes advantageously with the imported article. This product, of
which there is an enormous consumption in the country (the importa-
tion of which extended in the years 1897-98 to 8,662,682 kilograms —
value, 606, 387 pesos) , can be here grown in sufficient quantities for home
consumption, with immense advantage to the country and to those who
wish to undertake the cultivation of the article.

The samples of our corn are of better quality than the imported. This
article gives three crops a year and requires only a small amount of
capital for its cultivation. The precarious condition of our farmers
has caused its cultivation to be almost abandoned.

I have taken care to collect samples of beans, chick peas, Mexican
beans, gandules, etc. — articles which, without special cultivation, can
compete with those of the better class which are imported into our
markets, and which have the advantage of being easy to raise in the
poorest class of land and of giving two or three crops a year.

I have asked for several samples of cotton, which once constituted
one of the principal sources of wealth of our country. My object was
to allow its fine qualities to become known, so that its cultivation and
exploitation could again be undertaken.

I have obtained forty-two samples of the different classes of starch
produced in the island by the crude and primitive processes yet
employed. Such is the richness of the plants that even with these"
methods a large quantity of starch is obtained, and it can compete in
every way with similar classes manufactured in foreign countries.

The tabonuco is a resinous gum which, if worked properly, will
give a large quantity of trementine and camphor. Of the hedionda
seed (substitute for chicory), 1,117 kilograms were exported to Cuba
in the year of 1897. We show a number of samples of this in order
to open up a market for them.

I have insisted on the advantage to be obtained from the cultiva-
tion of the malagueta (used for bay rum), which is already well
known outside of the country, and the essence of which is quoted at
a high price in the New York market. We have obtained a large
number of the samples of the article.

Several collections of the woods of the country, both for cabinet
and building purposes, have been obtained, and they compare favor-
ably in quality, beauty, and variety with those of many other coun-
tries, and are abundant in our forests. Up to the present their
usefulness has been simply meager, owing to the want of commu-

115

nication between the larger towns and the excessive expense of trans-
portation which bad roads necessitate. Once known, they will become
appreciated immediately, and their working will be made easy by the
opening of proper roads.

The mineral wealth of Porto Rico is duly represented by the ten
collections which will be shown in the exposition. The several classes
of mineral which they contain and the constant demand for mining
rights are the best proof that a rich subsoil exists and that granite,
coal, iron, copper, silver, gold, etc., form a source of immense wealth
unknown until to-day, and which at no very distant day will exercise
considerable influence in the future of our island.

A great many samples of articles which can be used in new indus-
tries have been forthcoming. These have not been used up to the
present time, not owing to want of knowledge of their utility and
advantage of cultivating them, but purely for want of capital. In a
country like ours, where up to a short time ago the rate of interest
was from 18 per cent per annum upward, and through whose custom-
houses a half of the circulating medium passes in a year, it was
impossible to set on foot any industry even when the prime material
was on hand in abundance.

We should, therefore, make known the few manufacturing indus-
tries which we possess, such as that of matches, distilleries, hat
weaving, dyeing, soap making, etc. , in order to show that willingness
has been there and industry has not been wanting, and at the same
time to stimulate the introduction of capital in the form of banks,
societies, companies, etc. , which, when they see the material which
we have on hand and the thriftiness of our people, will find a stimulus
and guaranty for the undertaking of new enterprises, bringing the
one factor which is necessary for our prosperity, namely, capital.

We have nothing to desire in the direction of a fertile country and
an honest and laborious population.

Returns for farms and cattle in forty-five municipal districts.

[Prepared for Henry K. Carroll, commissioner, by bureau of agriculture of Porto Rico,

July, 1899.]

Sugar-cane
estates.

Coffee
estates
with or
without

ma-
chinery.

Tobacco
planta-
tions
(hec-
tares1).

Small-
crop

farms
(hec-
tares1).

Cattle
farms.

Number

Municipal districts.

In culti-
vation.

Not in
cultiva-
tion.

of head
of cattle.

11
2

9
4
8
7
2
3
2

8
1
6
1
5
3
4
9
6
11

9
1
1
1
5

446
620
756
231
600
200
1,606
3,340

3
46
14
20

7
20

1,200
500

35
13
6
1

192
90

189

150
41

145

846
78
99
17

100
10

176
95
70

5,300

3,109
17,000

6,000
1,257
4,183

1
5
1
6
1
1

3,000
1,050

Yauco

104

378

117

148

2,043
300

2,000
200
650
710

1,500
54

2,190
500

1,600

1,389

5
5
26
15
35
7
3

Arroyo

800

Gruayanilla

4,500

1,910

Juncos .

3,180

Gurabo .

2,354

Utuado

4
1
1
3

3,000

Aguada

1,745

Yabucoa

200

5,413

A fiasco

Aibonito -

600

1,000

Loiza

3.200

116

Returns for farms and cattle in forty-five municipal districts — Continued.

Municipal districts.

Sugar-cane

estates.

In culti-
vation.

Not in
cultiva-
tion.

Coffee
estates
with or
without

ma-
chinery.

Tobacco
planta-
tions
(hec-
tares1).

Small-
crop

farms
(hec-
tares1).

Cattle
farms.

N umber
of head
of cattle.

Patillas

Cayey

Lares

San German

Rio Grande

Piedras

Maunabo

Sabana Grande .

dales

Penuelas..

Rincon

Arecibo

Las Marias

Fajardo

Coamo ....

Caguas

Manati

Barceloneta

Toa Alta:

Naguabo

Bayamon

Camuy

Aguas Buenas . .
Ponce

Total.

60
545

75
27

105
300

1,934

2,000
2,247

110

491

185

59d

233
6
56

112

560

137

232

365

813

128

192

220

577

786

1,202

4,779

380

3,380

2,000

1,370

628

1,215

460

352

586

243

600

393

1,034

418

740

5,815

209

3,177

54,074

128

14
1
9

600

3,300

2,500
5,833
12,180

1,140

1,200

6,468

700

8,930

800

7,495

15,000

12,128

3,930

5,400

2,700

14,000

14,600

8,287

681

4,000

199,973

1 Hectare = 2.471 acres.

Note by the Director of Agriculture. — The data given in these tables con-
cerning the principal crops and cattle breeding in the forty-five towns noted, if
not thorough and accurate, notwithstanding the efforts of the agricultural bureau
to make them so, are as near the truth as possible.

Until now this class of statistical data has been asked for only for the purpose
of burdening the public wealth with new imposts. For this reason it has been
almost a traditional custom to conceal the truth from fear of imposts.

The data from the twenty-seven towns which are not embraced in this table are
excluded because they are not well authenticated.

As to the number of sugar lands, not under cultivation, it must be borne in
mind that the bureau has not given attention to the multitude of Jamacia trains
and small estates which exist only in good times, but only to sugar mills of large
and superior character, and to extensive and fertile lands.

In relation to farms which are being worked, excepting those which produce
centrifugal sugar, the rest which produce muscavados, the price of which in the
markets is very low, only have under cultivation a very small area in comparison
with the number of hectares which they possess, a circumstance which aroused
the enthusiasm for the cultivation of coffee, triplicating the production in less than
ten years.

117

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120

Live stock in 1896 — Returns to the provincial board of assessment.

Departments.

Horses.

Mules.

Asses.

Cattle.

Sheep.

Goats.

Swine.

Total
head.

11,861
13, 202
5,216
8,624
16,468
3,780
5,441
1,159

254

694

551

748

2,143

108

102

175

211

86,535
49, 595
19,578
39,531

46,879

12, 779

40,777

7,938

324

12
934
346

97
217

775
423
191
1,667
1,585
448
473
217

3,531
2,620

733
2,121
2,201

793
1,287

125

103,346
66,714
26,383
53,800

Arecibo

Aguadilla ..

69,833

17,999

Humacao

48,224
9,493

Total

65,751

4,467

717

303, 612

2,055

5,779

13,411

395, 792

Intended uses of the live stock.

Agricultu-
ral .work.

Reproduc-
tion.

Consump-
tion.

In harness
and trans-
portation.

Motive
power for
machinery.

19,626

2,107

255

65,281

28,739

793

352

170,979

1,407

4,051

7,455

17,253

1,533

110

13,941

133

Mules

Cattle.

52,077

648

1,728

5,956

1,334

Total

87,269

213,776

60,409

32,837

1,501

Acreage of various products in 1862.

Acres.

Minor crops.. 88,678

Coffee 33,626

Tobacco 4,761

Sugar. 55,382

Cotton 1,344

PRODUCTS IN THE PERIOD 1828-1864.

The production of sugar had risen to 18,782,675 pounds in 1828
and there was a steady increase for the next twenty years. In 1848
101,298,754 pounds were produced, the highest point down to 1864
being reached in 1861, when 131,035,471 pounds were reported.

The coffee crop of 1828 was 11,160,950 pounds, rising in 1830 to
16,911,925 pounds, with a marked decrease between 1835 and 1840 to
5,277,250 pounds in 1836. There was a steady increase between 1850
and 1864.

Of cotton 479,150 pounds were produced in 1828; in 1837 it reached
5,003,779 pounds, falling in 1859 to 47,251 pounds.

The tobacco crop in 1828 was 2,406,100 pounds. In 1862 it rose to
8,950, 725 pounds; the lowest point in the period was reached in 1837,
when 2,104,215 pounds were produced.

Products in 1776.

Estates ..' 5,815

Sugar1 pounds.. 273,725

Cotton do.... 111,875

Coffee do.... 1,126,225

Rice _.._> do 2,009,650

Corn do 1,550.600

Tobacco do.... 702,050

Not including molasses.

121

Live stock in 1776.

Cattle .- 78,884

Mules 13,614

Horses... 4,334

Sheep 952

Goats 31,758

INDUSTRIES.

INDUSTRIES KILLED BY SPANISH TARIFF.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 29, 1899.
, Dr. Carbonell, secretary of the interior. There is absolutely no
industrial life here in the sense of manufacture. The only thing
which my department has to do in connection with that branch is to
register trade-marks, patents, and copyrights which come from other
parts of the world.

Dr. Carroll. There is no inventive genius, then, among this people?

Dr. Carbonell. The Government has discouraged always the insti-
tution of any industries here, so as to preserve to the merchants in
Spain the monopoly of sending their goods here. For example, it
has never been possible to put up a flour-milling establishment here
because the Spanish Government placed on wheat in the grain the
same rate of duty as was placed on the ground flour, for the purpose
of allowing merchants in Spain to take wheat from the United States,
grind it in Spain, and then send it to Porto Rico. Also the industry
of making soup paste was killed in the same way. They put on such
an exorbitant duty that they were unable here to compete with the
Spaniards in Spain.

Dr. Carroll. We understand that Spanish monopoly is now at an
end.

Dr. Carbonell. Unfortunately, it has not terminated yet, because
the same laws are in force now as formerly. If the United States
had only allowed this to become part of the Union with respect to the
tariff — that is, without custom-house duties on articles coining from
the United States — it would have done an immense amount of good to
the country.

Dr. Carroll. The duties imposed on goods from Spain are the
same as those from the United States, so that Spain has no longer the
advantage which she formerly had over other countries.

Dr. Carbonell. I consider that goods manufactured in the United
States should come in free, and goods from Porto Rico should go to the
United States free. Goods that went from here to Spain paid a pro-
hibitive duty, but those which came from Spain here paid 10 per cent
ad valorem. Coffee in Spain paid $12 a hundredweight.

Dr. Carroll. They do not seem to like Porto Rico coffee in Spain.

Dr. Carbonell. That can not be so, because one of their songs
says the best coffee in the world is the coffee of Porto Rico.

Dr. Carroll. They seem to have preferred to roast the people of
Porto Rico instead of their coffee. What is the commerce over which
this department has control ?

Dr. Carbonell. None, in spite of the name of the portfolio.

122

SUGAR MILLS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. Is the sugar industry nourishing?

Mr. Antonio RoiGr. It is now^ but not as regards muscovado sugar,
because each planter has $20,000 or $30,000 invested in machinery,
which is unnecessary. We will have to establish central factories,
and all the other plantations sell their cane to these factories. We
can then afford to have better mills and all the latest improvements.

Dr. Carroll. What do you consider the best points at which they
should be established.

Mr. RoiG. There should be two in each of the departments.

Dr. Carroll. Are- there no modern sugar-making plants in the
island ?

Mr. RoiG. Yes; I have one; there is also the Progresso at Carolina;
Mr. Finley has one; Mr. Huisi one, called La Esperanza, in Arecibo.
There is one in Aguadilla, owned by Mr. Amell; one in Anasco, owned
by Mr. Pagan; another in Mayaguez, owned by Bias Nadal; two in
Ponce, one of them owned by Mr. Gallard, and two in Yabucoa. The
capacity of these mills is from 10,000 to about 20,000 bags. I am the
owner of sugar machinery, but do not raise the cane. I buy the cane
from the neighboring planters. I sell the sugar here and in the
United States. I think if some American people come here and go
into that business either alone or with natives it would be good for
the island.

VARIOUS INDUSTRIES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1898.

Mr. Francisco T. Sabat, deputy collector of customs at San Juan :

Dr. Carroll. What kind of wood is used in making charcoal?

Mr. Sabat. Very fine woods in immense quantities. It is not pos-
sible to name them. There are large tracts of timber on the mountain
tops. This country sent to the World's Fair at Chicago a piece of
work containing 240 different woods, all produced in the island.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any fishing industries?

Mr. Sabat. The fishing industry, as an industry, does not exist,
but the poor people of the coast towns are accustomed to earning their
living by fishing, usually with nets, sometimes with hooks, and bring
their catch to the cities to sell. There is absolutely no organization
in the industry. Each man is an independent fisherman, and brings
his fish independently to market. So abundant are the fish on this
coast that I have frequently seen a surplus of fish thrown into the
sea for want of purchasers, the market having been glutted.

Dr. Carroll. Are cattle raised in large numbers on the island?

Mr. Sabat. Yes;, cattle are raised in large quantities, and this
industry forms the second source of agricultural income in the island
of Porto Rico. It is the second source of wealth next to sugar. What
I mean is that after the agricultural products of sugar, coffee, and
tobacco, the cattle-raising industry is the most important. We sell
cattle to the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, and other English and French

123

islands of the West Indies, more than half a million dollars' worth
every year.

Dr. Carroll. Do they have any means of preserving the meat
after it is killed?

Mr. Sabat. .It is exported alive. There are no cold storages in the
island. Sometimes families salt meat for their own consumption.

Dr. Carroll. What kinds of meat are consumed here?

Mr. Sabat. Beef, pork, goat meat; also sheep are raised, but not
many.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any canning factories on the island.

Mr. Sabat. In Mayaguez and the capital the industry exists on a
very small scale, pineapples being the principal fruit canned.

THINGS MADE IN MAYAGUEZ.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Mayaguez, P. R., January 23, 1899.

Mr. Badrena, ex-United States consul at Maj^aguez :

Dr. Carroll. Are you familiar with the industries of Mayaguez?

Mr. Badrena. Yes. The best and most important is that of matches
made by M. Grau & Sons. It is not a large factory, but is sufficient
to supply Mayaguez and other cities, even San Juan. The material
from which they are made is all imported from Germany. They have
not machinery to make the sticks here. In San Juan they make the
whole match. I do not know how many men are employed here.
Then there is the chocolate mill here. The chocolate is made from
native cacao, raised in this part of the island, and it is the best on the
island. We used to send the cacao from here to San Juan to the fac-
tory there. There are two chocolate factories here, but both of them
are small. They sell the chocolate here from 16 cents to $1 a pound.

Dr. Carroll. We would consider that high in the United States.
We get the best in the United States for 40 cents. But there is some
cacao imported here from Venezuela, is there not?

Mr. Badrena. No; unless some one wants it especially and pays
for it.

Dr. Carroll. Well, in San Juan when I asked why they charged
so much, they said because they had to pay such heavy duties.

Mr. Badrena. Yes; but it is seldom imported. Our cacao is as
good as that of Caracas. Then we have distilleries for the making of
rum, bay rum, and wines.

Dr. Carroll. What would the distillers here think of having the
United States revenue system introduced?

Mr. Badrena. They will feel badly about it; and the same thing
may be said of tobacco.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be better to make rum higher and wines
cheaper?

Mr. Badrena. I think wines should be introduced without paying
any duties.

Dr. Carroll. We propose to admit them at 3 cents instead of 30.

Mr. Badrena. The people here all drink wine. They never get
drunk on it. I have tasted California wines, and they are as good as
French clarets, and they can be brought here very cheaply. I believe
they can compete with Spanish wines. That depends on the quality.

124

Dr. Carroll. I have statistics as to the production of the distill-
eries— as to the number of gallons they produce, and so forth. Is
there much tobacco manufactured here?

Mr. Badrena. There are many private shops for the making of
cigars and cigarettes — not in large quantities, but very good. The
cigarettes are made here by Esteva Hermanos. Before the war we
used to have Cuban cigarettes, but now they are shut out and this
factory was started. Confidence will be restored upon the settlement
of the tariff and the money question, and American capital will come
here without the intervention of the Government.

THE CATTLE INDUSTRY.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San German, P. R., January 26, 1899.
Mr. Lopez, a cattle dealer :

Dr. Carroll. Have you anything to say about your business — that
of cattle raising?

Mr. Lopez. No.

Dr. Carroll. Shall I consider, then, that everything is going well
with you ; that all debts are being paid and business is good?

Mr. Lopez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. How many cattle have you?

Mr. Lopez. Six or seven hundred.

Dr. Carroll. Do you keep them for laboring purposes or for beef?

Mr. Lopez. For both purposes.

Dr. Carroll. How much does an ordinary yoke of oxen bring,
generally?

Mr. Lopez. One hundred dollars.

Dr. Carroll. Are they then ready for work?

Mr. Lopez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What is a pair of ponies worth?

Mr. Lopez. That varies a good deal. Good saddle horses are worth
up to $400. Good working horses are worth about $80.

Dr. Carroll. Then a pair of oxen is worth a little more than a
pair of horses?

Mr. Lopez. Yes, if the horses are ordinary ones.

Dr. Carroll. How much milk a day does a good cow give when
the pasture is good?

Mr. Lopez. The maximum quantity can be taken as from 8 to 10
liters. [A liter is a little over a quart. ]

Dr. Carroll. Are the cows milked twice a day?

Mr. Lopez. Only once.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States they always milk good cows
at least twice a day.

Mr. Lopez. They give more, then.

Dr. Carroll. They consider that the oftener they milk them there
the more milk they get in the aggregate.

Mr. Lopez. Here they have to bring up the calf on its mother's
milk. They can not feed it satisfactorily as they do in the United
States.

Dr. Carroll. In what time do you wean one here?

Mr. Lopez. A year.

125

Dr. Caeroll. They very seldom allow a calf to remain with its
mother more than from three to six months, and never allow it to
have all the milk at any time.

Mr. Lopez. Here they give them nearly all.

Dr. Carroll. The quality of the milk is not especially rich in
cream here.

Mr. Lopez. There is very little cream, owing to the poor quality
of the pasture.

Dr. Carroll. You have magnificent cattle here, larger than almost
any breed I have seen in the United States; hut they don't compare
with them in milk-giving capacity. Where did you get the breed
from?

Mr. Lopez. It is a cross between the cattle of the country and Afri-
can cattle.

Dr. Carroll. Why is it that you do not have better pasture? Is it
on account of the drought or the poorness of the land, or for what
reason?

Mr. Lopez. For lack of water, especially in the southern parts of the
island. Big herds are raised in these districts, and months pass some-
times without rain.

Dr. Carroll. In what months does the drought occur?

Mr. Lopez. Generally from March to August.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any water in the rivers here, which could be
saved in the rainy season, so that you might have irrigation of your
lands?

Mr. Lopez. We have no rivers; only springs to give our cattle water.

Dr. Carroll. Then there is no way in which the supply of water
could be gotten here in the rainy season for the purpose of irrigation?

Mr. Lopez. Some years ago there was a trial made to sink an artesian
well, but it gave no result, and since' then everybody has been con-
ducting experiments on his own grounds and endeavoring to get results.

Dr. Carroll. What is the average rainfall per annum?

Mr. Lopez. They have never made those calculations here.

Dr. Carroll. But you do have an immense rainfall here during
eight months of the year.

Mr. Lopez. Yes; very much rain.

Dr. Carroll. If you knew exactly how much, it might be possible to
arrange a reservoir to save water for the period of drought.

A Gentleman present. We have never had rain-measuring instru-
ments here; but in the lowlands, where water comes down in torrents,
pools form which last for months, sometimes preventing traffic.

Dr. Carroll. Then if you had a reservoir situated in the proper
place, with streams leading to it, you might store up water to serve
in the dry season?

Mr. Lopez. The topography of the country would prevent that.
We could only catch water to irrigate the lowlands, but the better
lands are situated high up.

Dr. Carroll. Most of the land is low, is it not?

Mr. Lopez. No.

Dr. Carroll. Is not your important land the land of the valley?

Mr. Lopez. We have very fine lands on the mountain, also, which
would be worth a great deal if we could water them.

Dr. Carroll. If you can not water all1 of them I should think it
would be well if you could water the lands of the valley.

Mr. Lopez. It would be a very costly plan. It has never been tried.

126 .

Dr. Carroll. The first thing necessary would be to have a com-
petent engineer look over the land and see whether it would be pos-
sible to have a reservoir or not.

Mr. Lopez. That would require the cooperation of all the land
owners.

INDUSTRIES IN CABO BO JO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cabo Rojo, P. R., January 27, 1899.

Mr. Pedro Colberg (a druggist). I desire to ask permission to cor-
rect some mistakes in the statements made by Mr. Ortis. I have heard
it said that we have no industries here. I wish to say that this city
has more industries probably than any other city in the island. There
is the straw-hat industry, which is almost exclusively confined to Cabo
Rojo. The whole island is supplied from here, and we only need a
little money to bring it up to a very important place.

Dr. Carroll. Where do you get the material?

Mr.. Pagan. We have it here. We could make sufficient, not only
to supply the whole country, but even for export. Moreover, we have
the salt industry here, and the richest salt deposit in the island. I am
one of the owners of it. We have just asked General Henry to get
the duty in the United States reduced. We have just sent 30,000
quintals of salt to Boston, but made no profit on it, owing to the duty
we had to pay. We have sufficient salt to supply Porto Rico, Cuba,
and perhaps a part of the United States. The present production,
with the old-fashioned methods of obtaining the salt, is from 300,000
to 400,000 quintals a year.

Dr. Carroll. In what form does the salt occur?

Mr. Pagan. It is artificial salt. We have big flats into which we
pump sea water and allow it to crystallize by action of the air. At
present we produce about half a million bushels, but we can raise that
production to 3,000,000 bushels a year.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that your principal difficulty is that
your vessels have to clear from Mayaguez; that your port is not now
. open as it used to be.

Mr. Pagan. In the name of the town I ask that the port be declared
an open port. The port of Cabo Rojo is one of the best protected har-
bors of the island. It is the best port on the western coast of the
island.

Dr. Carroll. Would there be any shipment from it, in addition to
salt, if it were opened?

Mr. Pagan. We would have big shipments of sugar, cattle, corn,
and other products. This town has been completely isolated. The
railroad system, instead of touching at this place, has cut off this
town and left it without communication of any sort with the rest of
the island.

Dr. Carroll. How far is it from here to the port?

Mr. Pagan. From 2 to 3 kilometers.

Dr. Carroll. Are the salt marshes very close?

Mr. Pagan. By sea they are very near, by land they are farther.

Dr. Carroll. How many bushels of salt have you shipped this
year?

Mr. Pagan. Between 4,000 and 5,000 bushels, in spite of the war.

127

Dr. Carroll. Was that less than the year before?

Mr. Pagan. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you ship salt here on coastwise vessels for vari-
ous ports of the island?

Mr. Pagan. We ship on these little schooners going around the
island because we can get cheap rates; but to the United States we
ship on large schooners.

Dr. Carroll. For coastwise trade your vessels are not required to
clear from Mayaguez, are they?

Mr. Pagan. Yes; even in that case.

Dr. Carroll. Have you asked General Henry by petition to make
Cabo Rojo a port of entry?

Mr. Pagan. We asked General Brooke.

Dr. Carroll. What did he say?

Mr. Pagan. He made no reply.

Dr. Carroll. Does the city of Mayaguez oppose having Cabo Rojo
made a port of entry?

Mr. Pagan. Some years ago there was a big fire in Mayaguez and
the people of Cabo Rojo loaned their port to Mayaguez. As soon as
Mayaguez itself built up by means of this port the people there
influenced the government by use of large sums of money to declare
this port closed again.

Dr. Carroll. If General Henry should agree to declare Cabo Rojo
a port of entry, would the municipality or would private citizens agree
to see that no loss was caused to the government on account of the
expense.

Mr. Pagan. We don't wish the port to be used as a custom-house.
All we want is to have a collector here, and we will attend to that.

Dr. Carroll. That is a very important point, because ports of
entry sometimes do not pay expenses, and if you will assure the gov-
ernment that it will pay expenses it may go a long way toward
inducing General Henry to open the port.

Mr. Pagan. Do I understand you correctly that if the entries into
Cabo Rojo shall not be sufficient to pay the expense of the collector-
ship that the people of Cabo Rojo will agree to pay the balance?

Dr. Carroll. Yes.

Mr. Pagan. All of us here would be pleased to undertake that
responsibility.

Dr. Carroll. Returning to the hat industry; can you inform me
as to the number of hats made here a year?

Mr. Pagan. At the very least from 50,000 to 60,000 hats annually.

Dr. Carroll. Is not that number too large?

Mr. Pagan. No; I don't refer to the best hats, but to all classes.

Mr. Ortiz. The poor people make them in their houses.

Dr. Carroll. Are they made usually by the women and children?

Mr. Pagan. Yes; the poor women make them; not the men.

Dr. Carroll. How much can the women make in a day at it?

Mr. Pagan. One of the finest hats sells for $48 a dozen, and each
hat takes a woman a month to make. They sell cheap hats in quan-
tities for 6 or 7 cents apiece.

There is also a cane industry and brick works here.

128

BRICKS AND EARTHENWARE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cayey, P. R., February 28, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What industries have you in Cayey?

Mayor Munoz. Only the tobacco industry and the bakery; they are
the main industries.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any other industries on a smaller scale
which might be developed?

Mayor Munoz. Yes; earthenware pots are made here.

Dr. Carroll. Have you the clay here for them?

Mayor Munoz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is the industry an extensive one.

Mayor Munoz. No; it is very small.

Dr. Carroll. You only make for your own use?

Mayor Munoz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. How many men are employed in that industry?

Mayor Munoz. I think only about three men.

Dr. Carroll. Do they make only plain earthenware?

Mayor Munoz. Really, only bricks.

Dr. Carroll. Where are these earthen pots made?

Mayor Munoz. In Santurce.

THE MANUFACTURE OF SOUP PASTES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner. ] •

Ponce, P. R., March S, 1899.

Mr. Alfred Casals:

Mr. Casals. I find that the new tariff does not protect manufac-
turers as much as the old tariff did. There are many articles neces-
sary in manufacturing that were treated much better under the old
than the new schedules. As a basis I will tell you that a great
many young men who are not able to go into agricultural enterprises
would go into manufacturing on a small scale, and this would put an
end to the plague of office seeking that exists at present. Now, as
regards the tariff and its effects upon my own business, which is the
making of soup pastes, I don't know whether you are aware of the
fact or not, but the manufacture of soup pastes was carried on almost
exclusively in Latin countries, being an article of general consump-
tion among people of the Latin race. About 100,000 boxes are used
every year in the island, and Spain had an enormous market here for
her soup pastes, she being among the first manufacturers of it in the
world. Spanish flour was good for making soup paste. American
flour is much better adapted for the purpose, because it is richer in
gluten. For that reason Spain imposed a tax of $4 on American flour,
while her soup paste came into the island without paying any duty
whatever. Consequently the manufacture of pastes here was impos-
sible. The Spanish pastes, which at the beginning of the invasion
were paying $2.75 per 100 kilos, under the new tariff pay a low ad
valorem duty, which is preventing competition by the native manu-
facturers.

Dr. Carroll. What is the ad valorem equivalent to in specific duty?

Mr. Casals. That is just where the disadvantage comes in. Thej^
declare to their consul the value of the invoice, but in trading with.

129

Spain you can be sure that they never declare over half or quarter of
the value of the goods. The pastes have different values, according
to the quality of the material used, and the American consul in Spain
can not be an expert on that question and must take the values de-
clared to him. The average price for the poor qualities of paste would
be $5 for 100 pounds. Even if they had declared their paste at its
price, they would have to pay only about 80 cents on 100 pounds, be-
cause the new tariff calls for 1 5 per cent ad valorem, so that even when
truly stated there is a difference between the duty under the old tariff
and the duty under the new represented by the difference between
$2.75 and 80 cents. The result of this will be that the industries of
the country will be again under the influence of Spanish control.
There are two factories in Ponce. Between the two they can make
sufficient for the consumption of the whole island. These factories
give employment to hundreds of families, and many of the employees
are women. If these duties are not modified slightly we will have to
discontinue.

Dr. Carroll. But you have a great advantage in the reduction of
flour from $4 to $1.

Mr. Casals. The reduction of the duty gives us about $1.25 on one
hundredweight of paste, whereas the difference in duty on imported
pastes gives Spain $1.95 on one hundredweight of the paste, or a differ-
ence of 70 cents on one hundredweight.

Dr. Carroll. What other materials enter into composition of these
pastes?

Mr. Casals. Only flour and box shooks. Formerly we paid 2 pesos
a cubic meter on the shooks, but to-clay we pay 16 cents per $100.

Dr. Carroll. How do those charges compare?

Mr. Casals. The present charge works out to about $2. 60 per cubic
meter. It depends, however, on the quality of the wood, greener
wood weighing more; but it always costs us more than it did before.
Consequently our industry, which was exploited always by the Span-
iards, is even now in the worst condition.

Dr. Carroll. Do all the imported soup pastes come from Spain?

Mr. Casals. Seven-eighths of the soup pastes come from there, the
other eighth being divided between Italy and the United States.

Dr. Carroll. What is the present price per box in the stores?

Mr. Casals. Eight pesos and a half per 100 pounds.

Dr. Carroll. What did you sell it for before?

Mr. Casals. Seven pesos and a half, with competition from Spain.
During the last four years our factory has lost more than $4,000.

Dr. Carroll. What does the imported paste sell for?

Mr. Casals. The imported pastes sell about 50 cents less, because of
an inferior quality.

Dr. Carroll. Does it take the market away because it is less in
price, notwithstanding that it is inferior in quality?

Mr. Casals. Yes. At price for price we could command the market,
though some of the houses in San Juan try hard to hold the market
for the Spanish pastes out of racial sympathy.

Dr. Carroll. How much ought the tariff to be raised on the Spanish
soup paste?

Mr. Casals. To what it was before, $2.75. Take away the ad
valorem duty, because they always act in bad faith.

Dr. Carroll. If it were put at II, American money, would it give
results?

1125 9

130

Mr. Casals. I think that at 11.50 we would be able to get along.
Other foreign pastes do not affect competition.

Dr. Carroll. If the tariff were raised to what it was before, or to
$1.50 American, then at what price would you sell your soup paste?

Mr. Casals. We would reduce it immediately a peso per 100 pounds
and hold the market. It forms an important part of the food used by
the poor people of the island, who buy it in small quantities.

Dr. Carroll. As regards the undervaluation, it is easily met by
your compelling them to prove the value at the custom-house.

Mr. Casals. That is a good suggestion, but it would be much better
if the ad valorem duty were changed to a specific one. It would not
give any chance for fraudulent declarations.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any other industries here suffering from
the new tariff?

Mr. Casals. I think that leather is too high and that shoemakers
are suffering.

Dr. Carroll. That duty was to protect the tanners.

Mr. Casals. As there are none here, no protection is needed.

Dr. Carroll. There is representation in regard to it in the two
documents I have referred to.

Mr. Casals. Only as to sole leather. The country is destined to
have shoe manufacturers here, but the establishment of shoe factories
depends on cheapening the price of raw materials.

POSSIBLE INDUSTBIES IN YAUCO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yauco, P. R., March 6, 1899.

Mr. Cianchini, Mr. Vivaldi, and others :

Dr. Carroll. What industries, Mr. Mayor, are carried on in this
district ?

Mr. Cianchini. Absolutely none.

Dr. Carroll. Not even on a small scale ?

Mr. Cianchini. There are shoemakers and hatmakers who work by
hand, but that is all. The hats come from Cabo Rojo, not here.

Dr. Carroll. Do you make any brick in this district ?

Mr. Cianchini. Yes, but by hand.

Dr. Carroll. Any tiles ?

Mr. Cianchini. No. Lime is burned here.

Dr. Carroll. Do they get the limestone from the mountains ?

Mr. Cianchini. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is that lime ever used on the land in the way of fer-
tilizer ?

Mr. Cianchini. There is an artificial fertilizer manufactured in Ma-
yaguez in which they use the lime.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be possible to develop some industry
here that would be of benefit to the town and townspeople by giving
employment, and thus help along the prosperity of the municipality?

Note. — There was a general response in the affirmative.

Mr. Cianchini. That is absolutely necessary, and one of the first
things to be attended to. We have a great deal of raw material in the
country which could be used for manufacturing to the benefit of every-
body.

131

Dr. Carroll. What' kinds of industries could be established here?

Mr. Cianchini. The manufacture of paper.

Dr. Carroll. Out of what materials?

Mr. Cianchini. The bark of several trees, the plantain leaf, corn-
stalks, and rags, which are at present put to no use.

A Gentleman. The husk of the cocoanut ?

Mr. Vivaldi. No ; the husks of the cocoanut are- already exported
to the United States for manufacture into fiber, which, in turn, is woven
into mats.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any other substance for the manufacture of
paper ?

Mr. Vivaldi. There are several, including those which have been
referred to.

Mr. Cianchini. Another industry which could be developed is that
of rope. This industry would have plenty of raw materials.

Dr. Carroll. What are the raw materials ?

Mr. Cianchini. Maguey.

Dr. Carroll. Does that make good, strong rope ?

Mr. Cianchini. Yes; it is as good as hemp.

Dr. Carroll. I saw some rope made of that material, but it was
evidently made by hand.

Mr. Cianchini. Everything is made by hand, as we have no
machinery.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much maguey?

Mr. Cianchini. There is plenty of it, and more could be sown on
the poor lands, which are serviceable for that purpose. We could
make big plantations of maguey on lands which could be used for
nothing else. It grows without cultivation.

Dr. Carroll. What other materials have you for rope making ?

Mr. Cianchini. The pine leaves, and, in fact, there are a number
of trees here with fibrous materials in them, such as cadillo, guasima,
malva, jagua, and many others.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much demand for rope?

Mr. Cianchini. More than we make. We import it from the States.

Dr. Carroll. Have you clay fit for making pottery ?

Mr. Cianchini. We have clay suitable both for earthenware and
rough pottery.

Dr. Carroll. Is there not pottery or earthenware made 'in the
island?

Mr. Cianchini. Yes; it is made at Ponce.

Dr. Carroll. Is that a large factory?

Mr. Cianchini. No. Now and then they bring a little to sell here
in the market place. It is not good work.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any basket making here?

Mr. Cianchini. Yes; but only in private houses. They are used
in picking coffee.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well to have here a basket factory?

Mr. Cianchini. I think so.

Dr. Carroll. Do you import baskets?

Mr. Cianchini. A few of a good class, for family use.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that there ought to be a great demand
here for baskets; you hardly seem to have anything to carry your
provisions or articles in.

A Gentleman. There is a species of basket which the horses carry,
which is made here, and the bakers all have baskets. All of these
are made in the island.

132

Dr. Carroll. I went to the market yesterday and got some oranges,
and could not find a basket or anything else to carry them away in.

Mr. Cianchini. They only make enough for August and September
for the coffee crops, and for personal use.

Dr. Carroll. You must have materials here from which you could
make coarse sacking, and you use a great deal of sacking here.

A Gentleman. Maguey only.

Dr. Carroll. What other industries could be started here with
materials which you have in abundance?

Mr. Cianchini. Soap making. We have all the prime materials for
that industry, except two articles — turpentine and caustic soda.

Dr. Carroll. There is a soap factory in Ponce which claims to be
doing a poor business.

Mr. Vivaldi. That is because it makes such bad soap.

Dr. Carroll. They say that you import a worse soap from Spain,
but are used to it, and will not use other kinds.

Mr. Vivaldi. The laundries would not use the soap made in the
country, because it contains too much caustic soda and hurts the hands.
Before Rocamora soap was used thej' used French soap, but gave that
np because they found the Rocamora soap better.

Dr. Carroll. In Ponce they said the tariff ought to be increased
on foreign soaps to protect the domestic soap.

Mr. Mejia. The prime material used for soap costs the manufac-
turers here more than it does over there, and consequently the domestic
manufacturers are at a disadvantage. I think if the old tariff were
reimposed the manufacturers in this country could raise their prices
to any figure they wanted.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the present tariff should be increased?

(There was a unanimous response in the negative.)

A Gentleman. I don't think it would be right to tax all the people
for the sake of a few struggling manufacturers. I know the soap fac-
tory at Ponce, and it is a very small affair. It can not manufacture
enough for the supply of the island. If the tariff were increased they
could raise their prices as high as they wished.

Dr. Carroll. But they say they will have to stop manufacturing
unless the tariff is raised a little.

A Gentleman. It would be an unfortunate thing for them, but it
would not affect the island generally. We prefer the foreign soaps
to-day because they are sold at a less price.

Mr. Torres. I think, in order to assist the establishment of new
industries, that duties -on crude materials should be decreased.

A Gentleman. If the duty were taken off of caustic soda, for
example, other people than the soap makers would be benefited,
because it is not used exclusively in soap making, and it is not pro-
duced here.

Dr. Carroll. The history of industries in the United States shows
that if you want to establish a new industry, you have to protect it,
and in order to protect it you have to levy a duty upon the same
article coming from other countries, which may temporarily raise the
price of that article. But it is considered so important to add new
industries that the people very cheerfully bear that additional bur-
den, which, as I have said, is only temporary, in order that they may
have a new source of employment and a new source of wealth. And
it is for the people of Porto Rico to consider whether they want indus-
tries established in this island in that way.

Mr. Vivaldi. That is what we want most.

133

A Native Druggist. I think if the soap industry — taking that
industry as a concrete example — could be established in proportion to
the requirements of the country, it would be very well; but as things
are at present it would be protecting a small industry that could not
supply the needs of the island, and thejT would say we will take
advantage of the limited supply by raising the price.

Dr. Carroll. If you have most of the materials that are needed to
make soap here, and need to import only two — turpentine and caustic
soda — soap could be produced cheaply here, and it would soon be
found that it could be done at a profit. That would draw capital into
the industry, and there would perhaps be a dozen factories in dif-
ferent parts of the island, and experience would teach soap makers
how to make good soap and make it cheaply. A dozen factories com-
peting for the markets of the island would bring the price down even
with or below the price of imported soap.

(This statement of the commissioner was greeted by applause,
everyone present at the hearing seeming to participate in it. )

Mr. Torres. Turning again to the soap industry, I think the proper
thing to do would be to charge manufactured soap coming into the
island with the amount representing the loss to the Government, by
the removal of duties from the raw materials imported for use by the
domestic manufacturers, so that the Government should not be the
loser by the change.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any other industries you could establish
here?

A Gentleman. Yes; candle making.

Dr. Carroll. Where would you get the tallow?

A Gentleman. There is plenty of tallow and plenty of wax in the
country.

Dr. Carroll. What becomes of the tallow?

A Gentleman. Most of it is exported.

Dr. Carroll. Candles are very high here; you ought to be able to
start a factory in the island.

Mr. Vivaldi. There is no doubt of it. We pay very high for
candles.

Dr. Carroll, You could start such a factory in a small way.

A Gentleman. It has not been done, because nobodj7 has thought
of it because of the lack of initiative here. There is no manufacturing
here because there is no spirit of cooperation.

Dr. Carroll. This industry of candle making you can begin on a
small scale and almost without capital. In the TJnited States every
housewife used to make her own candles. All you need is the tallow
and the wick. I understand you have plenty of tallow, and the wick
can be imported at a very small rate.

Mr. Cianohini. We have cotton here also, and could make our own
wicks.

Dr. Carroll. Then you can import candle molds, made of tin, that
are extremely cheap.

A Gentleman. I think, in order to stimulate the establishment of
small industries, duty should be abolished on all raw materials.

Dr. Carroll. What you call raw materials may be the product of
some other laborer in the island, and ought, therefore, to have pro-
tection. For example, suppose you ask that leather shall be brought
in free. There are producers of hides here and tanners, and you
would break up their industry.

134

Mr. Vivaldi. They haven't exported hides here in large quantities.
The curing of hides is another industry that could be taken up.

Dr. Carroll. Have you the bark here for tanning ?

Mr. Vivaldi. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What bark do they use ?

Mr. Vivaldi. Mangle. We export a great deal of it to Venezuela
and Santo Domingo.

Dr. Carroll. Why don't you start tanneries of your own ?

Mr. Vivaldi. There is one in Ponce, but they only make sole
leather. There is, however, more mangle than we could possibly use.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well to bring in a few expert tanners
to show you how to produce fine grades of leather, so you could pro-
duce your own leather ? That would be better than to have leather
introduced free.

The Druggist. We export a great deal of leather from here. We
export a far greater quantity than we use in the island.

Dr. Carroll. I have opened this question, gentlemen, because it
seems to me extremely important for the future of the island that you
should diversify your industries. If you desire prosperity, and pros-
perity in a large measure, you must establish new industries, because
in establishing new industries you give employment to poor people,
and as you give employment to the poor people, they get a larger
income and become larger consumers; they wear more clothes, and
wear more shoes, and Porto Rico will be one of your best markets.
That is what we find in the United States; as the condition of the
poor is improved, we have more demand for manufactured articles,
and for fruits and vegetables which are produced by the farmer.

A Gentleman. That has a bearing on what we were talking about
before. The people are naturally moral, but with the small amount
they earn, they can not be decent. An indecent state of living is
produced here for want of means of living decently. The poor people
have no money for marriage, for example.

Mr. Torres. The shoes produced here are of better quality than
the imported ones, but they can not compete with them in price, owing
chiefly to the fact that shoes are made here by hand by poor people.
We think we can add to the manufacture of shoes and leather also,
and work the two in partnership, so to speak, so that we will not have
to import any shoes at all. The principal reason why factories have
not been started is that there are no capitalists of importance, and
those capitalists who have money are certain to obtain from 12 to 18
per cent, and, therefore, keep to the beaten track in which they know
their interest is sure, rather than venture into other enterprises. As
soon as money comes in here and is loaned out at 6 and 7 per cent,
new industries will be started, because capital will have to seek new
fields.

SOAP MAKING.
STATEMENT OF SENOK MANUEL HEDILLA.

Ponce, P. P., March 2, 1899.

During the Spanish domination no soap factory could live, owing to

the great advantages given to a large factory established in Barcelona,

named Rocamora. Even American soap, although of better quality,

could not be sold in this island. Rocamora's soap could be sold at a

135

very low price, as it was made from oil residues and white earth and
was freighted here as ballast, paying* a minimum of freight. It was
imported here in quantities of 2,500 boxes monthly, which, at $7,
made $17,500.

When the American Government took possession, all the local manu-
facturers thought that the hour had arrived for them to be able to
compete, especially as coevally with the invasion there was a great
demand for our soaps, and for the lots of American soaps as they
arrived; but we find ourselves in the same position as before, with no
sales, and American soaps equally so. This is owing to the new tariff,
which only imposes a duty of 50 cents on Rocamora's soap. It should
at least charge as much as was formerly collected — $1.50 a box; and
I must tell you that the new tariff, far from helping us, prejudices us
greatly.

You will thus see that if the Rocamora product is not obliged to
pay a duty of $1.50, and caustic soda and rosin allowed free entry into
Porto Rico, no soap factory can live here, and not a pound of the
American article will find a sale.

FACTORIES IN PORTO RICO.
STATEMENT OF MAYOE CELESTINO EOMINGUEZ.

Giiayama, P. R., January, 1899.

The island produces about 60,000 tons of sugar, of which the larger
part goes to the United States for refining. Our system of prepara-
tion is still the primitive one, except in a few cases, such as Yabucoa,
Ponce, Mayaguez, Anasco, Vega Baja, and Loiza, where there are
central mills. The other estates use old-fashioned machinery which
does not extract all the juice, which I understand should be 15 per
cent. The island, with its extensive plains of Arecibo, Mayaguez,
Guayama, and Yabucoa, could, with effective machinery, produce
three times the quantity now given, and would doubtless thus become
happy and prosperous.

There are here an infinity of small industries, infirm, some for want
of a field for extension, some for want of protection, some for lack of
raw material, which has to be imported, and others for want of a mar-
ket less limited than the island offers. They are :

Soap factories, which import caustic soda and the larger part of the
fatty materials. This does not allow them to compete with foreign
manufacturers.

Chocolate factories in Ponce, San Juan, and Mayaguez, which, in
spite of suffering from foreign competition, can be built up, as all the
raw material is produced in the island.

Bay-rum factories in Vieques, Cabo Rojo, Patillas, and Guayama.
This is an exquisite product extracted from the malagueta plant
{Eugenia pimento), well known in the United States, and used for the
toilet, bath, and in barber shops. This is the only country in the
world producing this plant. Owing to prohibitive customs rates
its importation into the United States is very limited. An open mar-
ket would raise the industry to a flourishing position. The writer is
the owner of the best plant in the island for this industry, but is able
to run it only three months in the year, as there are no buyers for a
larger quantity.

136

Castor-oil factories. — One in San Juan, one in Cayey, and one in
Guayama, property of the writer; also the oldest and best in the
country. The seed from which the oil is extracted is grown all over
the country. The industry can grow to be an important one.

Shoe factories. — There are none working on a large scale, but small
establishments are located in every town in the island. Our shoe-
makers have nothing to learn from those of other parts of the world.
In elegance, solidity, and finish they compete with the French and
Spanish goods. This industry labors under the disadvantage of high-
priced raw materials, and, therefore, can not extend and grow.

Tanneries. — I know of only one maker of sole leather in Mayaguez.

Cheese factories, as such, do not exist, but all over the island, espe-
cially in those parts where cattle are abundant, Cabo Rojo, Salinas,
Arecibo, Santa Isabel, Guayama, Yauco, excellent cheeses are made,
but they are not manufactured with a view to keeping, and do not
keep long. They can be much improved in the manufacturing.

Preserved fruits. — We know of one only, in Mayaguez, which jDre-
pares the native fruits in cans. The quantity produced does not suf-
fice for export.

Alcohol, rum, and liquors. — As rum and aguardiente are by-prod-
ucts of sugar, most of the cane estates make them. Besides this, there
are stills established in several towns which turn out an excellent
quality. There are also in San Juan, Ponce, Mayaguez, Guayaina,
Patillas, and other towns factories of gin, aniseed, and other liquors
of various qualities. This branch of industry has a great future in
Porto Rico, as a large quantity of excellent rum can be produced.

Aerated waters. — There are three in the island — San Juan, Maya-
guez, and Ponce. They produce but a limited quantity, which is
consumed in the same towns and their immediate limits.

Iron and brass foundries and machine s7iops. — I understand that
there is one in San Juan and another in Ponce, but they can only
make simple machines and pieces requiring small skill. This indus-
try can be made a prosperous one.

Sawmills. — One in Ponce and one in Mayaguez; not very flourishing.

Pottery. — No real factories. In Santurce, San Lorenzo, Yabucoa,
and other towns pitchers, jugs, and pots, and other similar articles
are made. The raw material is excellent and plentiful.

Petroleum refinery. — One in Cataiio, which is said to bring the oil
in already refined, and only has to change the lid of the cases — a
monopoly, fortunately abolished now, which only served to enrich a
commercial house in San Juan, to the prejudice of the whole country.

Cigar factories. — This industry is certain to assume large propor-
tions, as large quantities of the leaf are produced and the quality can
compete with the best Cuban. There are two large factories in Cayey,
one the "Bella Rosita," the other of Rucabado Brothers. The prod-
net of M. Lopez's establishment — the first named — is the standard of
excellence in Porto Rico and enjoys a good reputation in Europe.
There are also important factories in Ponce, San Juan, and Mayaguez,
and in many other towns of the island.

C igarette factories. — There are only two in the country, one called
the Colectiva, and another in Ponce, the Internaeional. Their prod-
uct is excellent and competes with the Cuban.

Starch factories. — Are really none, but an excellent quality is made
in many parts of the island.

Ice factories. — Several in the island, two in San Juan, one in Maya-
guez, and three in Ponce. The product is consumed in these towns
and immediate limits.

137

Limekilns. — The prime article is so abundant that lime is made in
many places.

Fertilizers. — One in Mayaguez only, besides natural fertilizers on
the Mona Island, in the Mona Passage.

Hat manufacturers. — One in Ponce only, who uses Italian straw and
also makes felt hats.

Cocoanut oil. — No manufactories of this article. There is abun-
dance of crude material, and a small amount is made in Cabo Rojo.

Coffee-polishing mills. — Both Ponce and Mayaguez, as well as many
estate owners, have them.

FEW INDUSTRIES IN THE ISLAND.
STATEMENT OF SENOS DE GAZTAMBIDE.

Yauco, P. R., November 20, 1898.

Industries in this country are very rare and poor. They should be
nurtured, giving free entry to all classes of machinery and certain
articles not produced in the island, constituting the crude material for
manufactories. The tariff in this respect requires conscientious study,
so as to facilitate the establishment of factories to-day nonexistent^
while not going to the extreme of an exaggerated protection.

Commerce is suffering the consequences of* a decadent agriculture,
high exchange, and heavy taxation. Its salvation lies in the modifi-
cation of the tariffs and the increase in the number of banks, to break
down the monopoly enjoyed by the Spanish Bank in this direction.

Agriculture is in decadence, thanks to the dearness of articles of
prime necessity, the want of capital, and the high rates of interest.
The situation would be somewhat ameliorated by the establishment
of coasting trade (cabotaje) with the metropolis and the change of
currency with a discount of 33 centavos per peso, debts to be liqui-
dated in equal proportion. Besides this, it is necessary to help the
establishment of agricultural banks which would lend money at low
rates and for long periods, seeing that the only establishment of this
nature can not, by a long waj7, fill the needs of the island.

HOW TO HELP MANUFACTURERS.
STATEMENT OF SENOR ANTONIO SANCHEZ RUIZ.

Aguada, P. R. , November 12, 1898.

I am of opinion that the free importation should be allowed of all
machinery necessary for the manufacture of the crude materials pro-
duced in this country, including medicinal plants so necessary to the
wants of the climate. This would in great measure remove the diffi-
culties under which manufacturers labor, and would tend to the aggran-
dizement of this piece of American soil by the positive advantages
given to our manufactures in foreign markets.

It is clear that the growth of manufactures would greatly increase
commercial prosperity, but it is very necessary that food stuffs be sub-
ject to small imposts only. This would be of great advantage to our
indigent classes, victims to-day of the high price of food and their
scanty means of procuring them. In compensation, the loss occasioned
by this reduction could be made up by the heavier taxation of articles
of luxury, necessarily paid by the wealthy classes.

138

NASCENT INDUSTRIES.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR ETJSTAQTJIO TORRES.

Guayanilla, P. R., November 7, 1898.
Industries are in the most lamentable condition. The enormous
duties levied on the importation of machinery, tools, etc., necessary
for the use of the most simple manufactures, with the view of pro-
tecting peninsular industries, smothered at birth all initiative, and
killed the germ of progress in this important branch. It is necessary,
therefore, to harmonize insular interests with the legitimate interests
of the metropolis, facilitating as much as possible the growth of
nascent industries and of those which under a frank and free protec-
tion might be begun.

CAPTAL NEEDED.
STATEMENT OE SENOR P. SANTISTEBAN Y CHARIVARI, SPANISH MERCHANT.

San Juan, P. P., October 28, 1898.
The manufacturing industry of the island is extremely insignificant,
being reduced to the manufacture of cigars, cigarettes, macaroni,
chocolate, ice, matched, and the distillation of rum. These indus-
tries are lacking altogether in vigor, and can only be strengthened
by the introduction of capital necessary to enable them to compete
with foreign countries. It is possible to manufacture here paper,
beer, canned goods (meat and fish as well as fruits), cordage, textile
fabrics from vegetable fibers, which could be harvested at a small cost,
and among which can be named the maguey; also cabinet works
which could use the excellent woods growing on the mountains of this
island, and there could also be established to advantage smelting
works to reduce our excellent ores, such as manganese, iron, copper,
lead, etc.

LIQUORS AND TOBACCO.
PRELIMINARY REPORT OE THE COMMISSIONER.

San Juan, P. P., January 11, 1899.
The Secretary of the Treasury,

Washington, D. C.
Sir: I have the honor to present herewith returns which I have
gathered with reference to the manufacture and sale of liquors and
tobacco in the island of Porto Rico. Late in November a circular let-
ter in Spanish was sent to the alcaldes of each of the seventy-one
municipal districts, including the island of Vieques. The questions
asked had reference to the number of distilleries, the annual product
thereof, the number of bay rum distilleries, with their annual product,
the number of wholesale liquor dealers, the number of retail liquor
dealers, the number of manufacturers of cigars, and the number of
manufacturers of cigarettes. After no little difficulty, I am able to
present substantially complete returns from all these districts and for
the various items, estimates taking the places of returns in only six
instances, namely, the annual product of the two native rum dis-
tilleries in Mocha, the product of the bay rum distillery in Rio Piedras,

139

the product of the two bay rum distilleries in Vieques, and the num-
ber of retail liquor dealers in Toa Baja, Vega Alta, and Vega Baja.
Although I have made diligent use of the mails and also of the tele-
graph, I have failed to secure returns in these few cases. I believe
the statistics may be taken as quite trustworthy. They are from the
official head of the municipal district in each case, and the returns
from which the inclosed statement is compiled bear the stamp of the
alcaldia or the signature of the alcalde himself. At present there are
but sixty-nine municipal districts, there having been a consolidation
in two or three cases.

It should be understood that the distilleries of alcoholics are nearly
all appendages of sugar estates, and the product is therefore a by-
product. The molasses which is obtained from the cane, after the
sugar has been almost entirely extracted, is the raw material for the
making of this rum, which is manufactured very cheaply and consumed
in large quantities by the natives. The process of distilling does not
go on constantly, but begins after the sugar-making season is over
and while another crop of cane is coming to maturity. When the
price of sugar is low the product of rum is likely to be increased,
and vice versa.

A considerable quantity of artificial wines is made in the island
with the native rum as the base. Raisins are steeped in it, and the
product, which is flavored by certain chemicals, is bottled and sold as
a cheap wine, the duties on good wines forbidding the general use of
the imported article. Not only wines, but cordials, such as pepper-
mint, aniseed, vermuth, absinthe, gin, and other varieties which
are used as after-dinner beverages, are produced. Brandy is also
made here from pure alcohol with burnt sugar and other ingredients.
It is stated to be quite a general practice among retail liquor dealers
to prepare their own liquors, in many cases using ingredients which
are regarded as destructive to health.

It will be observed that there are 198 distilleries of alcoholics in
Porto Rico. The municipality which has the largest number is Cabo
Rojo, which is in the southwestern part of the island, near Mayaguez,
but the largest output is from the 7 distilleries of Arecibo, which yield
annually 294,000 gallons. The total number of gallons produced is
1,615,075. As there is no special motive for concealing the product of
the distilleries, it is not believed that there is any illicit distilling.

The number of bay rum distilleries is 28, with an annual output of
15,143 gallons. Bay rum is produced from the alcohol which is made
from the native rum, in which leaves of the malagueta tree are steeped.

The number of wholesale liquor dealers is 246, and of retail liquor
dealers 2,445. There are no data with regard to the amount of sales,
either of the wholesale or the retail dealers. It is possible, however,
to arrive at approximate figures concerning the consumption of liquors
in the island by reference to the official report of the commerce of the
island for 1897, which gives both the imports and the exports. It
appears from that report that the imports for 1897 of spirituous liquors,
wines, beer, etc., amounted to 1,386,249 gallons, which, together with
the total products of the 198 distilleries in the island, viz, 1,615,075
gallons, makes a total of 3,001,324 gallons. But there was sent out of
the country by exportation and reexportation 103,521 gallons, leaving
a net total of 2,897,803 gallons as representing the jjrobable consump-
tion of a year. How much of the native rum produced by the distil-
leries is used for mechanical, chemical, and other purposes it is
impossible to state.

140

Of course the alcohol which goes into the manufacture of artificial
wines and of bay rum is produced from the native rum. It is not
improbable that the real total is somewhat larger than that indicated,
from the fact that retail dealers, according to common report, are in
the habit of increasing their stock by artificial means. The rum pro-
duced at the distilleries is of sufficiently high proof to allow of being
considerably reduced by retail dealers in selling it as a beverage. Of
the total imports in 1897, 50,129 gallons were of spirituous liquors;
1,186,971 gallons of wines, and 149,149 gallons of beer and cider. Of
the exports, 84,654 gallons were of aguardiente de cana, or native rum,
produced from sugar cane. The first cost of the production of native
rum is estimated to be about 30 cents a gallon. This includes the
value of the material and cost of distillation, together with insurance,
cartage, etc. I am informed that the plantation price is from 40 to 45
centavos per gallon. The wholesale price quoted in the San Juan
papers is from 50 to 55 centavos per gallon.

No excise taxes have been levied by the insular government. Stills
belonging to sugar estates have been considered as part of the sugar
machinery and have paid nothing unless they bought materials and
did di stilling for other parties. Distilleries separate from sugar estates
.pay so much per 100 litros capacity of the boiler or receptacle of the
raw material in which the boiling is done. The rate is $6 per year for
each 100 litros capacity. For common stills the rate is $2 per year,
and for the manufacture of aniseed or other liquors oh a small scale,
$3 a year. This tax is levied for the benefit of the insular govern-
ment.

Retail dealers of liquors pay no special tax unless their business is
confined entirety to the sale of liquors. Almost every grocery store
sells liquors and tobacco, and such stores pay an annual tariff accord-
ing to the class of cities in which they are situated. In San Juan,
Ponce, and May aguez they pay -$40 a year. In the next grade of cities,
$33; in cities of 12,000 population or more, $26; in cities of from 8,000
to 12,000, $20; from 4,000"to 8,000, $16; less than 4,000, $11. If cigars
are manufactured in connection with the store an additional tax is
charged.

Wholesale liquor dealers pay a tax graded in a similar way from
$130 down to $31. Cafes and restaurants pay rates graded from $81
down to $20, and clubs where liquor is sold, 50 per cent of these rates.

By virtue of an order issued by General Guj7 V. Henry, military
commander of the island, under date of December 30, 1898, modifying
the consumption tax as levied by municipalities on bread, beef, mut-
ton, and pork, a special tax is now allowed to be levied on the sale of
liquors and tobacco, as follows:

For every liquor or tobacco store or stand:

In towns of from 5,000 to 10,000 population $50.00

In towns of from 10,000 to 15,000 population 60. 00

In towns of from 15,000 to 20,000 population , _ 70. 00

In towns of more than 20,000 population 80. 00

These rates are for the sale of liquors and tobacco, and are addi-
tional to the rates levied on the business of groceries and restaurants.
Municipalities may ask larger amounts on licenses issued to wholesale
dealers in liquors and tobacco.

There are no breweries in the island, but about twenty brewing
companies have agencies here for the sale of their products. All but
one are United States firms. The exception is a Copenhagen, Den-
mark, company.

141

There is, naturally, a difference of opinion on the question of levy-
ing an internal-revenue tax on the production of liquors. One agri-
cultural proprietor says a tax on the output of the cane distilleries
would not only ruin the business, but seriously affect the sugar pro-
ducers, who depend upon the rum they make, in many instances, to
put a balance on the right side of the accounts. Another proprietor
says it will simply result in raising the price of rum to the consumer.
He holds that if men want drink they will pay for it. Others, not
directly interested in the cane crop, insist that an internal-revenue
tax on rum would be a good thing. It is now the common beverage of
the poorer classes, because it is very cheap; imported wines, which pay
under the existing tariff a total tax of 30 cents, being much too costly
for general consumption. Its effects on the consumer are said to be
injurious, and it would be a measure in the interests of health and
good morals, according to philanthropists, so to tax native rum and
artificial liquors as to lessen their consumption and lead to the more
general use of light wines.

The number of cigar manufacturers is 108, and of cigarette manu-
facturers 27. The inquiries were limited because of the information
that it would be impossible to get definite returns for other items.
There are no official figures relating to the annual production of
tobacco. It is only possible to approximate the figures by estimates.
There are two ways of doing this. It is believed that two-thirds of
the annual production have been exported. The amount exported in
1897 was 6,267,327 pounds. One-half of that, which it is estimated
was consumed in the island the same year, is 3,133,663, making a total
of 9,400,990 pounds. One of the leading tobacco dealers in the island
makes the following estimate by districts for 1898:

Tobacco districts.

Cayey

Corta aba jo
Arecibo

Bales
produced.

4,000
12,000

25,000
30,000

Tobacco districts.

Yauco .
Juncos.

Bales
produced.

10,000
4,000

85,000

Bales weigh about 100 pounds each.

In addition to the number of cigar and cigarette manufacturers
reported in this table, there is a large quantity of tobacco manufac-
tured into cigars and cigarettes in private houses, especially into
cigars. Most of the cigars consumed in the island have been made
here, while most of the cigarettes have been imported from Cuba.
Since the same rates in customs duties were imposed on Cuban ciga-
rettes as are imposed on those imported from other countries, it is
believed that the imports from that island have fallen off almost
entirely. Native production has therefore been greatly stimulated.
There is a steam factory in San Juan which produces 400,000 ciga-
rettes daily, all of which are sold in Porto Rico. There is another
steam factory in Ponce. Formerly manufactures of tobacco from
Cuba were admitted to this island without the payment of any customs
duty except the payment of the 10 per cent transitory tax, amounting
to about 4 cents per kilo. It is estimated by a committee appointed
by the chamber of commerce of Ponce that there are about 250,000
smokers in the island and that the average daily consumption of
cigarettes is about 200,000 packages.

Very respectfully, Henry K. Carroll,

Commissioner.

142

Liquors and tobacco manufacturers and dealers.

Municipal district.

Num-
ber of
distill-
eries.

Annual

product in

gallons.

Num-
ber of
bay
rum
distill-
eries.

Annual
product
in gal-
lons. -

Whole-
sale

liquor
deal-
ers.

Retail
liquor
dealers.

Cigar
manu-
factur-
ers.

Cigar-
ette
manu-
factur-
ers.

54
6

13
157
40
20
30
23
15
66
24
31
15
46
6
17

1
5
2

5
5

66,137
19. 708

2
1
3

7
7
2
1

25.780
294.000
65. 016
27.249

350

2
3

152.000
12.600

4
3
5
3
6

6
2
3

6
14

15.000

14.782

2
1
8
3
3
9
2

5
2

2
5

2,142
14,417
17,724
24,000

2,110
26,455
52.911

9:520
18,518
23,102
25, 000
11,000
38, 080

9,521

15
32
15
23
30
■ 28
45
25
14

8
52
61
31
40
23
29
30
20

3
29
25
10
100
32
18

198

. 38

9
25
30
64

130

8
30
30

6
84

8
12
12
35
46

2
3

6
1
3
3
2

300

6
1

2
3
2
2
5

Hatillo

1
5

7
6

7,200
5,291

2
1
2

19, 047
3.000
12,000
52,910

1
2

Moca .- .- _

661

15,000

9,259

1
9

3,300
27,893

2,760

Patillas.

4
3
1
3
6
2
1
3

62, 628

3,174

7,936

30,000

18, 000

36,000

7,000

3,306

Piedras..

Quebradillas ...

Rio-grande

Rio-piedras

100

1,500

20
3

Sabana-grande

8
1
1
1

San German

3
2

1
2
3

2,110
76. 899

2,645
24,000
14,400

Salinas „

Santa Isabel

Toa-alta

Toa-baja..

Trujillo-alto

Utuado.

6
2
2
4
8
3

15,872
52,285
42,327
8,000
38,080
58,000

Vega-alta

Vega-baja

200

Yauco

Yabucoa

Total

198

1,615,075

15,143

246

2,445

108

143

COMMERCE, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.

BUSINESS METHODS.

[Hearing before United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.

Mr. Sasteria Francesca. Importations formerly were made on a
half scale in Porto Rico, that is to say, were imported over and above
the needs of the island, because the importers could get a year's credit
from Paris, London, or Hamburg commission houses. These mer-
chants or importers when they sold to smaller houses charged them
from the date of invoice one-half per cent interest outside of their
commission on the merchandise shipped, while they only paid their
bankers at the rate of 4 per cent a year. Moreover these importers
sold that very merchandise on long terms to merchants in the interior —
these terms extending as long as a year and a half, in some cases — and
generally sold at wholesale at higher prices than were paid by retail
at the rates prevailing in the capital. These merchants of the interior
would do exactly the same thing in turn with the smaller merchants
of the country, selling to them on long terms, and charging them at
least 10 per cent a month on the invoice value, and often from 1-g- to
2-J per cent.

This class of smaller merchants in the interior consists for the
most part of cultivators, and it is a very important matter to be con-
sidered that these small cultivators are charged at least 35 per cent
per annum over and above any profit realized in any country in the
world. The results of that system have been that at least one-quar-
ter of the small proprietors in the island, buying in that waj^, in the
period of five years have all lost their estates, the estates going into
the hands of Spanish merchants who commenced selling goods on
credit without any capital to speak of, and who after five or ten years
have become worth $20,000 and even $50,000. The estates on which
they held mortgages were unable to produce sufficient to pay back at
the half rates that were collected. When the relations between the
United States and Spain became strained the merchants here became
afraid, saying that nearly their whole capital consisted of bills receiv-
able and other forms of credits owing from creditors throughout the
island. This alarm was increased by the Spanish bank declining to
renew on first-class indorsements except by paying off on the princi-
pal amount at 25 per cent for every renewal. As a matter of fact, big
importing houses have to follow the same system and their customers,
the interior merchants, have had to do the same with large and small
estate owners. The result of that is that to-day all transactions are
done on a spot-cash basis throughout the island, and the current stock
of merchandise in merchants' stocks and warehouses does not amount
to one-third of what it was before the war. The prospect is that this
state of things will continue, because every merchant is convinced
that the extraordinary credit allowed in Porto Rico has been the cause
of much mischief, for any person who knows Porto Rico never thinks
of attempting to collect money through the courts, as they invariably
protect the man who owes against the man to whom the debt is due.
The Spanish law intrinsically may be as good as any law elsewhere,
but it will never be enforced so long as the judges receive no salary.

144

COMMERCIAL BUSINESS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 5, 1808.

Dr. Carroll. What do you consider the most important matter
respecting the future of Porto Rico ?

Mr. Manuel Egozcue, Vice President Provincial Deputation. The
establishment of a Territorial form of government.

Dr. Carroll. We have had a number of statements with respect
to the money question. We have had less about commerce and mer-
cantile business than anything else, and I would be pleased if you
would tell me something about that.

Mr. Egozcue. Commercial business in Porto Rico is entirely in the
hands of the Spaniards. Porto Ricans hardly have any representa-
tives in it at all. The commerce of this island is in the hands of very
active men, and also of men of means, who will distribute money over
the island. Lately there has been an extensive grant of credit to store-
keepers in the interior, and a great many of these having failed, the
critical stage of affairs has resulted. Commerce without a doubt has
built up agriculture, but unfortunately agriculturists have not attended
to the prompt payment of their debts, but have used the amounts
which they have been able to get together for the purpose of buying
new estates. It would be a great desideratum to-day for the com-
merce of Porto Rico to obtain a low tariff between here and the United
States, or, better still, to have free trade. I am in favor of indirect
taxation, as against direct taxation. In any case the amount need not
be so great as it formerly was, as we have removed from our estimates,
or will do so, the clergy of Rome, and to a great extent pensioners.
The poor of the island would not feel taxation so heavily if it were
indirect and through the custom house.

Dr. Carroll. Would you have a high tariff with all other nations
than the United States ?

Mr. Egozcue. It would certainly be well to have a high tariff, be-
cause with very few exceptions everything we consume could be bought
there, and this would interest the people to protect the trade of the
island and of the United States.

Dr. Carroll. What are the exceptions you refer to that can not be
bought in the United States?

Mr. Egozcue. There is no olive oil in the United States.

Dr. Carroll. Yes, there is lots of it there.

Mr. Egozcue. One of the things we could not get would be the Span-
ish peas, which is a staple food here. As to the textile fabrics, we
know nothing of them, because, owing to the heavy duties, we have
not been able to import them. The article of food which is consumed
here by all classes is rice. East India rice is generally used by the
poor and working classes, while the better classes use the Valencia rice,
which is a better quality. That would be one of the exceptions.

Dr. Carroll. Have you never heard of the Carolina rice ?

Mr. Egozcue. No; I never did.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that the Spanish idea of the United
States was that our chief products were pork and a poor class of
machinery.

Mr. Egozcue. Yes, and it was their object to make everybody here
believe it, too.

145

Dr. Carroll. Is the mercantile trade here divided into the usual
classes, retail and wholesale, or are most of the articles that are needed
by the retail trade imported through commission houses on order?

Mr. Egozoue. A great many of the retailers imported directly for
their own consumption. Some of them who are really retailers buy
everything of the local merchants. Besides the wholesalers there are
commission merchants, who are general!}7 the bankers and owners of
steamship lines.

Dr. Carroll. Do the wholesale houses here have drummers going
through the island to sell their goods?

Mr. Egozcue. Not as a general rule. Generally a wholesale
house will send one of its employees around the island, chiefly to find
how its customers are getting along, and when it finds them all right
it tries to sell them goods. Most of the small houses in the interior
have their own houses in the city where they have an open credit. For
instance, in the cities of Toa-alta and Ciales every merchant and
business interest buys from me exclusively at four or six months, or
from harvest to harvest, and all the produce from this district comes
to me in payment of merchandise.

Dr. Carroll. Is it common to charge high interest on those long-
term credits?

Mr. Egozcue. For terms longer than four months usually 8 or 9 per
cent is charged.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not extremely difficult to introduce new goods
to the people of Porto Rico? If you wanted to introduce something
new in dress goods, for instance, how would you go about it?

Mr. Egozcue. By advertising, and also by sending around printed
lists stating that the goods had arrived, were of such and such quality
and description. These lists we would send around to all our cus-
tomers through the island.

Dr. Carroll. What per cent of their sales do the wholesale mer-
chants generally expect to lose in the way of bad debts?

Mr. Egozcue. That is not an easy question to answer. Sometimes
I don't lose more than $2,000 or $3,000 in a year in bad debts, but if
harvest is bad there is a heavier loss. Things now are better because
merchants generally are not selling goods to persons except of recog-
nized standing.

Dr. Carroll. Is there not an enormous number of retail shop-
keepers in this island?

Mr. Egozcue. No; there is plenty of room for more business.

Dr. Carroll. There seem to be a great many of them in this city.

Mr. Egozcue. They all do business, and as a proof of this it can
be stated that shopkeepers are constantly retiring from business,
leaving the country, and taking with them twenty, thirty, forty, and
even as high as eighty thousand dollars.

Dr. Carroll. You said that the mercantile business was generally
in the hands of Spaniards. I want to ask how it is that they have
obtained control of the retail business in this island. Is it that they
are better business men than the Porto Ricans, or are they more
thrifty and live on less?

Mr. Egozcue. Not by reason of any superior intelligence, but
because of the protection they give one another. Take my case, for
example. Although I was born here, I was educated in Spain, and I
desired to obtain a mercantile career. I had difficulty in getting a
position in a Spanish house. When I did get one I commenced by
. H25 10

146

sweeping out the store. The Spaniards prefer to take an employee
who is a relative, or some one recommended to them by their friends
in Spain. In this way commerce has become a sort of close corpora-
tion.

Dr. Carroll. Is that system likely now to be interrupted and per-
haps entirely broken up, owing- to the change of allegiance of the
island from Spain to the United States?

Mr. Egozcue. The Spaniards are of the same mind as before. I
have been urging Porto Ricans to go into business, and I have met
with a great deal of opposition from the Spaniards. I have been
able to persuade two to open retail grocery stores. I believe there
will be a great future for Americans who will come down here and
establish themselves with Porto Ricans, so that little by little as the
Spaniards go from the country the new commerce will gradually be
introduced.

Dr. Carroll. How much profit does the retail merchant generally
expect to make on his goods?

Mr. Egozcue. It is absolutely impossible to reply to that question.
Retailers generally take advantage of the scarcity of an article to
raise prices, and when there is an abundance of the article they drop
their prices. The system in San Juan is absolutely cash. The
wholesale houses sell to the retailer on cash terms, and the retailers
sell in the same way.

Dr. Carroll. Then, I suppose, the wholesale dealers in that case
have to sell on a small margin of profit.

Mr. Egozcue. Yes; they have to content themselves with small
profit, but they do very well.

Dr. Carroll. Is that cash system also established in Ponce, Maya-
guez, and Aguadilla?

Mr. Egozcue. There also. What I mean by cash is payment at the
end of a week or ten days. No accounts are opened.

Dr. Carroll. That is really the valuable trade of the island, is
it not?

Mr. Egozcue. Those three points are the most important, and here
there are stores, if they could be supplied with American capital,
whose business would be increased very much, as they have a large
following in the country. To-day the tendency is to buy from Porto
Ricans, and if that tendency increases I will have to buy twice as
much as I do to supply the demand.

Dr. Carroll. One complaint which the American visitors make is
that the retail dealers have no fixed prices for their goods; that what
they ask at first is a much larger price than they expect to get.

Mr. Egozcue. It is a bad custom of the country, and it is owing to
the fact that the peasant from the country is never satisfied with the
first price asked him, but always insists on a reduction on the price
stated. This has naturally led the merchants to raise the price above
the figure at which they are willing to sell their goods.

Dr. Carroll. Perhaps if a few Americans came here and set an
example it would be followed by their merchants.

Mr. Egozcue. I think it would be. Eveiybody wants to drop the
old custom so as to make an epoch in our commercial life. Perhaps
if one started all would follow.

Dr. Carroll. Have the retail merchants and wholesale merchants
any society here?

Mr. Egozcue. They have a sort of club which is more of a social
institution than anything else, in which they have to pay a small fee

147

for membership. I don't know whether it has been dissolved or
whether it is still existing. The merchants of higher rank usually
meet and expound their views in the chamber of commerce.

Dr. Carroll. Is the chamber of commerce a somewhat large body?

Mr. Egozcue. Under Spanish rule it was a very important body
because it was the official chamber of commerce, but it was a Spanish
body. To-day the press and public opinion are beginning to ask that
the native Porto Rican shall be represented in it.

Dr. Carroll. Have the}^ been excluded hitherto?

Mr. Egozcue. Almost entirely.

Dr. Carroll. The newspapers in the United States have told us,
through some of their correspondents down here, that the people are
very much wedded to one style of goods, and that they would not take
to new goods. Does that correctly represent the situation here?

Mr. Egozcue. I consider that the question of price is all important.
I think we can introduce new goods here if we can get them at a suf-
ficiently low price. .If we have free trade here, and a high protective
tariff! against other countries, we shall have to introduce goods from
the United States, but in any event I think if merchants take some
trouble to prepare the public for the receipt of these goods they will
be quite acceptable.

WAR PRICES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 5, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. I wish you could give us some notion about the prices
here relative to dry goods before the war and now since the war.
There are some people who have come here from America who say
that the people are robbing them; that they are putting the prices
up, and that they are in a conspiracy to extract from the American
consumers all they can, and I would like to have a statement as to
this matter.

Mr. Andreas Crosas. Previous to the war as exchange went up on the
United States to 80 per cent, it was natural to expect that provisions
would increase in proportion, but they really did not. Dry goods re-
mained about stationary. During the war there was hardly any business
done. Those who had a little business were the provision merchants.
When provisions commenced to get a little short here the Captain-
General decreed that no provisions should be taken out of the city, so
that what little there was in the country they had to do the best thej^
could with. As I foresaw that the Government was going to pounce
on these provisions, I bought a large supply for myself. Then it was
that Hamburg rice, for instance, was worth $5 and $5.25 a quintal. It
ran up to $7.50 and $8, but dry goods dragged along and they did not
sell $5 worth in any of these stores, but now since the war is over
business has revived a little, principally provisions, and some lines of
dry goods. Building material and everything of that kind is stag-
nant yet. Provisions have decreased some, according to the rate of
exchange. Dry goods have kept the old prices, and these prices are
not exorbitant in reality. You can get many articles in dry goods
down here cheaper than in the city of JSew York. I know of several
ladies who have bought articles of clothing cheaper, they said, than
they could buy them in the States. A lady was telling me of a lawn
that she bought for $1.50, for which she had to pay $1 more in gold in

148

New York. There is a custom here, however, very different from that
in New York, and it is a Latin custom. You go into a store, for exam-
ple, to buy an article worth 14 and they will ask you 85. They expect
you to heat them down and then they come down to the real value.
If they know you are not of the kind that beat merchants down, they
will ask the real price first. I bought some cigars the other day.
When I asked how much they were the cigar man said 83. I told
him I would not give him $3 for them, and he asked me what I would
give. I said 12.50, and I got the cigars. Pretty soon an American
came in and asked me what I paid for the cigars and I told him $2.50,
but when he priced the cigars the cigar man asked him 63. I told the
dealer not to act foolishly; to sell the cigars for 12.50, and assured him
that Americans don't beat down. He said he did not know that that
was the custom among them.

Dr. Carroll. Is that custom you have described universal here?

Mr. Crosas. Yes.

THE IMPORTS OF PORTO RICO.

STATEMENT OF MIGUEL I. ARSUAGA, OF THE COMMERCIAL AND BANKING FIRM OF

S0BRIN0S DE EZQUIAGA.

San Juan, P. R,, December 5, 1898. •

Merchandise generally imported from the United States consists of
herrings, machine oil, beans, pease, some dry goods, wheat flour, corn
flour, bacon, lard, hams, beer, canned goods, brooms, whisky, crack-
ers, sausages, petroleum, paper, maizena, thread, fencing wire in rolls,
pepper, macaronies, soap, paraffin, spices, oysters, notions, plows,
Florida water, blacking, drugs, codfish, potatoes, bicycles, lumber,
shucks, specie, safes, salted meats, chairs, butter, glass, manufac-
tures of iron, furniture, and some few other manufactures and pro-
visions which for years have been imported from the United States
both before and after the Spanish- American treaty of commerce.

Merchandise imported into Porto Rico from other countries is rice,
dry goods, hardware, machinery, wines, liquors, canned goods, cheese,
dried fruits, mineral waters, oils, olives, notions, jewelry, furniture,
frijoles (beans), gin, perfumery, ready-made clothing, codfish, um-
brellas, fruit jellies, Spanish candies, sweets, French beans, chick-
peas, potatoes, raisins, dried plums, and many other goods, as well as
almost all the articles brought from the United States, which are
ordered in the markets where quotations happen to be lowest, or whose
tariffs give the most advantage.

Merchandise which could be imported from the United States if
there were free coasting trade (cabotaje) would comprise everything
now brought from Europe of which an equivalent exists in the United
States and the goods now imported from there. In time the whole,
or nearly all, the importations would come from the north, as Amer-
ican usages and customs were gradually introduced.

The present difference of fashions of dressing, etc., will cause some
time to elapse before this country acquires the same tastes and cus-
toms as the American; and this holds goods with several articles of
food and drink, owing to the difference of the American and Spanish
table. These will be overcome by assimilation in time, and then
everything made in the States will find a market here. The tariff
would play a very important part in the question in favor of the United

149

States — molding customs, usages, and the tastes of the people, if
necessary, in a more or less short period. The hardest goods to obtain
in the United States to fill public tastes will be foot wear, women's
hats, some articles of food and drink usually obtained in Spain,
France, and England; also fancy articles and novelties.

European countries compete favorably with the prices of the United
States, as merchants there quote lower prices than in America ; freights
are lower, and maritime commerce is proportionately less. In imports
of consideration these items do not pass unperceived. The question
of tonnage and charges thereon1 will be a very important matter for
this island once the sugar crop commences, owing to the exclusive
coasting trade under the American flag between this island and the
States. This measure has not yet resulted in an increase of tonnage
under that flag, and it is feared that it will be confined to steamships,
whereas sailing ships are required for freighting sugar, molasses,
and rum, otherwise freights will rise and harm considerably the agri-
cultural and commercial interests of the island. Formerly the com-
petition of foreign flags kept down freights between the island and
the United States, as ships of various nationalities calling at the
French islands, Barbados and St. Thomas, in ballast sought freight
for the United States chiefly in Cuba and Porto Rico. The English
flag, owing to the number of its merchant marine, was most abundant
and its freights lowest.

The importation of merchandise is chiefly as follows: Textiles,
Spain, France, England, and a small amount from United States;
readj' -made clothing, from Spain — this article is hardly used here ;
hardware and machinery, Spain, France, England, Germany, Bel-
gium, Holland, and United States; food stuffs of general consumption,
Spain, France, England, German}', Holland, Belgium, and United
States; canned goods, Spain, France, England, and United States;
wines and liquors, Spain, France, an dltaly; stationery, Spain, United
States, England, France, and Germany; furniture, Spain, United
States, Austria, Italy, and local manufacture; lumber, United States
chiefly. The island produces fine lumber for building purposes,
boards, beams, planks, cabinet woods, and woods of great beauty for
canes, etc. The woods mostly used in building are American white
and pitch pine. Houses are built of wood with galvanized zinc
roofs imported from England, with roofs sometimes of shingles im-
ported from the United States. In the principal cities, houses are of
mixed stone and brick, with roofs of the same material.

Goods imported from the United States and Europe are of the
sizes and weights usually demanded for this trade, and come in pack-
ages subject to the same demands, or merchants send special instruc-
tions according to their special needs. The weights and measure-
ments are usually the common ones current in all countries, as regards
textiles, hardware, food stuffs, canned goods, wines, liquors, etc.

THE YAUCO MARKET.

Yauco, P. R,, March 5, 1899.
The market place in Yauco is a large square in the center of the
town, on one side of which is the alcaldia. From early in the morn-
ing (Sunday is market day) until 11 o'clock, this square was crowded

] Note by translator: By tonnage is here meant ownership or nationality of bottoms.

150

with market people and others doing their marketing. Some were
selling vegetables only; others were selling corazones, cacao, and
some vegetables, including cucumbers. Others were selling yams,
water cresses, radishes, tomatoes, bananas, achiote or annatto, beans,
peas, beef, fat bacon, lard, codfish, fresh fish, coffee, sugar, tobacco
twists, cigars, rice, bread, sirups used as sweet drinks, mabby (a
native drink), and butter. Besides, there were venders of hats which,
they stated, were brought from Cabo Rojo; also small notions, such
as cheap laces, collar buttons, cheap ornaments, etc. At one stand
where various provisions were being sold, including lard from an
American can, a young native who was assisting in the sales was
very skillful in wrapping up the various articles sold. He was able
to wrap up rice in small sheets of paper, seemingly too small for the
purpose, without wasting a grain or using a string, and did it very
rapidly. He also made change very rapidly, and kept up a busy stir
that seemed to draw business to his stand. One man had on exhibi-
tion a graphophone, and was surrounded by natives listening to the
tunes. There were also a number of beggars who were importuning
everybody.

THE STRUGGLE OF COMMERCE.
STATEMENT OF MR. P. SANTISTEBAN Y CHARIVARI, SPANISH MERCHANT.

San Juan, P. R. , October 28, 1898.

Commerce constitutes the most substantial source of income, owing
to the tribute it pays through the custom-house, and its general
condition of solidity gives it prestige in foreign parts. It may be said
to constitute the greatest wealth of the country.

In spite of all the advantageous qualities just attributed to it and
which make it a subject for the greatest consideration on the part of
the Government, it has to sustain a terrible struggle to defend itself
against the bad faith which is taking it to ruin by means of suspen-
sion of payments and failures, which are rarely punished, owing to
the deficiency of our laws and judicial proceedings. It is also the
victim of the present monetary system, which lends itself easily to
speculation in exchange, sometimes the rise being as much as 25 per
cent and 30 per cent during three months. This state of affairs does
not allow even the most clear-sighted merchant to protect himself
from enormous losses.

Customs tariffs which have been in force for a long time are not
based on equitable or scientific principles. The rates charged do not
follow the requisite table of valuations based on 20 per cent over
actual cost of goods in the factory, and the custom-house rules are
full of punishments, guided more by the letter than the spirit of the
law.

Custom-houses, from their very nature, require more intelligent and
honest employes than any other public offices, their object being to
facilitate commerce by good faith and attention to duty, and also to
discover the frauds which dishonest merchants try to perpetrate.

151

COMMERCIAL TAXES.
STATEMENT OF MANY CITIZENS.

Isabela, P. R., February 15, 1899.

Agriculture is suffering from great prostration and the Government
should hold out a helping hand, freeing it for a few years from direct
taxation, which to-day weighs so heavily on it owing to years of bad
prices, monetary crisis, and immense municipal and State taxation.
The industrial and commercial taxes are also too heavy and should be
reduced after giving a hearing to the persons interested.

There is a notable want of agricultural banks which would lend
money at low rates and for long periods to agriculturists, so as to help
them recover from the losses occasioned by the Mexican and colonial
currencies, which, authorized by the Spanish Government, caused the
ruin of the country.

The town of Isabela, one of the most industrious and fertile when
rains are copious, has its properties well divided among several owners.
But its position on the coast, where there is a lack of trees, subjects it
to continuous droughts, which, however, have never been able to make
our farmers lose heart for their work.

"VVe think the Government would commit an act of justice by attend-
ing to the two requirements of this town, which are : an irrigation canal
to bring the waters of the River Guajataca into the district and fer-
tilize its fields, and the opening of the port for commerce of export
and import with the other towns of the island, which would lead to an
extension of business.

MERCANTILE BUSINESS FLOURISHING.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR CELESTINO DOMINGUEZ.

Guayama, P. R., January, 1899.

Coevally with the downfall of the sugar industry one of the most
extraordinary spectacles ever witnessed in an agricultural country
has been seen. On the ruins of agriculture there has arisen a flour-
ishing community of merchants, which not only dominates the farm-
ers, but is slowly absorbing their land. These merchants are nearly
all peninsular Spaniards. In other parts of the world commerce has
been the right hand of agriculture; here it is its worst enemy, owing
to the protection granted by the Government to merchants, which has
enabled them to override the landowners, generally natives of Porto
Rico.

The larger part of our business to-day is with the United States,
which buys our sugars. Then comes Spain, which has extensive deal-
ings in this country, as we are accustomed to consume her products.
We can not ship our produce there, except in small quantities, owing
to prohibitive duties and fiscal hi?idrances. Our sugar is hardly known
in Spain, our coffee goes there in very small quantities only, and our
tobacco and alcohol in lesser degree still.

Our imports come also from France, Italy, and Germany, and our
exports go to North America, France, and Denmark, as to our sugar;
to Cuba, Germany, and Denmark as to our coffee, and our other prod-
uce is consumed in the country.

Cuba takes large quantities of our tobacco, manufactures it and
sends it out all over the world as Vuelta Abajo.

152

THE COMMERCE OF PORTO RICO.

[Compiled from Estadistica General del Commercio Exterior de la Provincia de Porto Rice

for 1897.]

Value of importations in 1807.

Schedules.

Duty.

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

XI.

XII.

XIII.

Stones, earth, minerals, etc

Metals and manufactures

Chemicals, etc

Cotton and manufactures - ---

Vegetable fibers and manufactures .

Wool and manufactures

Silk and manufactures .

Wood

Paper ..

Animals and animal products

Machinery, etc

Food stuffs ..

Miscellaneous ...

Special imports

Pesos.

691,834.

675,747.

651, 947.
,540,393.

513,094.

128,464.
50, 581.

368,211.

818,952.
,196,377.

401, 156.
1, 984, 808.

189, 557.

648, 044.

Pesos.
69,772.9]

134,431.13

66. 696. 36

180,725.36

66,389.01
13,661.16
5, 871. 54
32.449.92
78,176.26
28,046.46
35,739.00
1, 750, 856. 54
37,185.98
13,960.88

Total - 17,858,063.29

3,841,962.57

Foreign commerce until Porto Rico in 1897.

Countries.

Value.

Quantity.

Imports.

Exports.

Imports.

Exports.

Spain. .- —

Pesos.

7,152.016

3,749,815

1,755,754

1,445,000

1.314,003

913.089

092,780

215,474

163, 675

155. 363

• 124, 406

74, 126

36,046

10, 108

9.709

5', 495

5,491

3,774

3,715

2,783

1,800

518

Pesos.
5,067,467
2,814,349
77,341
254,430
2. 117, 803

Toneladas.1

41.433
35.573
19,468
20, 865
19,543

Toneladas.
23,304
47,168

986

5,436

5. 370

3,515,006
3,037,984

1,607'
98, 539

908
705

15,135

5,680

Belgium

372

177

190

1,393
408,211

28,762

416

192

28,319

35,734

993

2,147

53,156

* 339

206

8,055
6,682

Africa..

102

224

1 Tonelada= 1,000 kilograms, or 2,220 pounds.
Articles imported in 1897.

Articles.

Quantity.

Value.

Mineral coal . .

kilograms..

..do....

30,517,771
1,919,040
2,204,030
1.185,968
3,502,745
4.649,784
'774,392

11,244.245
317,919 ,

35,451.874 J

Pesos.
167,848
211,094

.. do....

220,403

Paper, straw and ordinary

do.---

..do....

142,316

70, 055
1,394,935

do___-

108,415

Codfish ..

do....

1.461,752

Pish and shellfish in oil

Rice (cleaned) .

do....

158, 960
2.481,631

153

Articles imported in 1897 — Continued.

Articles.

Wheat flour kilograms.

Dried vegetables do...

Garden produce do...

Olive oil do...

Comniou wine liters-
Canned goods kilograms-
Cheese __- do...

Manufactured tobacco _ do...

Other articles _ do...

Total .

Quantity.

13,852,030

2,176,884

5,026,086

762,102

4,314,473

'265,477

337,982

324, 022

Value.

Pesos.
969,642
141, 497
201,043
172. 179
388,303
238, 929
202, 789
648,044
8,478,228

17,858,063

National flags under which shipments left Porto Rico in ISO",

Countries.

United States

Cuba.. i

Spain

English possessions . .

Danish possessions

Santo Domingo.

France.

Germany

French possessions ...

England ...

Italy.....'.

Austria

■Holland's possessions .

Haiti ."

Venezuela

Mexico _

Africa

Steam
vessels.

Total

172

243

138

151

Sailing
vessels.

5 .

1 I-

341

Seamen.

Mer-
chandise.

5.245

13. 568

8,395

1,223

1,546

1,686

1,842

1,608

261

502

650

516

264

37,420

Tons.

47,168

15,125

23,304

5,426

2,147

192

5,680

5,270

339

968

1,765

416

224

' "2

102

108,246

Articles exported in 1897,

Articles.

Coffee kilograms. .

Sugar:

Centrifugal ..do

Muscovado . _.do

Molasses. do

Molasses -do

Tobacco do

Hides __ .do

Tallow.. .do

Rum... liters. .

Bay rum _do

Oil of bay leaves _ - do

Cocoanuts- thousands..

Oranges do

Guano vegetal, kilo-
grams _

Annotto kilograms. .

Chocolate bean .. -do

Chocolate ■_ .do

Starch do

Tamarinds do

Hedionda (to mix with

coffee) — kilograms- .

Pineapples.. hundreds..

Cattle head..

Oxen do

Sheep do

Salt kilograms..

Carnaza do

Husks of cacao do

Tobacco seed do

Quantity.

23,504,999

16, 154. 466

40, 129', 465

1,364,980

11,529.132

2,843,615

378, 170

116, 624

310, 006

50.339

223

1,391,917

1,004,048

50, 759
54,813

5, 715

61,555

7,594

Value.

Pesos.

12,222,600

1,316,584

2,608,415

82,991

403, 520

1,194,318

71,S52

11,662

31,000

7,551

982

27,838

2,510

5,583
2,741

2,286

6, 771

760

2,328

233

12,000

840

5,517

220,680

1,060

220.000

6,600

2,200

110

1,249

5,032

2.113

Articles.

Peanuts kilograms.

Ginger. do

Corn do

Corn meal do

Tortoise shells .__do

Sweets (dry and in

sirup ) kilograms - .

Fruits l.do

Animal wax. do

Oil of cocoanut .do

Honey. ..liters..

Lime . kilograms . .

Horns of cattle ... do

Eggs hundreds..

Potatoes ... kilograms .-

Bananas hundreds..

Guineos (small bana-
nas) kilograms . .

Arcos de pomarosas,

kilograms

Brick.. M..

Beans kilograms..

Small beans do

Yams do

Yautias do

Ice do

Woods -. do

Cocks number . .

Chickens do

Quantity.

Total .

Value.

4,899

5, 300

1,944,050

3,612

4,643

7,201

137

4.405

1.350

10,600

7,077

113,253

24,211

6,181

3,750

1,380

23,160

4,495

16, 830

41,442

2,168

8,190

2, 799

4,009

Pesos.

490
530
97,203
361
268

4,179

5; 761

881

405

318

354

2.831

'484

278
450
1,683
828
6S
82
140
84
3,007

18,352,541

154

National flags under which shipments entered Porto Rico in ISO}

Countries.

Spain

English possessions.

United States

Cuba

England...

Germany

Danish possessions

San Domingo

Franco

Belgium ...

French possessions

Venezuela

Italy _

Steam Sailing I o„ar___ Mer-
vessels. vessels. ! oeamen- chandise.

Hayti

Holland's possessions-
Austria

Argentine Republic . _

Brazil ..

Uruguay

194
31

97
144
134
85
14
24
36

13.956

1.958

2.497

9.095

4.516

6,224

1, 157

1,577

2,160

1,049

195

235

361

358

120

Tons.

41. 433

20.365

25,573

908

19.468

19,543

993

765

3, 799

177

190
372

7f»

326 45,566 143,818

Countries to which the exports were sent in 1897.

Spain , - kilograms -

France .- do

Cuba .do

Germany do

Italy.. do

Austria do

Swedenand Norway,

-- _ kilograms.

United States do

England do

TOBACCO.

Cuba kilograms .

Spain. do

United States do

Germany do

Danish possessions . do . - .

England do

Venezuela do

Italy ___do

SUGAR.

United States, kilo-
grams

Spain kilograms. -

English possessions-do. ..

Denmark do...

England. _ do. . .

Danish possessions-do...

Germany — do...

Italy , do...

France do...

Cuba do...

WOODS.

United States, kilo-
grams

Spain kilograms..

RUM.

Spain... liters..

Africa do...

United States do...

France do. ..

Italy do...

Cuba ...do...

Quantity.

6, 853, 694
5.802,495
4,008,775
3, 975, 878
1,939,375
785,022

54,460
47, 995
34,453

2,359.

337.

80,

56,

Values.

34, 966, 838

18.020,119

1,591,927

1,327,962

843, 989

282, 556

273, 598

143, 455

113, 539

78, 399

2. 500

200,105

86,558

15, 783

4,663

1,837

1,060

Pesos.
3,563,921
3, 017, 297
2, 084, 563
2, 067, 456
1,008,475
408,212

28,319
24,957
17.916

990,808

141, 729

33.906

23. 806

1,577

1.189

942

119

2, 418, 938

1,272,885

102,831

98.523

46, 595

19, 806

17, 784

9,324

7,380

5,662

125
15

20,011

8,656

1,578

• 466

184

106

Quantity. \ Values.

United States liters . . ! 50, 177

Danish possessions-do. .. 162

MOLASSES.

United States, kilo-
grams... _ ..! 8,792.409

English possessions, kilo-
grams I 2.644,937

England kilograms..! 91,786

HIDES.

Spain ..kilograms..1 262,800

France do j 64.482

Germany do.— I 36,990

Italy do.... I 8,848

Cuba _ do-._- 5,050

CARNAZA.

Spain ...kilograms.. 2,200

TALLOW.

Cuba kilograms . . 109. 020

Spain do 7,604

GUANO VEGETAL.

Cuba kilometers.. 50.339

Spain .do.. 420

COCOANUTS.

UnitedStates.thousands- 723,763

Cuba do.- 427.713

Spain do_- 237,941

Danish possessions,

thousands.. 1.500

English -thousands.- 1,000

CACAO.

Spain kilograms.. 5,715

ORANGES.

United States, thou-
sands 939,798

Pesos.
7,52

307.734

92,573
3,213

49,932

12.252

7,028

1,681

960

110

10,902
760

5,537
46

14, 475
8,544
4,759

30
20

2.2S6

2,350

155

Countries to xvliich the exports were sent in 1897— Continued.

oranges— continued.

Cuba thousands .

Danish possessions, thou-
sands

English possessions,
thousands

Spain thousands .

OIL OF BAY LEAVES.

Danish possessions, li-
ters _

United States liters .

CHOCOLATE.

Spain kilograms .

ANNOTTO.

Germany kilograms.

United States do

France .do

Danish possessions, kilo
grains

Quantity.

STARCH.

Cuba -.-kilograms.

Santo Domingo do

TAMARINDS.

England kilograms.

United States do

HEDIONDA (A SMALL
SEED TO MIX WITH COF-
FEE.).

Spain kilograms..

Cuba do

PINEAPPLES.

United
dreds.

States, hun-

Holland's poss e s s i o n s,
kilograms

HUSKS OF CACAO.

Spain kilograms. .

CATTLE.

Cuba.. head..

English possessions. do. . .
French possessions-do...
Danish possessions' .do. ..
Santo Domingo do...

OXEN.

Frenchpossessions,
head

Danish possessions,
head .

Santo Domingo head L .

SHEEP.

possessions,

English
head

French possessions^
head

TOBACCO SEED.

Cuba kilograms .

46,000

17,000

1,050
200

193

Values.

34,546
10, 773

8,481

1.013

60, 827

6.984
610

1,211
1,117

12,000

220, 000

1,349

2,420

96.800

1,471

58,840

1.312

52. 480

304

12,160

400

Pesos.
115

772
120

1.727
539
424

6,691

121

112

840

.600

5,032

640

400
20

2,113

PEANUTS.

Cuba kilograms..

GINGER.

United States. kilograms.

CORN.

Cuba kilograms. .

Spain do

CORN MEAL.

Cuba kilograms..

TORTOISE SHELLS.

United States, kilo-
grams

Spain kilograms ..

SWEETS (DRY AND IN
SIRUP).

Spain kilograms. .

Santo Domingo do

Cuba do

FRUITS.

Cuba kilograms .

Santo Domingo do...

Spain do...

ANIMAL WAX.

United States, kilo-
grams...

Spain kilograms.

OIL OF COCOANUT.

Cuba liters-

HONEY.

United States liters.

LIME.

Santo Domingo, kilo-
grams. _

Cuba kilograms .

HORNS OF CATTLE.

Spain -..kilograms.

EGGS.

Cuba --.hundreds.

POTATOES.

Cuba kilograms .

BANANAS.

Cuba hundreds.

GUINEOS (SMALL BANA-
NAS).

Cuba ..kilograms..

ARCOS DE POMAROSA.

Santo Domingo, kilo-
grams

Quantity.

5,300

1,930,353
13, 697

i.612

4,445
100

4,279

2,484

438

4,405
1,350

5,600
5,000

7,077

113,253

24,211

6,181

3,750

1,380

Values.

Pesos.
490

530

96,518
685

361

160
108

4,000
90

3,423

1,987

350

881

405

168
150

354

2,831

489

156

Countries to which the exports xoere sent in 1897 — Continued.

Quantity.

Values.

Quantity. Values.

BRICKS.

Santo Domingo M--

BEANS.

Cuba kilograms . -

SMALL BEANS.

Cuba kilograms - .

23,160
4,495
16,830
41,442

Pesos.
278

450

1,683

828

YAUTIAS.
ICE.

Santo Domingo, kilo-

1 Pesos.
2,168 J 65

8,190 | 82

43 84

COCKS.

Santo Domingo, kilo-

YAMS.

Cuba .kilograms--

CHICKENS.

Cuba kilograms . -

4,009 i 3,007

THE MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION.

RAILROADS.
The San Juan Railroad.
The Porto Rico Railroad (French).
The Bayamon Railroad (Ferrocarril del Oesta).
A short railroad from Anasco toward Lares.

THE SAN JUAN RAILROAD.

This road was built to Martin Pena in 1879 and completed to Rio
Piedras in 1880. It comprises ?f miles of track, including side tracks,
and has four station buildings, shops, bridges, etc.

The equipment consists of 5 engines, 15 passenger cars, 1 baggage
car, and 16 freight cars.

Pesos.

Cost of construction and equipment $232,500

Passengers carried in 1897 . 557, 437

Freight carried in 1897 tons_. 9,123

Receipts for nassengers, 1897 $55,670

Receipts for freight, 1897 8,340

$64,010

Cost of operating in 1897 ._ 50,919

THE WESTERN RAILROAD.

Passenger and freight traffic during the year 1897.

Pesos.

Number of passengers. 141,355, giving receipts of $24, 442. 32

Tons of freight, 12,370, giving receipts of 12,369.93

Gross earnings , 36,812.25

Total working expenses .__ _ 23, 181.40

Net earnings 13,630.85

There are 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) in operation, of which 7 kilo-
meters (4.35 miles) are by land and 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) by water.

The system is between San Juan and Bayamon, and the stock con-
sists of 2 locomotives, 5 passenger coaches, and 17 cars. Coal has
cost on an average 12 pesos per ton.

R. Yaldes Cobian.

Bayamon, December 3, 1898.

157

THE PORTO RICO RAILROAD COMPANY.

Sections of lines.

A 1, from San Juan to Arecibo

A 2, from Arecibo to Camny_

A 3, from Aguadilla to Mayaguez Beach

C 1, from Mayaguez Beach to Hormigueros .

C 2, from Yauco to Ponce

B 1, from Martin Peiia to Carolina.

Total

Totals reduced to miles .

In operation.

Perma-
nent.

Kilometers.

165
102.54

Provi-
sional.

Kilometers.

"~U

39
24.23

Total.

Kilometers.
86
14
44
11
35
14

204

126.78

Numbers, tonnage, and receipts in the year 1897.

Passengers carried ._ 138, 379

Freight carried tons.. 59,108

Receipts from —

Passengers pesos . . 104, 818. 04

Freight do.... 138,055.79

Rolling stock.

Locomotives

Passenger coaches

Mail coaches

Baggage wagons

Closed cars, series E...

Open cars, series F H and H H.

240

San Juan, November 21, 1898.

SUBDIRECTOR.

RAILROAD FROM ANASCO TO ALTO SANO.

This railroad, with a gauge of 23f inches, was built in 1898. It
comprises 11 miles of completed track and has buildings at two sta-
tions. The cost of construction is reported as having been 1275,000.
The line is to be continued through San Sebastian to Lares. The
rolling stock consists of 2 locomotives, 4 passenger cars, 2 baggage
cars, and 8 freight cars.

FREIGHT AND PASSENGER RATES.

The distance from San Juan to Camuy is 100 kilometers. The rates
for passengers between these points on the Porto Rico Railroad are
as follows :

Pesos.

First class, single. 4. 95

Second class, single ,. ... 3.85

Third class, single 2.75

First class, excursion.. 8.14

Second class, excursion 5.92

Third class, excursion. 3.70

Freight rates depend on distance, quantity, and character of ship-
ments and speed of trains. For 10 kilograms or less the rate at the
greater speed is 60 centavos between San Juau and Camuy; $3 for 41
to 50 kilograms. At the lesser speed the rate is one-half these figures

158

Merchandise is divided into four classes, and the lowest charges are 15
centavos a ton per mile for first class, 12^ for second, 10 for third, and
7 for fourth class. The charge per ton on merchandise of the first
class between San Juan and Camuy is $15, for the second, $12.50; for
the third, $10, and for the fourth, $7. These rates apply to articles of
not less than 50 kilograms — that is, the minimum charge is for that
amount.

There are also special tariffs for sugar, coffee, and general farm
produce. The rate on coffee between Camuy and San Juan is $4.95
per ton; on farm produce and fruits, $2.56 between San Juan and
Barceloneta (65 kilometers); on sugar, $3.85 between Arecibo and San
Juan (86 kilometers) . Rum and other liquors pay $6. 51 per ton between
San Juan and Camuy.

The passenger rates on the Western Railroad between San Juan
and Bayamon are 30 centavos for first class, 20 for second class, and
40 and 30, respectively, for excursion tickets.

PORTO RICAN ROADS.
By Mr. Tuilo Larrinaga, Civil Engineer.

The greatest drawback in the development and progress of the
island of Porto Rico has been the absence of good roads and of any
other means of transportation. Too late to be of any use to the coun-
try, the Spanish Government took up the affair and gave out at public
auction the concession for building a railroad around the island with
quite a liberal subsidy, consisting of the guaranty of an 8 per cent
interest on the capital invested. The interest was calculated on the
assumption that the average cost of building the road was $18,000,
when $30,000 would have been a closer approximation to the truth, so
that the interest was rather 4.80 per cent than 8. Work on the line
was commenced in October, 1889. Bad management, carelessness in
the selection of the auxiliary class of the personnel, and some system-
atic opposition in the beginning on the part of Spanish engineers soon
brought the affair to a standstill, and work was stopped.

From 1889 the Spanish Government had been trying to change his
system and devote to subsidies for concessionaries of railroad the
greater part of the money appropriated for building common roads and
other public works, but the local corps of official engineers resisted, and
nothing definite was come to. In 18 — the Government passed a royal
decree — put up for bids the concession of several roads to the interior
of the island — offering to help the building of them with 40 per cent
of the actual cost of the roads. It seems that the credit of the Gov-
ernment at the time and other difficulties to be encountered in official
bureaus kept away bidders.

The finishing of the road around the island should be taken up at
once. Several lines going from the coast to the interior should be
built to furnish the country with good means of transportation.

Of these lines the most important perhaps is the line from Rio Pie-
dras to Caguas, to be extended afterwards through the valley, if found
convenient. Caguas and the whole plateau forming this rich valley
is no more than 40 meters above the level of the sea. A road to that
district may be passed through the gap cut in the mountains by the
Loiza River, whose course must follow the line as soon as the town of
Trujillo Alto is reached. The road will be a very winding one, but

159

grade would be easy; no tunneling would be required; the Loiza will
afford ample power for working the road by electricity at a very low
expense. The traffic has not to be created, as the existing one now
done through the common roads is more than is required to make the
road pay.

Next iu importance comes the road from Anasco to Lares, in the dis-
trict of Mayaguez. Lares is one of highest and best coffee-producing
districts of the island. This road has been studied and a part of it
built. The road is being built on the French system of narrow-gauge
road, 0.60™ wide between rails, so much in favor for "chemin de fer
d'interest local" in France. Seventeen kilometers, forming the first
section, have already been built and are working since December,
1897. The line is equipped with first-class American rolling stock
and possesses all the rails, ties, etc. , for the superstructure of another
section reaching to San Sebastian. The actual cost of the part work-
ing has been 117,000 rjer kilometer. Grade will not exceed 2i per cent,
and 50 meters is the minimum radius for curves.

Wood is used' mostly as fuel and the road is worked at little expense.
The length of the line is 43 kilometers.

Next after the Aiiasco-Lares line comes the line from Arento to
Utuado.

San Juan P. R., January 10, 1899.

ROADS.
By Jose Amadeo.

Except the central road, which was built splendidly and with stra-
tegic views, as were also those of Guayama and Adjuntas, the roads
of the country are for the most part mule tracks and cart paths, im-
passable in rainy weather. It was a pitiful sight last September to
see three pair of powerful American mules on the road from Ponce to
Guayama pulling at the wagons and unable to move them.

A journey from Maunabo to Mayaguez in the months of June to
October costs more than a trip to New York.

There is also a lack of communication around the coast by water —
the cheapest of all wajTs — and we can not understand why a small line
of steamers is not established to attend to this traffic. This was im-
possible under the last government, owing to vexatious custom-house
restrictions, which I am informed are still in force under the American
rule.

As we have no other means of transport, it is to be hoped our coast-
ing vessels will be assisted rather than hostilized, and that they will
be allowed to enter and leave the island ports freely and without
formalities.

After four centuries of existence we are almost cut off from inter-
communication. Of our internal roads, it is best to say nothing ; no
one dares journey by them. Even in traveling on foot one's ribs are
not safe. There are towns where no mail is delivered for five or six
days when the rivers rise, and neither the public works department nor
private enterprise has thought of spanning the rivers by footbridges
even. With a thousand obstacles and expenses we have to carry our
produce to market and bring back our provisions the same way, add-
ing to the expenses of freight those of "consumos," which keeps up
the already excessive prices and causes general discontent. The want

160

of activity of the Porto Ricans forcibly condemned to inertia by
want of means of travel is not to be wondered at.

The peasant of Patillas would like to market his produce in Ponce
and there make his purchase of provisions at lower prices, but cannot,
as the cost of the journey would represent the earnings of months.
The greater part of the people of this town have never seen Ponce,
distant only 60 miles.

There can be no greater obstacle to the progress of the country than
this.

Any sacrifice made now to inaugurate a good system of roads would
soon meet with its recompense.

Many were surprised and angered by the paralyzation of the con-
struction of the railroad to the east of the island, one of the richest
districts, owing to the fertility of the soil and the continuous rains.
Six years ago no one would have said that the concessionary company
would have neglected to tunnel the Pandura (mountain between Mau-
nabo and Yabuco). No other administration would have tolerated
such a want of good faith in its dealings with our progress-loving
people. Unfortunately these aids to progress have been undertaken
as timid experiments. This has been a serious evil, as no country
unprovided with a. network of railroads can progress.

The value of these is understood by Americans better than by any-
others. In the hands of the Government the post-offices, telegraphs,
and money-order service so necessary for the country can be installed
and run as perfectly as in the United States.

This would leave room for railroads and private telegraph companies,
which would surely come, as the increase of the well-being of the
country would offer hopes of large profits.

In rich, happy countries people travel, and there is life and motion
an every side. In poor countries only the cry of anguish and misery
is heard, leading to despair and immorality. We must work therefore
for the benefit of our country.

This can be aided by the freedom of our commerce giving us access
to all the world and cheapening our cost of living.

Patillas, P. R.

ROADS AND RAILROADS.

[Hearing luefore the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 29, 1898.

Dr. Carbonell, secretary of the interior. In preference to ordi-
nary roads, railroads should be built, because from the time they are
started they begin to pay, as they work the portion already started,
whereas roads do not until completed. The road from here to Ponce
costs $15,000 a year to keep in order.

It would be far better for the State to invite foreign capital to come
in to build railroads and guarantee interest on the money, as they
would not have to pay so much money, and the most they would have
to pay for interest would not be in excess of the amount required to
keep ordinary roads in condition.

Dr. Carroll. But that would leave many parts of the island with-
out proper communication, would it not?

Dr. Carbonell. They were making a railroad from Mayaguez to
San Sebastian, but as it was started without sufficient capital behind
it, it came to an end and they had to abandon the railroad.

161

Dr. Carroll. I should suppose that good cart roads would be nec-
essary in order to give access to the railroads from towns in the inte-
rior. I am told that the roads now in use, with a few possible exceptions,
are almost impassable.

Dr. Carbonell. I think the roads already begun should be finished,
but I think it would be advisable to grant liberal concessions to rail-
road companies with the view of having the island intersected by rail-
roads as soon as possible. This would make communication much
easier than it is.

Dr. Carroll. Is it very costly to construct such roads as the mili-
tary road from here to Ponce?

Dr. Carbonell. It cost $14,000 a kilometer. There was an immense
amount of robbery in connection with the building of that road. They
used 400 prisoners, whom they paid 10 cents a day, and they put in
bills for wages at 50 cents a day, the difference going into the pockets
of the officials. In some places it cost $25,000 a kilometer, 5 kilome-
ters being equal to 3 miles.

Dr. Carroll. Do they have stone convenient for the construction
of roads in the island?

Dr. Carbonell. Everywhere throughout the island.

Dr. Carroll. Have you the facilities for crushing the stone?

Dr. Carbonell. In some places we have, in others we have not.
In the greater part of the island it is crushed by hand.

Dr. Carroll. Can not the cost be greatly reduced by having proper
appliances for crushing stone?

Dr. Carbonell. It is not possible to have machinery everywhere,
and to cart it (the stone) from place to place would be very costly.

Dr. Carroll. What is the length of the road?

Dr. Carbonell. It is variously stated at 142, 143, and 144 kilometers.

Dr. Carroll. I am told that in the interior of the island the roads
are so bad that teams are destroyed, and that transportation, owing
to the state of the roads, costs an immense amount — an amount, in
fact, out of proportion to what the planters can pay.

Dr. Carbonell. You have been correctly informed. In many
places the oxen have been drowned in mud. The freight charges are
far out of proportion to the value of the stuff transported.

Dr. Carroll. Has your department any control over the railroads?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes, over the railroads and over electric lighting ;
formerly the telegraph also; but that is now under the military author-
ities. Also my department had charge of the stock (not the working)
of the post-office.

Dr. Carroll. Does the department fix the rates of tariff on the
railroad?

Dr. Carbonell. The railroad companies put in their propositions
for freight and passenger tariffs, and they were accepted by the gov-
ernment.

Dr. Carroll. Have you heard any complaints as to the tariffs being
too high?

Dr. Carbonell. I have heard a good many complaints, and the rail-
road company has violated its agreement. For instance, if you want
to take a horse from here to Arecibo the rate is the same as a first-
class passage for a person ; moreover, if you take one horse you have
to pay the same as for five. Formerly the State used to grant conces-
sions to private parties for building a certain road or certain bridge,
and allowed them to collect so much for foot passengers and so much
for vehicles.

1125 11

162

Dr. Carroll. Could the prisoners be used by the government in
the making of roads?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes; they have to give prisoners 10 cents a day
when making roads, besides supporting them.

Dr. Carroll. That is cheap labor, is it not?

Dr. Carbonell. The Spanish officers who had charge of them
always took from the prisoners one-half, and when they went out they
hardly had anything. I do not understand why the United States
authorities have not removed the employee who is at the head of the
present department, as he is the very worst man they could have for
the purpose.

Dr. Carroll. The military government having been established
only about a week, it can not correct all the evils at once.

CART RATES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October SI, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. Would not the agriculturists be greatly helped if
they had a quicker and better transit for their products to the ports
of shipment?

Dr. Santiago Veve, of Fajardo. The chief complaint against the
Spaniards has been that they did not furnish facilities of that kind,
and some farms are so located that it is impossible to ship products
from them to the seaport towns.

Dr. Carroll. Are the rates charged by the railroads excessive?

Dr. Veve. The railroads in existence in the island are of very
little importance. They consist of small sections, which are not con-
nected. They charge practically any rate they like and their rate is
established without regard to equity, but even then it is cheaper than
the old cart roads.

Dr. Carroll. Why are the cart rates high, when labor is cheap and
the cost of cattle is not great, I presume, nor the carts themselves?

Dr. Veve. A cart from here to my city, which leaves to-night, for
instance, at midnight and arrives to-morrow morning at daylight, can
not be rented for less than from $20 to $25. The reason for this is
the condition of the roads, which wear the oxen out. They are really
not roads. You go over them and get stuck in the mud up to the
middle of the wheels. In order to come here to attend the congress
yesterday I had to pass over a river on a raft.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the establishment of the trolley or
electric system would be a good thing for the producer?

Dr. Veve. Yes; it would be of immense value.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not a fact that producers lose the best of the
market by the delay incident to the difficulty in getting their goods
to the shipping points?

Dr. Veve. In reference to the sugar producers, they do not suffer
on this account, because they can get their crops to the seashore in
ample time with the facilities in the way of roads which they have
here. There are only a few firms here who buy sugar, and these firms
do not limit the purchasers in point of time in getting their sugar
to the seaport.

Dr. Carroll. Is the military road between the capital and San
Juan the only good road in the island?

163

Dr. Veve. In addition to that road there are other small pieces
which have been begun, but not completed, and are now more or less
in a state of dilapidation. For instance, from here to Fajardo the
road is not finished, and from Arroyo to Guayama the road has been
years in building, and is not yet finished. From Guayama to Cayey
the road is finished, and is fairly good. From Mayaguez to Cabo Rojo
and from Mayaguez to Aiiasco the roads are fairly good. The rest of
the roads in the island are atrocious; they are not graded and are
really unworthy of the name of roads.

Dr. Carroll. Should the railroad system be extended so as to
encircle the western half of the island to Aguadilla, Mayaguez, and
Ponce?

Dr. Veve. That was the original plan of the railroad, and its com-
pletion to those points is very necessary. The French company began,
but failed in a short while. Referring again to the other roads which
I have described as atrocious, it is sometimes necessary to pull a coach
which is passing over the road out of the mud with oxen.

Dr. Carroll. If the railroad system were finished and reasonable
charges were made, would it not result in an increased use of the
railroad, so that the revenues would be increased and the road be a
paying investment?

Dr. Veve. I think it would. There are families living here in the
island, some of whose close relatives live within a few miles of them,
who, because of the almost impassable condition of the roads, have
not visited each other and have not seen each other for four or five
years ; and I believe that if the railroad was opened up many of these
people would patronize it and greatly increase the receipts of the
company.

Dr. Carroll. What does the railroad company charge per mile?

Dr. Veve. I do not know. It is 50 cents a round trip to Rio Piedras
from the capital, which is a distance of about 11 miles, and I suppose
the rate between other points is in proportion.

Dr. Carroll. I have heard that the freight charged on a chicken
from Arecibo to the capital is $1.

Dr. Veve. That is an exaggeration. It is my impression, however,
that the rate between here and Arecibo is greater than the rate
between the capital and some other points, the rate seemingly being
based on the amount of business which the company handles between
the capital and connecting points.

THE NEED OF RAILROADS.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 31, 1899.

Ricardo Nadal, of Mayaguez:

They have begun a railroad from Anasco to Lares, affording com-
munication from the center of this coffee district to the seaport in
Mayaguez, which enterprise, owing to the abnormal condition brought
about by the war and consequent retrenchment of all mercantile
transactions,- has been suspended, the shareholders waiting and hoping
for some American company to come and take hold and carry out this
line and plan. The island is also greatly in need of some crossroads
running through from east to west, which together with the French Belt

164

Line of railroad, that is to run around the coast of the island, would
furnish sufficient transportation from the interior to every available
seaport. That French line, although its time of completion has been
extended three different times by the Spanish Government, has not as
yet complied with the requirements of the grant, affording good ground
for the question as to whether or not the American Government now
has a right to take such part of the line as is already built away from
the company according to the articles of agreement under which the
-concession to the railroad company was made.

COST OF INLAND TRANSPORTATION.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arecibo, P. R., January 14, 1899.

Mr. Bernardo Huicy. The question of roads is a most important
one, as there are estates in the center of the island which have to pay
as high as 75 or 80 cents a hundredweight over a distance of 20 miles.

Dr. Carroll. Is that to the railroads or by the railroads?

Mr. HuiCY. To the railroads.

VIEWS OF AN ENGINEER.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., January 10, 1899.
Mr. Tuilo Larrinaga, an American civil engineer:

Mr. Larrinaga. I am a native of Porto Rico, and studied in the
United States.

Dr. Carroll. When were you educated in the United States?

Mr. Larrinaga. From 1865 to 1870. Since then I have been here.
I was in the United States a few days in 1894.

Dr. Carroll. What engineering works have you been engaged in
here?

Mr. Larrinaga. I built the first railroad of the island.

Dr. Carroll. When was that?

Mr. Larrinaga. In 1880. I was employed in its construction some-
what against the wishes of the then Governor-General, who ques-
tioned the propriety of having a Yankee come here to build a railroad.
He seemed to regard it as a reflection on the ability of Spanish engi-
neers.

Dr. Carroll. Was that first road the one which connects San
Juan and Rio Piedras?

Mr. Larrinaga. Yes. The longer road from San Juan to Camuy
was built later.

Dr. Carroll. I notice that on the maps a distinction is indicated
between certain parts as completed and in working order and of cer-
tain other parts as under construction ; for instance, from Camuy to
Aguadilla.

Mr. Larrinaga. No; that has only been surveyed and studied.
Plans and specifications and estimates are complete. From Agua-
dilla to Mayaguez and Hormiguerros the road is built and in working
order. From Mayaguez to San German all the grading is done and

165

the superstructure is ready to be placed, such as ties, rails, and
bridges. I was to put up the bridges. I have put up all the bridges
of that line for a French company. I also built all the bridges from
San Juan to Ponce. From San German to Yauco all the plans and
estimates are made. From Yauco to Ponce it is built and in working
order. There is a little of the east line running to Carolina, 11
kilometers.

Dr. Carroll. There is a line shown on the maps all around the
island, from Ponce eastward through Guayama.

Mr. Larrinaga. That was given in the concession, but nothing
was ever done except to survey it. There was some little grading
done near Fajardo. I should add that there is a short road from
Anasco to the heights.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose you will meet many difficulties in running
branches into the interior from the belt road?

Mr. Larrinaga. It is not difficult to build roads to the interior
along the rivers. We have plenty of rivers affording good passages
through to the interior.

Dr. Carroll. Don't those rivers become dry?

Mr. Larrinaga. No; except on the south coalst, the difference being
due to the fact that our mountain range runs closer to the south side of
the island than to the north, so that the territory where rain falls is
smaller on the south side, and dry weather there is more frequent. The
great watershed is on the northern side, and you can see brooks on
that side which do not carry a pint a second and yet never run dry;
whereas on the other side you see streams that abound with water in
the rainy season which disappear in the dry season. Moreover, the
land on the northern side is more porous and water filters through to
the substrata more than it does on the southern side, where the soil is
sandy.

Dr. Carroll. I am told that the rivers on the east coast dry up
sometimes.

Mr. Larrinaga. Yes, some of them; but not so much as in Ponce
and Guayama. From ISTaguabo coming north you do not find it so.

Dr. Carroll. Mr. Argueso, of Humacao, said that they wanted
to build a trolley line from Humacao to their port, and that there
was water power enough to run their dynamo; but there was a gen-
tleman here this morning who stated that the streams in that section
dry up now and then.

Mr. Larrinaga. Small brooks may, but not the larger streams.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think it would be cheaper to have trolley
roads and have cars run by electricity rather than by steam?

Mr. Larrinaga. Yes; there can be no question about it.

Dr. Carroll. You would not, in that case, need as solid a road-
bed.

Mr. Larrinaga. That is true, because it would avoid the use of a
locomotive, which is always the trip hammer that destroys the road-
bed. Heavier trains and locomotives than those you see here in use
would require a much more solid roadbed than we have now.

Dr. CArroll. If you could have a more solid roadbed, and perhaps
change your gauge and have more powerful engines, you could make
railroading pay. You could then reduce freight and passenger rates,
and passengers then could make quicker trips.

Mr. Larrinaga. Yes; there would be a gain in time, and with a
broader gauge more freight could be carried, so that the rates could
be brought down; but my experience in railroading has taught me

166

that such a step should not be taken unless there is an excess of
traffic over the capacity of the road.

Dr. Carroll. It has seemed to me that if you had branch roads
from this belt line into the interior, so as to facilitate traffic between
the interior and the coast, and charged lower rates, the people would
patronize the road and make it pay.

Mr. Larrinaga. When such feeders shall have brought the excess
of traffic to justify the use of heavier trains, then would be the time
to study that matter.

Dr. Carroll. One difficulty has been the cost of getting the loco-
motives, the coaches, and the steel rails here. Now, you are going to
have lower duties so that it will not cost so much to import these
things. Besides, you will have ad valorem duties, which will make a
large margin of difference. Tour locomotives are of an old pattern,
are they not?

Mr. Larrinaga. Those which run along the north coast are of French
manufacture and are old-fashioned, but those in use on the tramway
to Rio Piedras are of the best Baldwin make from the United States.
These Baldwin locomotives have been working well, even with poor
repairing. The company sent to England for a No. 4 engine. It was
a 14-ton engine, but they have never been able to get the work out of
it that they have been getting out of a 10-ton engine of Baldwin make.
She was too stiff about her back — too much of an Englishman. The
French engines can not make 10 kilometers an hour, as I was able to do
with the Baldwin engines.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that the trolley is the thing to intro-
duce here for short lines, to connect the towns of the interior with the
belt line.

Mr. Larrinaga. Yes; and that would enable the people of the
interior to send their fruits out to the coast towns. At present they
can not send bananas or oranges, which they have in great abun-
dance. They can only cultivate coffee and tobacco.

Dr. Carroll. Referring again to the introduction of electric motors
here for passenger and freight cars, would it be your idea to have the
overhead wire?

Mr. Larrinaga. Yes; it is the cheapest. The only objection to it
is the danger of its causing accident in thickly populated districts.

Dr. Carroll. Would you think it wise to make use of the military
road to Ponce for a trolley line?

Mr. Larrinaga. It is not wide enough.

Dr. Carroll. Do ,you know whether any concessions have been
granted for the construction of trolleys here?

Mr. Larrinaga. None of any kind whatever have been granted. I
was named as under-secretary of public works when the first auto-
nomic government was established here and have been in close touch
with the work of that department. The law requires that before any
power other than animal power can be used for transportation pur-
poses, application must be made to the insular government, and such
applications all come to the department with which I was connected,
and I can state positively that no concessions have been granted.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many engineers in the island now?

Mr. Larrinaga. About a dozen or so.

Dr. Carroll. It seems evident that the first great need of Porto
Rico to-day is a system of good roads. The question is, Should the
insular government bear the expense of them alone? Responsibility

167

for the construction and maintenance of good roads might be divided
between the various divisions of the island.

Mr. Larrinaga. There was a governor-general here several years
ago who* gave the entire island roads and then left the care of them
to the municipalities. In three years from that time the roads were
in a state of ruin and were never repaired. But good roads must be
built; nothing is more urgently needed, and nothing would influence
more materially the social and moral development of the people than
good means of transportation.

COST OF ROADS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 18, 1899.

Mr. Lucas Amadeo. Roads of broken and rolled stone are calcu-
lated to have cost from 18,000 to 20,000 pesos a kilometer under the
former administration.

Dr. Carroll. But I understand that much of that went into wrong
channels.

Mr. Amadeo. I understand that to-day such roads can be made at
from 12,000 to 14,000 pesos a kilometer. I think, in contradistinction
to what many others think, that roads are more important to the
country than railroads. This is a country of small distances only.
The roads would allow the development of industries which to a large
extent would not give support to railroads. That does not prevent
anybody from building railroads across the island or anywhere he
wants to. I would favor anybody who wished to come here with capital
to build railroads, but I think plain roads are most needed.

Dr. Carroll. But are there not cases where the tramway, which
can be run with exceeding cheapness, could be run with great advan-
tage, as between Utuado and Yauco, or Utuado and Ponce, or Utuado
and Arecibo ?

Mr. Amadeo. Yes; but not to the exclusion of ordinary roads. A
most ridiculous proposition has been advanced to exclude ordinary
roads altogether.

COST OF LIGHTERAGE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arroyo, P. R., February 3, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Is this a port of entry?

A Gentleman present. Yes ; and we expect to remain such because
it is a center of this district; and if this port of entry were suppressed,
we would have to go to Ponce.

Dr. Carroll. You could have it kept open if you guarantee that
the expenses of the port shall be paid?

A Gentleman present. At present we have only two or three
employees. The expenses of the port are only about $310 a month,
and that is nothing as compared with the business that is done. We
collected from $40,000 to $50,000 a year here.

Dr. Carroll. Then there is no question about it. Have you con-
sidered a project for getting a pier built here?

168

A Gentleman present. It would cost a great deal to construct one,
because the sea is quite rough sometimes, hut I think a strong pier of
iron would pay.

Dr. Carroll. It must cost you a great deal to load and unload
cargoes.

A Gentleman present. "We bring the cargoes on lighters, and we
run out two poles. The system is very primitive; it costs $1.85 to dis-
charge 1,000 feet of lumber.

Dr. Carroll. I was told it would cost 15 for a thousand feet in
Humacao.

Mr. Verges, of Arroyo. As regards the questions you have been
speaking of, I agree with the gentleman who has spoken.

NEED OF MORE PORTS OF ENTRY.

San Juan, P. R. , January 10, 1899.

Mr. Gustavo Preston, of Humacao, called at the office of the spe-
cial commissioner and made a statement respecting ports of entry in
the island. He said that although large quantities of muscovados
are shipped from Maunabo and Yabucoa, two towns on the south-
eastern coast, neither of these places has a port of entry, but vessels
with cargoes from or to these places are obliged to go to Arroyo to
report for landing of cargoes or for clearance papers. Planters and
merchants importing staves for hogsheads are obliged to have them
landed at Arroyo and reshipped by coastwise vessels, or carted from
Arroyo to the place of final destination, thus very greatly increasing
the cost of importation. There used to be a rule by which vessels
which reported at Arroyo and landed cargo could go on to Maunabo
or Yabucoa and lie there, take on cargo, and clear without returning
to Arroj^o, by paying the fee which would be charged if they did go
there.

On the southwest coast there is a similar inconvenient arrangement
at Cabo Rojo, which is the shipping point for the salt mines of that
place. Vessels are obliged to proceed to Mayaguez to report and get
clearance papers, thus increasing the cost of shipment.

The district of Naguabo is subject to the same riile as Yabucoa.

FREIGHT RATES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 17, 1899.

Mr. Casalduc. In good times we pay $1 a quintal freight from here
to Ponce. When the roads are bad, as they are now, we pay $1.25.
That is the ruin of agriculture. It costs more to transport coffee from
here to Ponce than from Ponce to Europe. The road from Arecibo
here is the best in the whole district.

Dr. Carroll. How can anything be worse than the road from
Arecibo to Gobo? I can not imagine it possible.

Mr. Casalduc. That is a fine turnpike road in comparison. You
should not go from here to Lares without first making your will. From
here to Ponce it is 30 kilometers, and it requires from twelve to four-
teen hours to go there.

169

COST OF BAD ROADS.

[Hearing before the United. States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R. , January 18, 1899.

Mr. J. A. M. Martinez, of Lares. We need good roads — cart roads
and railroads. We have to pay $1.25 freight from the port to our
city. Our ports are Arecibo, Aguadilla, and Mayaguez.

Dr. Carroll. Are those ports equally distant?

Mr. Martinez. They are 6, 7, and 9 leagues. Such rates cut down
the profits considerably.

Dr. Carroll. Are roads as bad between those places as between
Utuado and Lares?

Mr. Martinez. Worse still.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that your system of roads, as I have
seen them, is the most costly in the world, because they are so destruc-
tive to wagons and to teams, and it costs so much to get your goods
transported over them that they are really far more expensive than
good macadam roads.

Mr. Martinez. With what has been collected for the making of
roads in the four hundred years of Spanish domination we could have
all our roads paved with silver.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost to make a mile of good road that
will withstand the rain?

Mr. Martinez.. Here they estimate, but they do not spend. They
make an estimate of $20,000, but most of it goes into private pockets.

Dr. Carroll. That was under the old regime, but I want to get at
the cost of the making of roads under the new regime. What would
it cost to put a road in good working order with cracked stone?

Mr. Martinez. I can not inform you as to that. The man who had
the contract for road making could tell you about it. His name is
Jose Roig. He lives in Santurce and is now visiting in Utuado. The
railroad from Anasco to Lares ought to be finished. They have a
large amount of money lying dormant in shares, which is not producing
any returns.

Dr. Carroll. Is that road built by a foreign company?

Mr. Martinez. -Yes; by a French company. If the road does not
pass into the hands of the new government, it will never be finished.

Mr. Vivo. Half a million dollars was spent oh it, and when they
reached that point and found it would cost a million, they were unable
to go on. Nearly 12 miles were finished.

Dr. Carroll. Is it in operation?

Mr. Martinez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What is the entire length?

Mr. Martinez. Thirty miles.

VIEWS OF AN EXPERT ON ROADS.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 18, 1899.
Jose Roig, of Santurce, P. R. :

Dr. Carroll. I desire to ask you as to the best kinds of roads in
these mountain districts to withstand sudden and heavy rains and
what they would probably cost.

170

Mr. RoiG. The best sort of roads for these districts are what they
call " vicinage roads," the width of which should not exceed 4 meters,
or about 12 feet. These roads at intervals of 2^ or 3 kilometers have
a widening which enables carts to pass going in opposite directions.
Added to the width of these roads there is an additional 7 feet used
for ditching to carry off the water when it falls in abundance, and
this part of the road is not packed down, but is left soft. It really is
a sort of sidewalk. At intervals of a kilometer or a kilometer and a
half there is a sectional ditch to carry off water, to prevent it from
collecting and injuring the road. These roads over the mountainous
parts of the country, where there are ups and downs and irregularities,
should cost, with all the additional construction which I have just
mentioned, from $2,000 to $2,500 a kilometer.

Dr. Carroll. Would you use cracked stone?

Mr. RoiG. Yes; the middle part of the road of broken stone, beaten
down, but the 7 additional feet at the side are not macadamized.

Dr.. Carroll. What would it cost to have the road sufficiently
wide all the way through for wagons to pass each other at any point?

Mr. RoiG. The differences in building roads of that kind are con-
siderable. They call them roads of the third class, and they cost
about $11,000 a kilometer.

Dr. Carroll. That is in the mountains.

Mr. RoiG. No ; we don't have really level roads. We take an aver-
age, and estimate on that basis.

Dr. Carroll. Would you have a road wide in the valleys and
wherever it is convenient?

Mr. RoiG. A road on the level lands wide enough to allow two carts
to pass would cost only about $2,000 — less than a single track would
cost in the mountains.

Dr. Carroll. Where there is much travel would you have wide
roads on the plains?

Mr. RoiG. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Have not many of these roads already been cut,
requiring now only the roadbed?

Mr. RoiG. The whole question of cost depends on the depth of
stone you want in the roadbed and whether you break the stone by
hand or by machine.

Dr. Carroll. Of course the cost would be greatly reduced by ma-
chinery?

Mr. RoiG. In the interior such a machine has not been known.
The state has them and uses them elsewhere.

Dr. Carroll. How do they make the road firm? Do they have
rollers to press down the stone?

Mr. RoiG. They have a big iron roller drawn by oxen. They first
make the excavation to the depth they require the stone to be laid,
then put the stone in and either beat it down with hand implements
or with the roller I have mentioned.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose a steam crusher would greatly reduce the
cost also.

Mr. RoiG. Doubtless it would, because one of the machines can
break up from 50 to 60 cubic meters a day, and a man can not break
a cubic meter a day.

Dr. Carroll. We pay about 90 cents a ton for cracked stone in
the United States; that is, including cartage. That would insure
cheap road making here.

171

Mr. RoiG. There is no road in this country of any use unless it has
a stone top, because after a rain a cart opens a ditch in the road,
water collects there, and the road is injured.

Dr. Carroll. It is an axiom now that money put in roads made of
gravel is money thrown away.

Mr. RoiG. I have held that opinion for a long time.

Dr. Carroll. It is better to make 100 feet of good road in a year
than a mile of gravel road.

DECADENCE DUE TO BAD ROADS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.] ■

Aguadilla, P. R., January SI, 1899.

Mr. Torregrosa. This city used to be one of great commercial
importance, owing to the fact of its being the port of outlet for sev-
eral interior towns which produce coffee. To-day it is a city of
complete decadence. One of the chief reasons for this decadence is
the complete abandonment of the roads. From here to Lares is a
journey of six hours, and yet there are times when carts laden with
freight require seven, eight, and ten days to make the journey.

Dr. Carroll. That is when the weather is very wet and the roads
very muddy.

Mr. Torregrosa. Yes; in the rainy season, which lasts from seven
to eight months.

Dr. Carroll. Is the road from Aguadilla to Lares worse consid-
erably than the road from Aguadilla to Camuy?

Mr. Torregrosa. There is no comparison between them — very
much worse. There are mud holes where oxen have fallen in and
perished.

Dr. Carroll. That has always been so, has it not?

Mr. Torregrosa. Twenty years ago that was not the case. Roads
were kept in good order, but since that time the Government has
abandoned them completely and paid no attention to repeated appeals
to have them repaired. Half the distance from Moca to Lares it is
an infernal road. It is not more than six hours, but there have been
instances of carts taking as long as fifteen days in making the jour-
ney. There have also been occasions when a hundredweight of
freight has paid 15, or four times that from Aguadilla to Liverpool.
The opposite has taken place in Arecibo. Arecibo, a few years ago,
was of no importance ; but as the people of Lares have not been able
to communicate freely with Aguadilla, they have opened a road to
Arecibo and send their goods that way.

Dr. Carroll. If they could open a road to Arecibo why could they
not improve the road to Aguadilla?

Mr. Torregrosa. The limits of Lares lie half way between here and
Arecibo, and the people living in those districts were able to get to
Arecibo better and it cost less to make the road.

Dr. Carroll. What about the road from Lares to Camuy?

Mr. Torregrosa. Bad; but the other is worse.

Dr. Carroll. The town of Camuy itself is bad?

Mr. Torregrosa. Very bad. Camuy and Hatillo should be joined
to make one municipality.

Dr. Carroll. How far is it from Rincon to Mayaguez?

Mr. Torregrosa. It is about an hour's journey by railroad.

172

Mr. Caeroll. Why has the commercial importance of Aguadilla
been deteriorating since the roads have been getting bad?

Mr. Torregrosa. All these small towns around the coast are poor.
The only two towns of importance that used to feed Aguadilla were
San Sebastian and Lares. Since they have gone to Arecibo; Arecibo
has gone ahead and Aguadilla has dropped behind.

Dr. Carroll. Is the harbor of Aguadilla a good one?

Mr. Torregrosa. One of the best in the island. Ships can remain
here in all weather, they have such good anchorage. There is no
trouble getting in and out. They do not even need a pilot.

Dr. Carroll. Has the government discriminated against Agua-
dilla in any wa}~?

Mr. Torregrosa. As this town and the interior towns of Lares and
San Sebastian were almost entirely in the hands of Porto Ricans,
the Spanish Government would never do anything for the benefit of
them.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much shipping here now?

Mr. Torregrosa. No, but there used to be. The traffic between
this port and Europe and the United States used to be very impor-
tant. Insurance companies that would not allow their vessels to stop
at Arecibo never made any objection to their calling here.

Dr. Carroll. What measures are necessary to reinstate the pros-
perity of Aguadilla?

Mr. Torregrosa. The very first is the roads. If you will open
them the rest will come.

Dr. Carroll. Does the municipality do all that it can for its own
roads and streets?

Secretary of the Council. This municipality can hardly cover
its expenses. It assigns a small amount yearly to attend the vicinage
roads, but the amount is so small it has very little effect. The munici-
pality labors under too many restrictions. Everything has to be sent
to the * government center for approval. The municipality can do
nothing of its own accord.

Dr. Carroll. Are your propositions generally approved in San
Juan?

Secretary of the Council. Since the American Government has
been in power we have not sent srny, but now the time of making our
budget is approaching and we will have to send various propositions.

Mr. F. Estebes. I am a sugar planter and wish to say that what
the sugar planters want is good roads and agricultural banks to
advance them money with which to carry on their work. Agriculture
is the source of wealth of the country. The real wealth of the coun-
try lies in the interior. The land around the coast has been worked
out, and what we want is better facilities for bringing our produce
from the interior to the coast towns. The interior possesses a large
extent of fertile virgin lands.

Dr. Carroll. How far from Aguadilla is your plantation?

Mr. Estebes. I have one estate near the railroad station and another
near Moca, but this road that I speak of should go through the towns
of Moca, San Sebastian, and Lares. The great part of the produce
of the island is lost through not finding an outlet. It costs four or
five times as much to bring it down to the coast as to transport it from
the coast to the United States or Europe. Besides the staples, sugar,
coffee, and tobacco, we could ship pineapples, oranges, and. other
things, if we had better facilities of communication with the interior.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any water power on this route which could

173

be used to run dynamos, so that you could have trolley roads into the
interior?

Mr. Estebes. There are rivers of great volume of water which
could be used for that purpose, and also plenty of material in the way
of stone and lumber which could be used. As Aguaclilla is a natural
port for all those towns in the interior which I have named, the con-
struction of a pier here is very necessaiy to accommodate shipping.
Owing to the advancement made in scientific building of these struc-
tures, it could be built very easily.

Dr. Carroll. Do you recommend that it be done by the state or by
private enterprise?

Mr. Estebes. I think it would be a very good business enterprise
for any private company to undertake. The municipality would do
it if it could.

Dr. Carroll. What is the present method of transporting freight
from the shore to the ship and vice versa?

Mr. Estebes. We are about two hundred years behind the times in
that respect. They bring the lighters up to the beach, turn them
over so that the inside is perpendicular to the earth, and then they
roll the hogsheads in, let the lighter fall back again into its normal
position, and then push it out to the ships. Each hogshead pays one-
half dollar. Bags of flour weighing 200 pounds pay 8 cents a bag.

Dr. Carroll. You have no pier, then, at which the vessel can lie?

Mr. Estebes. No.

Dr. Carroll. If the pier were built, could a vessel lie here at the
pier in all kinds of weather?

Mr. Estebes. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the prosperity of this city can be
revived?

Mr. Robert Schnabel. Yes; if the roads are improved. It used
to take only four hours from here to Lares, and now it requires two
days. Sometimes it costs a dollar and a half to bring a quintal of
coffee from Lares to this city. In good times it can be brought for 75
cents. In rainy times the peons are better for the bad roads, but
only certain classes of articles can be taken up by them.

NEED OF RAILROAD FACILITIES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner. ]

Cabo Rojo, P. R., January 27, 1899.
Mr. Pagan. The natural course of the railroad is from Mayaguez
to the bridge on the road you passed over joining the branch that
leaves Yauco. It is a flat land and naturally adapted for the con-
struction of a railroad. The construction of this road, or the altera-
tion of the old plan, would be an immense benefit to this town district
and to the surrounding districts. This road would receive freight
from all of the largest and most productive estates of Cabo Rojo. It
would also receive all the wealth of production of the neighboring
municipality of Lajas; also that of Cuanica; it would also take a lot
of freight from the salt mines, one of which is at a short distance from
here and another down on the southern corner of the island. One of
these mines is only about half a mile from where the line would pass.
This freight we speak of would not take away the freight of the port,
because it would be for internal consumption. The railroad would

174

get 50,000 quintals of freight per annum from the salt transportation.
A great quantity of tobacco also is produced all along the line.

Dr. Carroll. Have you made representations to the railroad com-
pany?

Mr. Pagan. No. A great quantity of corn also is raised along the
line; also a large number of cattle — and very fine cattle, too — cocoa-
nuts, firewood, cacao, lime in abundance, and bricks made of the best
clay known in Porto Rico.

ROAD EXPERTS REQUIRED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arroyo, P. R., February S, 1899.

A gentleman of Maunabo and others :

Mr. : I would like to say a word about the roads and about

the new tax laws. I think the money to be spent on the roads should
be under the control of the government, and the work undertaken
by contract and not left in the hands of the municipalities. For
instance, this town has $10,000, we will suppose. The people here are
not able to study roads and. are unable to make the best application
of the money. In the mountains it is still more difficult. If the gov-
ernment is going to spend half a million dollars, that sum is too
important to be left in the hands of incompetent persons. Engineers
should do the work in order that the money may be well spent. The
money will certainly be squandered if placed in the hands of the
municipalities. We have asked for $5,000. Perhaps it is too small
for our needs, but the engineer would know what is required, and I
think we should have the services of one.

Mr. . I think in every town there should be a road commission.

In Maunabo there is nobody who knows anything about roads, and
my experience is that money spent by the municipalities of the island
on roads has been ignorantly spent. Sometimes the Spanish Govern-
ment would give a town a couple of thousand dollars, and I have
known cases where that amount disappeared entirety, and not a cent
of it was even spent on roads.

Dr. Carroll. Is there anything to be said about the roads of Arroyo?
. A Gentleman present. They are infernal. The road from here
to Patillo should be built, also the vicinage road, and a road from
here to San Lorenzo, which is now in project.

RAILROAD AND CART FREIGHTS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yauco, March 6, 1899.

A Gentleman. In Mayaguez there is a soap factory which makes
very good soap, but as they have so small a market they can not go
into it on a large scale, besides which the margin of profit is not large,
but the quality of the soap is good, as I can show you.

Mr. Vivaldi. I am a merchant, and have never seen any of this
soap.

Dr. Carroll. This incident brings out very strongly and very
clearly the great defect in this island, and that is in transportation.

175

If you had easy, quick, and cheap transportation and they produced
good soap in Mayaguez you would know it here in Yauco.

A Gentleman. A load from Mayaguez to Yauco costs 7 pesos now
that the road is dry; in the wet season it costs 15 pesos.

Dr. Carroll. That is an embargo on commerce between municipal
districts.

The Druggist. Before there was a railroad between here and Ponce
I have paid 18 pesos for one ox load brought here from there.

Dr. Carroll. How do the rates compare with railroad rates?

Mr. Vivaldi. In normal times, when the roads are dry, there are
still people who prefer to bring their goods by cart, because they are
brought direct from the playa, while by the railroad they have to
cart them from the playa to the railroad station and then load them
on the cars.

The Druggist. I think on the average, in the rainy season, the
freight is about 50 per cent less by railroad.

Dr. Carroll. How much would you pay now, during the rainy
season, on the railroad for the same load?

The Druggist. From 2 to 3 pesos.

Dr. Carroll. The railroad charges no more in bad weather than
in good?

A Gentleman. Besides, we can always have transportation.

Dr. Carroll. How much does it cost to send a hogshead of sugar
or a thousand pounds of coffee to Ponce by railroad?

A Gentleman. Two-thirds of a cent per quintal per kilometer.

Dr. Carroll. How many kilometers are there between here and
Ponce?

Mr. Cianchini. Thirty-five.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost from here to Ponce for 2, 500 pounds
by cart?

Mr. Cianchini. Four pesos.

Mr. Vivaldi. The average freight on merchandise from the ware-
house here to the warehouse in the playa at Ponce is 15 cents per
quintal by cart; and the railroad freight and the car freight to Ponce
are more or less alike — sometimes a little in favor of the cart freight.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost from the railroad in Ponce to the
playa by cart?

Mr. Vivaldi. One dollar, and it costs 50 cents from the warehouse
here to the station.

Dr. Carroll. Do you consider the railroad freight rates too high?

Mr. Vivaldi. The general opinion here is that they are too high and
could be lowered.

Note. — The commissioner made the following calculation on the
transportation of 2,500 pounds from the warehouse in Yauco to the
warehouse in the playa at Ponce on the basis of two-thirds cent per
quintal (100 pounds) for 1 kilometer of distance :

Per quintal for 35 kilometers.. ---- $0.23J

Railroad charges . ___ 5.75

Cartage in Yauco .50

Cartage in Ponce to playa 1.00

Total for 2,500 pounds - 7.25

Several gentlemen present at the hearing examined the foregoing
figures and acquiesced in the result as a fair estimate for the trans-
portation of the amount stated.

Mr. RoiG. You must take into account that the railroad freight is

176

collected under different tariffs. The rate you have taken is that for
carload lots.

Dr. Carroll. It would be higher, then, for other freights?

Mr. RoiG. Yes; very much higher. Yauco is One of the most
important cities of the island, and its traffic is one of the most exten-
sive. It contains a population of 27,000 persons, with an area of
50,000 cuerdas, paying taxes, divided into 24 barrios, each one
important in itself. There are 40 coffee estates of the first class and
as many of the second class, a great many small coffee estates, and 10
sugar plantations. One of the grades of coffee most acceptable in
Europe is Yauco coffee. Our surrounding districts also send their
products to Yauco. Yauco exports 2,000,000 pesos' worth of coffee,
and imports three-fourths of that amount of merchandise. Its natural
port is Guanica. We require two hours to go to Ponce, over 35 kilo-
meters, while we can reach Guanica in twenty minutes, over 5 kilo-
meters. One great disadvantage of this is that we have to purchase
our provisions from Ponce. Ponce controls the only communication
between Yauco and the rest of the world, and the merchants there put
their own terms on us. When our merchants have tried to import
directly through Ponce, they have been badly treated. The Ponce
people tried to have fines imposed on them, and put other hindrances
in the way of direct importation. This town has sufficient vitality to
exist by itself, and could do so easily if the port of Guanica was opened.
It is a painful thing to us that, rich as this district is, we find ourselves
tributary to another district, and we appeal to you, as the representa-
tive of the Government which can bring about this change, to bring
it about.

Dr. Carroll. What is the character of the harbor of Guanica?

Mr. Roig. It is the best one in the island.

Note. — A few weeks later Guanica was opened as a port of entry on
the commissioner's recommendation.

RESULT OF WRETCHED ROADS.
STATEMENT OF ME. P. SANTISTEBAN Y CHARIVARI, SPANISH MERCHANT.

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1898.
Countries which have the good fortune to possess honest and intel-
ligent municipal administration usually have good roads — thanks to
which they are also, as a rule, in possession of a flourishing commerce
and agriculture. Their freight rates for agricultural products to the
ports of exportation and for merchandise to the centers of consump-
tion are nearly always low. This, however, is not the case in this
island, there being important producing centers here where coffee,
tobacco, and other crops are grown which have to pay from 2 to 4
pesos a hundredweight for freight charges to get their products to the
port of shipment. This is owing to the wretched roads which have
to be crossed, sometimes so bad that ox teams and drivers have been
known to lose their lives. Postal communication with these parts is
in no better shape.

177

STATE ROADS.

STATEMENT OF A. HARTMANN & CO.

Aeroyo, P. R. , November 7, 1898.
We think the Spanish system of highways (carreteras) being made
and sustained by the state a very good idea. In proof of it there are
good carreteras existing in the island. If the towns have to look
after the roads, they would have more roads to attend to than their
municipal finances could stand, and the result would he, in course of
years, no roads. Without roads the island can not be developed in
all its riches ; though we expect American enterprise will give us rail-
roads, there are many parts of the island where they can not be built,
nor would it pay to do so.

DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVEL.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR EUSTOQUIO TORRES.

Guayanilla, P. R., November 7, 1898.

Apart from the Central road from San Juan to Ponce, that from
this town to Adjuntas, and a few others, the rest do not merit the
name of roads. During the rainy season travel from one town to
another is almost impossible, not only owing to the bad condition of
the roads, but also because of the absence of bridges, which is more
noticeable when the rivers are swollen. But in the roads called
"rural," which join one barrio (district) with another, this is still
more apparent. This, as is natural, makes the moving of the crops
very difficult, and is one of the chief difficulties agriculture has to
contend against. The laws in force direct that these roads be kept in
order by those using them, but if it is taken into account that these
are mostly the field hands who live from hand to mouth on their mis-
erable daily wage, and that the day they attended to the roads their
families would be left without food, it will be seen how impracticable
that measure is and how unjust to the laborers.

Therefore if an ample system of autonomy does not give the munici-
palities the right to control this matter, the foregoing order should
be derogated, and the municipalities should be authorized to provide
for the maintenance of these roads in their estimates, the province in
either case setting aside a sum sufficient to help them for a period of
four years, after which time the municipalities to take them under
their exclusive charge.

As regards the vecinales (roads joining one town with another), the
economic situation of almost all the towns of the island will not per-
mit them to undertake the work necessary to provide a system of
good roadways. I am of opinion that this should be a matter for the
public treasury, at least until a stronger administration has lifted
the municipalities out of the prostration into which they have fallen.

One of the roads which calls for immediate attention is certainly
that from Mayaguez to Ponce, and another that from Ponce to Yauco,
the latter not only because of its present bad condition, but because of
the numerous towns it passes through and the trade depending on it.
It is therefore of greatest moment that the road from Ponce to Yauco
be declared carretara (highroad) and put under the jurisdiction of
the province.

1125 12

178

BETTER TRANSPORTATION INDISPENSABLE.
STATEMENT OF DELEGATION FROM PONCE.

Ponce, P. R., November 8, 1898.
In reference to our seaports and means of transportation to and
from the interior of the island, we are to-day in about the same prim-
itive state as when Puerto Rico was discovered. A short visit to the
interior will demonstrate that the immense natural resources of Puerto
Rico can not be properly developed unless we have the necessary
means of transportation.

ROADS AND RAILROADS.
STATEMENT OF JOSE M. ORTIZ.

Maunabo, P. R., February ££, 1899.

1. Speedy construction of roads, especially around the island (belt
road), which for a long time has been neglected and contains places
absolutely impassable; for instance, between Maunabo and Yabucoa,
where at times even a horse can not pass.

2. Stimulate and assist the installation of railroads, both steam and
otherwise, all over the island.

3. Grant facilities to foreign steamships to enable them to call at
our ports.

4. Cheapness and rapidity in the mail and telegraph service.

INSUFFICIENCY OF TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. •
STATEMENT OF SENOR C. DOMINGUEZ.

GrUAYAMA, P. R. , December 8, 1898.

If we look at the topography of the island, it will be noted that its
territory on the coast land is generally flat, and extensive valleys are
found in this district. On the other hand, the interior of the island
is very mountainous. On the coast land most of the sugar planta-
tions, pasture lands, and cocoanut groves are to be found, also graz-
ing lands and stock ranches, and, to a certain extent, tobacco, cocoa
trees, and a fair number of vegetable products.

Coffee, the principal source of the wealth of the island, is cultivated
on the highlands, the principal region of its cultivation being that
about Yauco, Maricao, Lares, Ciales, Utuado, Ad juntas, San Sebastian,
and Moca. Besides coffee, numerous small fruits are cultivated, and
here the forests abound, full of fine woods for building and cabinet
work.

Owing to the exuberance of our vegetation, almost all the lands of
the island are capable of cultivation. The approximate area of the
island is about 10, 000 square kilometers. If, in addition to this data, it
is taken into consideration that the island is peopled by about 900,000
inhabitants, that its agricultural productions exceed £19, 000, 000, and
that its exterior trade amounts to 136,000,000, it will immediately be
seen what a large amount of capital should be brought into the island
for the proper development of those agencies which modern life and
our particular necessities required

179

Let us now look at the means which we possess to attend to the
transportation of passengers and merchandise within this region.
With respect to roads of the first order, we have one from the capital
to Ponce, measuring 132 kilometers; one from Rio Piedras to Rio
Grande, 25 kilometers; one from Arroyo to Cayey (by way of Guay-
ama), of 25 kilometers, and pieces from Mayaguez to Anasco, from
Bayamon to Reyes Catolicos, and, in course of construction, one from
Arecibo to Ponce, 72 kilometers, which will be of great importance as
joining four of the most flourishing districts of the island. The remain-
ing roads are far from being in suitable condition ; in fact, they are
so lamentably bad that in the rainy season the freight on products
from the interior to ports of shipment is two or three times as much
as that across the Atlantic.

The aspect of railroads is not any more flattering. The railroad
called the Belt Road covers 546 kilometers, of which 194 only are in
operation. These 194 kilometers are cut up into four disconnected
sections. The branch from Anasco to Lares is only finished between
the first-named point and San Sebastian. The concession for the con-
struction of a road from Arecibo to Utuado has already been granted,
and a short time ago there was some thought of constructing a branch
from Ponce to Jayuga, and another between Rio Piedras and Caguas.

Public works maj^ always be considered as measuring the amount
of interest and intelligence with which governments have attended to
the well-being and greatness of their countries. We consider, for the
reasons already stated, and to give impulse to agriculture and com-
merce on this island, a railroad should be constructed which would
take in the whole of the shore line, with branches to the most impor-
tant towns of the interior.

A NETWORK OF RAILROADS.
STATEMENT OF RUCABADO & CO.

Cayey, P. R., March Jh, 1899.
One of the most necessary requirements of this country is the open-
ing of new roads between different districts which to-day, owing to
the inexplicable indifference of the last government, are completely
neglected. The best results would be obtained by a network of rail-
roads joining the interior towns of the island. It would be less
costly, quicker to construct, and more suitable than cart roads.

CENSUS OF THE POPULATION.

THE POPULATION OF PORTO RICO AT VARIOUS PERIODS SINCE THE SPANISH

OCCUPATION. ,

The first census of Porto Rico, according to Acosta's annotated
edition of Fray Inigo Abbad's history of the island, was taken in
1765. The figures given for previous dates are, therefore, evidently
estimates, official and otherwise. It is not clear that the results given
for later years of the last and the early years of the present century
were official. It is nowhere stated that the government took an
annual census. How the figures given for those years were made up

180

there is no definite information to show. In 1867, we are told, a
decennial census was ordered, but no figures are given for that year,
and there is a break of seventeen years — from 1860 to 1877.

The table for 1775, as found in Abbad's work, is full of errors in
addition, which Acosta refers to and says that he did not undertake
to correct them. It is not a very difficult clerical work, however, to
find and remove these errors. Similar errors are to be found in most
other Spanish statistics. I have eliminated them from the tables for
1887 and 1897, as well as from that of 1775. The necessary changes
very slightly affect the totals. Of much more importance is the dis-
covery that the last column of the table for 1775, which has univer-
sally been understood to represent the total of population for that
year, is only the total for all classes, excepting the slaves. The head-
ing of the column De Almas (souls) would seem to be inclusive of
all classes. Acosta himself accepts the footing, 70,260, as the total
of all "classes and castes of inhabitants," but I am convinced that
is this a mistake. The column of "souls" is embraced with that
of "slaves" under the same heading, "Total general," showing
that the compiler, from whom Abbacl doubtless copied the table,
intended to place "slaves" and "souls" in complementary columns,
which must be added together ih order to find the grand total. Any-
one may convince hiniself that this inference is correct by adding
together, across the table, the several numbers representing whites,
free mixed, free blacks, and groups, the sum of which will be found
identical with that placed in the column of "souls." The total for
that column, 73,932, represents, therefore, all classes of inhabitants
of Porto Rico, except slaves. The slaves must be added in order to
get the total population, which is found to be 80,504, which is more
than 10,000 greater than has been attributed to Porto Rico for that
year. In the table for 1765 no such discrepancy exists; the slaves
are included in the final total. The population in 1765 was 14,883.
The total for 1775 is 80,504. Here is a difference of 35,621, from
which it would appear, if both censuses are correct, that there was
an increase in ten years of 80 per cent. If there was any such increase,
no explanation has been given of it, and one is left to suspect that one
or both of the censuses must be incorrect. No errors in addition were
found in the table for 1765. In all other tables, including those for
1887 and 1897, I have found many.

The returns for the censuses of 1887 and 1897 were kindly furnished
by the secretary of state for Porto Rico, Senor Munoz Rivera. They
differ somewhat from the figures given for both censuses elsewhere.
One authority, for example, gives 806,711 as the total population for
1887; another, 803,474, and another, 802,439, while in the table fur-
nished by Mr. Rivera the footing is 798,565, all claiming to give official
figures. The discrepancy between the last figure and the two preced-
ing ones is in large part explained by the fact that evidently the
former includes the Spanish soldiers and marines, and also the pris-
oners, while the latter does not. There were in 1887, 3,224 soldiers,
114 marines, and 536 prisoners, making a total of 802,439, which is
4,000 less than one of the figures above given. According to the cen-
sus of 1897 the population in that year was 890,820. To be added to
this number, as making up the actual population of the island on the
31st of December of that year, are 7,014 Spanish soldiers, 368 marines,
and 1,101 prisoners, making a grand total of 899,203, as representing
the actual population on the 31st of December, 1897. It will be
observed that in ten years the number of soldiers and prisoners had
more than doubled and the number of marines had more than trebled.

181

Among the intelligent Porto Ricans with whom I have talked there
seems to be no very great confidence in the correctness of the figures
of the census of 1897. It was taken under the direction of the Span-
iards, who are said to have carried away most of the detailed returns
when they left for the peninsula or to have destroyed them. I have
obtained copies of the blank schedules used in that census. The
sheets are from 14 to 20 inches in length and each is ruled for seven-
teen names. The province, judicial department, municipal district,
section, and barrio are indicated, together with the street, number of
the house, the story, etc. The inquiries embrace (1) sex, (2) race,
(3) age, (4) civil state (married or single), (5) family relation, (6) edu-
cation, (7) place of birth, (8) nationality, (9) resident or transient,
(10) present or absent, (11) length of residence in the municipal dis-
trict, (12) profession or occupation, (13) period of absence, and (14)
legal residence of transients. A distinction is made between the actual
or hecho and the legal or derecho population. The former includes
all who are present, whether citizens or not, permanent or transient
residents; the latter, those who are citizens of Porto Rico or of Spain,
both present and absent. It would be interesting to know how the s/
population is divided among the various occupations and how many
can read and write, but I am informed that, notwithstanding the
requirements of the schedules, there are no returns for these items,
or they are too incomplete to be tabulated.

The progress of the population of Porto Rico since the discovery
of Columbus has been greatest in the present century. The aborig-
ines disappeared "like the mists before the sun," according to an
authority quoted by Acosta, shortly after the Spaniards began to settle
the island?. In 1493, the year of the discovery by Columbus, there
were, Secretary Coll thinks, not more than 80,000 to 100,000 Bori-
queiios or Caribs. Acosta's estimate is 200,000. Both agree in saying
that the estimate of Father Las Casas — 600,000 — is impossible, because
the island could not have supported so large a population living in
such a primitive state, because in 1511 only 11,000 Caribs could be
mustered to oppose the invaders and to strike a final blow for the
liberty of the natives, and because it is not conceivable that 600,000
persons could be destroyed within a generation, authentic documents
showing, it is claimed, that there was only a small remnant of Indians
in 1530. The lot of the Indians was indeed a hard one. They were
virtually slaves ; and when they finally disappeared as a distinct race,
the Africans, who had come with the first colonists, continued to
serve the Spanish settlers as bondmen until 1873. If the first census
is at all trustworthy, the number of inhabitants, including slaves, was
less than 45,000 in 1765, which was more than two hundred and fifty
years after the settlement of the oldest town, Caparra. That is slow
progress, indeed. It is partly explained, however, by the fact that
gold fields were opened by Pizarro and other Spanish adventurers in
South America, and that the Spanish thirst for gold led the migration
from Spain in that direction and also tempted all who could to abandon
Porto Rico, which, while it was rich in other natural productions, was
not a promising gold field.

From 1765 to the close of the century there was an increase of
110,593, showing that the tide of population was setting from the
peninsula more rapidly and steadily toward the West Indies. In the
next twelve years there was a gain of about 28,000; some 38,000 were
added in the next three years, if we may believe the record, while the
growth in the next nineteen years was 128,000. The large growth in

182

the fifty years ending in 1834 was brought about by the gradual
relaxation of the laws prohibiting foreigners from settling in Porto
Rico. In 1778 some Catholic workingmen were allowed to come from
neighboring islands, and by a royal decree of 1815, when the golden
age of the island is said to have begun, many foreigners were allowed
to obtain land and became permanent residents. In the period
between 1834 and 1846 there was a net increase of 85,000. From 1834
to 1877 the population was considerably more than doubled. In the
decade 1877 to 1887 the increase was about 71,000, and in that of
1887 to 1897 upward of 87,000.

In the period 1765 to 1783 the population doubled ; in that of 1783
to 1803 it doubled again; in that of 1803 to 1834 it doubled a third
time; in 1834 to 1877 it doubled a fourth time. The gain in the last
twenty years has been at the rate of 22 per cent. During the present
century the population has almost inultipled itself by 6. This sex-
tuple increase shows that it was only in the present century that the
Madrid Government made the conditions of settlement in Porto Rico
sufficiently attractive to induce a large migration to the colony.

NOTES ON THE POPULATION OF PORTO RICO AT PERIODS.
By Seiior Coll y Toste, Secretary of the Treasury.

llfiS (date of discovery). — According to the historian Fray Bartolome
de las Casas, the island was as thickly populated as a beehive. Fray
Inigo Abbad, agreeing with Bayacete, places the number at 600,000.
The probable number is from 80,000 to 100,000 aboriginals, taking
into consideration the difficulties of obtaining food and the unhealthi-
ness of the intertropical climate.

1515-1535. — Thirty-five residents in Caparra (old capital) and 35 in
San German, the only two towns of the island (Licentiate Velasquez).
The aboriginals were then formed into gangs and were working in the
mines. Those who had taken part in the uprising were branded with
an "F" in the forehead.

154-8. — The capital, more than 100 residents, and San German a few
more than 30 (Bishop Bastido). Aboriginals, but very few.

1556. — The capital, 130; San German, 20 residents. (This latter
had been burned by French corsairs.)

164.6.— The capital, 500; San German, 200; Arecibo, 100; Coamo, 80
inhabitants.

1759. — 5,611 fighting men, according to Governor Esteban Bravo.

1765. — 44,833 souls, according to Governor O'Reylly (first census).

1775.— 70,260 souls (Fray Ihigo).

1782.— 81,120 souls.

1788.— 87,984 souls.

1788.— 101,398 souls.

1793.— 120,022 souls.

1796.— 132,982 souls.

1798.— 144,525 souls.

1799.— 153,232 souls.

1800.— 155,426 souls.

1802.— 163,192 souls.

1803.— 174,902 souls.

1812.— 183,014 souls.

1815.— 220,S92 souls.

183

1834.— 358,836 souls.

1846.— 443,139 souls (Santiago Fortun).

1860.-580,329 souls (Paulino Garcia).

2577.-731,64-8 souls.

2554.-784,709 souls.

1887. — 802,439 souls. This last was made up of 474,933 whites,
246,647 mixed, 76,985 blacks, plus 3,224 individuals of the army, 114
of the navy, and 536 prisoners.

2557.-899,394, made up of 573,187 whites, 241,900 mixed, 75,824
blacks, plus 7,014 individuals of the army, 368 of the navy, and 1,101
prisoners.

Since 1867 the census of the island was ordered to be taken every
ten years. From 1860 to 1867 no census was taken. In the last cen-
sus of 1897 it is noteworthy that the black race is not prospering, as
will be seen by comparing the number of blacks, 75,824, with that of
1887, 76,985. By not allowing black immigration from the neighbor-
ing islands and counting on a 3 per cent annual loss by absorption by
the white and mixed races the 75,824 negroes now in the island will
have disappeared in 300 years, more or less. This study in anthro-
pology is interesting, for if that should happen Porto Rico would be
the only island of the Antilles in which the white race would prepon-
derate numerically.

184

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196

Table III. — Sex and race in 1897.

Population.

Percent-
age.

448,619
442,201
573,096
241,895

75,829

0.504

.496

White..

.643

Mixed

.272

Black

.085

Table IV.

—Penal population — Census of 1897. l

Departments.

Number
of pris-
oners.

Departments.

Number
of pris-
oners.

799
48
24
62
53"

Guayama .

Total

1,101

1 Evidently the entire number of prisoners in all classes of prisons, including municipal jails.

Table V. — Totals of population — Census of 1897.

Total general population 890,820

Spanish military forces 7,014

Spanish naval forces 368

Prisoners ... 1,001

Total 899,203

Table VI. — Census of 1887 compared with census of 1897. — Race and sex.1

MALES.

Department.

San Juan .
Arecibo...
Aguadilla.

Ponce

Mayaguez
Guayama .
Humacao .
Viegues...

Total

White.

1897.

38,132
59,324
42,266
60,304
40,874
29,787
19,670
1,529

291,886

1887.

30,401
46,428
36,100
46,250
34,014
25.480
19,448
1,279

239,400

In-
crease
( + ) or

de-
crease

+ 7,731
+12,896
+ 6,166
+14,054
+ 6, 860
+ 4,307
+ 222
+ 250

+52,486

Mixed.

1897.

25,089
11,805

4,311
25,826
17,186
18,994
14,739

1,137

119,087

1887.

23,875
11,678

4,571
27,026
19,541
17,364
16, 176

1,073

121,304

In-
crease
(+)or

de-
crease.

+1,214

+ 127
— 260
—1,200
—2,355
+1,630
—1,437
+ 64

-2,217

Black.

1897.

10,295
4,105
1,587

7,807
4,189
4,841
4,244
578

37, 646

1887.

In-
crease
( + )or

de-
crease

38,317

+667
+247
—325
+ 39
—167
—343
—566
—223

-671

FEMALES.

San Juan .
Arecibo. . .
Aguadilla

Ponce

Mayaguez
Guayama .
Humacao .
Viegues...

Total

35,440

28,717

+ 6,723

26,820

26,074

+ 746

10, 990

10,317

57,862

46,686

+11, 176

11,954

11,804

+ 150

3,908

3,711

41,858

36,517

+ 5,341

4,638

4,950

— 312

1,608

2,046

56,583

43,608

+12,975

26, 109

26, 789

— 680

7,705

7,870

39,884

33, 369

+ 6,515

17,679

20, 156

—2,477

4,477

4,490

28,800

25,885

+ 2,915

19,304

18, 049

+1,255

4,901

5,029

19,336

19,616

— 280

15,142

16, 493

-1,351

4,092

4,546

1,447

1,135

+ 312

1,162

1,028

+ 134

502

659

281,210

235,533

+45,677

122, 808

125,343

+2,535

38,183

38,668

+673
+197
—438
—165
— 13
—128
-454
—157

—485

1 There are wide discrepancies between reports of the results of the census of 1887. One
authority gives the population at 806,711. In Table VI the returns by departments were cer-
tified to the commissioner by the secretary of state, Senor Mufioz Rivera. His total is 798,565,
which evidently does not include the Spanish military and naval forces and the prisoners.
These aggregate 3,874, making the total 802,409. Another authority gives the figures 803,474. It
is impossible to reconcile these differences, because there is no way of ascertaining the cause of
them.

197

Table VI. — Census of 1887 compared with census of 1897. — Race and sex — Cont'd.

SUMMARY.

1897.

1887.

Increase.

Decrease.

Males:

White -.

391, 886

119,087

37,646

239,400

121,304

38,317

52,486

3,217

Black

671

Total

448,619

399,031

49,598

Females:

White

281,310
133,808
38,183

235,533
125,343
38,668

45,677

2,535

Black . .

485

Total

442,201

399,544

43,657

Aggregate :

White ..

573,096
341,895

75,829

474,933

246,647

76, 985

98,163

4,752

Black --.

1,156

Total - -

890,820

798,565

93,255

Table VII. —Summary of population in 1765.

Free.

Slaves.

Males

Females.. .
Children ..

Total

10, 968
11,497
17,381

3,439
1,598

39,846

5,037

General total, 44,883.

Table VIII. — Summary of popidation in 1775.

Residents.

Sons.

Daugh-
ters.

Total.

Men.

Women.

Whites

5,349
5,433
693
4,351
3,450

4,663
5,346
530
3,441
3,133

9,903

11,936

860

9,284

11,431

712

29, 199

34,146

2,795

7,792

6,572

19,376

17,103

22,699

31,437

80,504

198

INCREASE OF POPULATION FROM 1765 TO 1897.

Between 1775 and 1877 no full tables of census returns are given.
The following figures are, with two or three exceptions, those of
Acosta, in his notes in Abbad's History :

Table IX.

Year.

Popula-
tion.

1765

44,883
80,504
81,120
87,994
91,845
93, 300
96,233
98,877

1775

1782

1783

1784

1785

1786

1787

Year.

Popula-
tion.

1788

101,398
103,051
106,679
112,712
115,557
120, 022
127,133
129,758

1789

1790

1791

1792 _

1793

1794

1795

Year.

1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
1803

Popula-
tion.

132,982
138,758
144,525
153,232
155,426
158,051
163, 192
174,902

Year.

1812
1815
1834
1846

1860
1877
1887
1897

Popula-
tion.

183,014
220,892
358,836
443,139
583,308
731,648
802,409
890,820

Table X.— Population in 1834.

Whites 188,869

Free, mixed 101,275

Free, blacks .. 25,124

Slaves 41,818

Troops and prisoners 1, 750

Total 358,836

Table XI. — Population in 1846.

Males.

Females.

Total.

Whites ,

109,061

76,728

10,360

6,366

21,908

107,022

77,572

11, 131

6,674

16,317

216,083
154,300

21, 491

13,040

38,225

Total

224,423

218,716

443,139

Table XII. — Population in 1860.

San Juan

Bayamon

Arecibo

Aguadilla

Mayaguez

Ponce '..

Guayama

Humacao

Total

Isle of Vieques

General total

Families.

Souls.

3,387

18,259

13,051

77,781

13,916

80,427

12,558

70, 629

18,425

107,710

16,961

98,116

11,546

68,891

10,150

58,516

99, 994

580,329

530

2,979

100,524

583,308

BY RACE AND SEX.

Males.

Females.

Total.

Whites

154,350
120,397
21,668

146, 080
120,618
20,068

300,430

241,015

Slaves

41, 736

Total ....

296,415

286, 766

583, 181

127

General total

583, 308

199

Table XII. — Population in 1860— Continued.

PERCENTAGE BY RACE AND- SEX.

Whites: Per cent.

Males -- - -- 5207

Females 5094

Free colored:

Males 4061

Females - 4206

Slaves:

Males. -'--- 0731

Females - 0699

BY NATIONALITY.

National. Foreign

Whites

Free colored

Total ..

298,704
280,821

579,525

1,726
1,930

3,656

BY AGE.

Less than 1 year - 1M52

Between 1 year and 7 years - i??'^?

Between 8 and 15 years , i' ?1

Between 16 and 20 years - .> 61'6io

Between 21 and 25 years 57,69o

Between 26 and 30 years 5/, 55b

Between 31 and 40 years 6Mof

Between 41 and 50 years 35'S?S

Between 51 and 60 years 'ZIS

Between 61 and 70 years .- ^'W£

Between 71 and 80 years ^'"If

Between 81 and 85 years - 928

Between 86 and 90 years — 970

Between 91 and 95 years — - - 253

Between 96 and 100 years - ---- 218

100 years or more - "3

BY OCCUPATION.

Free
colored.

Proprietors

Farm peasants

Merchants

Manufacturers

Industrial pursuits

Ecclesiastics

Active employments

Pensioned officials and superannuated

Active military duty, including trained militia

Retired

Professors

4,563
9,642

321
6

512

CIVIL STATE.

Single.

Married.

Widow

and
widower.

Whites:

Males

112,555

98,871

92,167
89,359

21,272
19,756

37,155
36,756

24,599

24,218

338
256

4,600

Females

10,453

Free colored:

Males

3,632

Females

7,040

Slaves:

Males

Females

200

Table XII. — Population in 1860 — Continued.
LITERACY.

Literate.

Illiterate.

Whites:

27,009
17, 719

3,672

2,850

127,341

128,361

Free colored:

138,393

137, 836

Total -

51,250

531,931

.LITERACY IN PORTO RICO AND CUBA COMPARED.

Literate.

Illiterate.

Cuba:

33.00
26.00

17.50
12.50

67.00

74.00

Porto Rico:

Male - ..-

82.50

87.50

Table XIII. — Increase of population by race, 1765-1897.

Year.

Whites.

Increase.

Free
colored.

Increase.

Slaves.

Increase.

1765....

5,037
6,572
41,818
51,216
41,736

1775

29, 199
188,867
216,083
300,430
474,933
573,096

36, 941
126,399
175, 791
241,015
323,632
317,724

1834

159,668
27,216
84,347

174,503
98,163

89, 458
49,392
65,224
82,617
!5,908

35.246

1846

9,398

1860

19,480

1887

1897

1 Decrease.

GEOGRAPHICAL.

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1898.

Mr. Andres Crosas, an American citizen, many years in business
in Puerto Rico:

The area of the island of Puerto Rico has been represented as 3,865
square miles, and in a new geography it is given as 3,500 square miles.
The fact is there has never been an accurate survey, and the true
area lies probably between those figures. There was a triangular
survey of the. island made by the engineer staff officers of the Spanish
army, but the Spaniards took that survey away with them. That
survey cost the island a great deal. I do not know how much.

201

RIVERS AND BROOKS.

[Those in braces are known by the first name, the other names being of branches or feed
ers; italics indicate different names for the same river; Q. means quebrada, or brook; R. means
rio, or river.]

Q. Fajardo.
Q. Juan Martin.
R. Pita j alia.
R. Sabana.
R. Mameyes.
R. Grande.
R. Espiritu Santo
R. Herrera.
R. Canovanas.
R. Grande de

Loiza.
R. Canas.

NORTH COAST FROM EAST TO WEST.

R. Bairoa.

R. Cagnitas. }■

R. Quebradillas. I

R. Turabo.

R. Valencia.

R. Gurabo.

Q. Baden. {

Q. Grande. J

Q. Juan Mendez.

R. Piedras.

R. Puerto Nuevo.

Q. Margarita.

R. Bayamon. )
R. Hondo. >
R. de la Plata.
R. Usabon.
R. Guayabate.

J R. ChicodeCarite [ R.

R.
R.

IB.
|R.

IB.

R. Carite.
R. Hondo.
R. Ciburco. {
R. Morovis. )
R. Manati. )
R. Cialitos. \

Q
JQ-

R.
R.
Q.
Q.

Arecibo.

Tanama.

Criminales. {_

de los Angeles, f

Alonso.

Limones.
Seca.
Beblaca.
de Camuy.
Guajataca.
de los Cerdos.
Seco.

WEST COAST FROM NORTH TO SOUTH.

R. Culebrinas. )
R. Nador. J

R. Grande.
Q. de Liana.
Q. de la Altura.
Q. Cagnat.

Q. Machucal.
Q. Adolfo.
Q. Gonzalez.
R. Susua. }
Q. Rosas. )
R. Yauco.
R. Guayanilla.
R. Macana.
R. Tallaboa,
Q. del Agua.

R. de Anasco. 1
R. de Prieto. I
R. de Blanco. [
R. Guabas. J
R. de Mayaguez.

R. Guanajibo. 1
R. Grande. \
R. Viejo.
R. Maguas. '
R. Cain. f

SOUTH COAST FROM WEST TO EAST.

R. Canas.

R. Portugues.

R. Bucana.

R. Inabon.

R. Jacaguas.

R. Canas.

R. Descalabrado.

R. de Coama.

R. Jueyes.

R. Salinas. "]

R.
R.
R.
Q.
Q-

R.
R.
Q.

Lapa. I

Majada. f

Jajonie. J

Seco.

AgiTas Verdes.

Cimarrona.

Pozo Hondo.

Guamani.

Pianos

Creaux.

R. Rosario.
R. Buey.
R. Chico.
Q. Dumas.
Q. Ortiz.

Q. Palencia.
R. de Arroyo.
R. Maria.
R. de Patillas.
R. Maton.
R. del Real.
R. Chico.
Q. del Bajo.
R. Jacaboa.
Q. Manglillo.

EAST COAST FROM SOUTH TO NORTH.

R. de Maunabo
Q. Honda.
R. Guayanes.
R. de Ingenio.
R. Limones.

R. Candelero.
R. de Humacao.
R. Anton Ruiz. )
Q. Mambille. )
R. de Naguabo.

R. Santiago.
Q. Bolijas.
Q. Palma.
R. Daguao.
Q. Salada.

R. Aguas Claras.
R. Ceiba.
Q. Damajagua.
Q. Vueltas.
R. de Fajardo.

San Juan.
Aguadilla.
Guanica.

HARBORS AND ROADSTEADS.

NORTH COAST.

WEST COAST.

Mayaguez.

SOUTH .COAST.

Ponce.

Arecibo.

Cabo-rojo.

Jobos.

Humacao.

EAST COAST.

Fajardo.

Isabel Segunda, Island of
Vieques.

202

ISLANDS.

[Cayo means key, small island.]

EAST COAST.

Vieques.
Culebra.
Culebrita.
Caballo Blanco.
Cayo Santiago.

Cayo Southwest. Puerca.
Cayo Northeast. Hicacos.
Palominos. Pinero.
Arcifes de la Cor- Cabras.
dillera. Aldodon.

SOUTH COAST.

La Alcarraza.
Piragua del Este,
Cucharas.
Descubridor.

Cordona.

Caja de Muertos.

Cano Gardo. Ratones.

WEST COAST.

C. de Berberia.

Mona.

Monita.

NORTH COAST.

Cabras. San Juan
CAVES.

Desecheo.

El Consejo (Council Cave), near Arecibo.

Oscura, Clara, Ermita, in Aguas Buenas.

Cave of the Dead, Utuado, so called because of human bones found therein.

Cueva de Pagita, in Callejones, Lares.

Cave at G-uayabal, in Juana Diaz.

Indian Cavern, in Loiza.

Swallow Cave, in Manati.

Guataca, in San Sebastian.

Enea, in San Sebastian.

MOUNTAIN PEAKS.

El Yunque, between districts of Naguabo and Rio Grande, ab6ut 5,000 feet.

Torrecilla, near town of Barranquitas, 3,664 feet.

Mata Platano, northern part of district of Penuelas, 3,030 feet.

Toita, in district of Cayey, 2,856 feet.

Guilarte, in district of Adjuntas, 2,660 feet.

Cerro Gorda, in district of Sabana Grande, 2,233 feet.

BATHS OR SPRINGS.

Baiios de Coamo, mineral, medical, hot.
Quintana, near Ponce, sulphur baths.
San Sebastian, warm springs, mineral.
San Lorenzo, mineral springs.
Caguitas, in Aguas Buenas, hot springs.
Rayo, Rincon.

THE CLIMATE.

By Prof. Mark W. Harrington, Director of the U. S. Weather Bureau.

The published observations of Porto Rico are very scanty, con-
sisting of a total of about nine years at San Juan only, and these are
fragmentary, being scattered through twenty years. They show a
true tropical climate, with a high mean temperature (78.9° F.) and
very little difference in season, except in rainfall. The coldest month
on the average is February (75.7°), and the hottest June (81.5°), but
December to March are very much alike in temperature, and so are
the months from June to September. The very coldest month on rec-
ord is January, 1895 (70°), and the very warmest is June, 1878 (86°).

203

The average change from the coldest to the hottest is only 6
degrees, but this is verj?- appreciable to one who has lived long in the
Tropics. The cool months really seem to the natives to be decidedly
cold, requiring additional covering on the bed and heavier clothing.

The coldest temperature on record in San Juan is 57.2°, on a day in
January, 1894. The very hottest on record is 100.8°, on a day in May,
1878. The absolute range of temperature observed is therefore
between 43° and 44°. The former temperature is far above frost, but
would seem to the natives very cold and would check the growth of
tropical plants. The latter would seem very hot, for the air of San
Juan is very moist and the evaporation of perspiration is slow.

The comfort of San Juan as a place of residence, not to mention its
healthfulness, is very much increased by the "briza," which is not
given in the published reports. It is the northeast trade which has
been turned toward the west, until the "briza" comes quite regularly
from the east. It is not felt much during the day, but springs up
late in the afternoon and lasts through the evening. It is a soft,
gentle breeze, laving the body, and giving an effect which is most
fresh and delightful. It has a regularity approaching that of the
sun, and Santurce and Catano, two suburbs of the capital, get it both
more strongly and through a larger part of the twenty-four hours.
At Catano it may be felt until the middle of the forenoon, and
begins again in mid-afternoon. At Santurce it makes the nights
positively cool.

The year at San Juan is divided into the dry season and the wet sea-
son; but the dry season has about as much rainfall as the Northeastern
States, and the wet season more than twice as much. The dry season
embraces the months from December to March, with a rainfall of 10 or
11 inches. It is the most attractive season of the year, relatively dry
and cool. It is the proper season for the visits of Northerners to San
Juan; and winter residents would find its climate very gentle, mild,
and safe. The wet season embraces the other eight months in the
year, and has a rainfall of 48 to 49 inches, or more than the whole of
the year for the most of the United States. The total rainfall at San
Juan is nearly 60 inches, and the culmination is in November, when
an average of nearly 8 inches falls.

The rainfall is not excessive. It is equaled in many places in the
Southern States and in the northern part of the Pacific coast, and is sur-
passed in many places. It is less significant from the ease with which
the rain comes down. There are few threatenings of storms for
days beforehand. There is little wind and little lightning. Rainy
days are rare, but rainy afternoons or evenings — for an hour or two —
common. The rain begins suddenly, falls heavily, and ends soon.

There is no impression of a rainy climate, except that everything
seems constantly fresh and clean.

The healthfulness of San Juan is the greatest of any city in the
West Indies. Yellow fever is never at home here, and when imported
it rarely, if ever, spreads. Malarial fevers are very rare in the city
and some cases of dysentery and typhoid occur. The little city has
no waterworks in a condition to be used, but stands on a coral island
which rises to a summit of 100 feet or more and is only 3 miles long
by half a mile broad and with few open sewers, and between the city
authorities and the heavy rainfalls it is kept quite clean.

The great climatic misfortune of San Juan is the hurricane which
occasionally visits it in the latter part of the rainy season (from
August to October). It comes on very much as general storms do in

204

the North, with lowering sky, rising winds, and general threats of
an impending storm ; but it comes from the east, while our storms
generally are from the west. It is much more intense than our
storms, but is very much rarer. Its usual earliest sign is a booming
sea without apparent cause, for waves propagate themselves faster
than wind travels. Hurricanes are rare in San Juan. The last
occurred in 1876. They usually pass to the south or to the north of
Porto Rico.

The climate of the rest of the island is much like that of San Juan,
with modifications due to elevation above the sea and to changes in
the "briza," due to the topography. The change of the temperature
with elevation is relatively rapid here, being apparently about 4° of
temperature to every thousand feet.

Now, Mount Yunque, at the northeastern part of the island, is,
according to the chief of the department of engineers of the island,
about 6,000 feet high, and its summit would have a mean temperature
as low as that of many places in the States. Besides elevations of
2,000 feet are not unusual for towns — snow apparently never falls on
the island, but hoarfrosts are reported as occasional in high places.
Several towns of some size in the interior have a popular reputation
as being cold — Cayey, Adjuntas, and Utuado. That black frosts do
not occur, however, is evident from the fact that the banana grows
freely up to at least 2,000 feet, and it is very sensitive to frost.

There appear to be three mountain ridges running from end to end
in the island, but the central is the commanding one, and the eleva-
tions are, on the whole, highest toward the eastern end, and espe-
cially at the northeastern angle. The result is that the " briza" most
wets and refreshes the eastern end of the island and the rainfall
changes greatly from point to point. Judging by Jamaica, of which
the climate has been carefully studied, the heaviest rainfall is in the
northeast, and it may here in places amount to 100 inches annually
or more. In Jamaica it is known to surpass 200 inches in some places,
and El Yunque, as seen from San Juan, is very generally capped by
rain cloud. The interior valleys of the island are relatively dry,
while the northern and eastern mountain slopes are wet. A few pro-
tected places are reported as so dry that rain may not fall for an
entire year or more, but these spots must be small.

The general appearance of the island is most attractive and vernal.
The vegetation is luxuriant and clothes the mountains to their very
summits. Very little bare rock is seen anywhere. The island is one
of the best watered in the world. It is said to have 1,200 streams
with names, of which 71 can be called rivers, and 5 or 6 are of con-
siderable size. In crossing the island from Ponce to San Juan on the
military road .one crosses over 50 bridges, besides fording several
streams at the southern end. Water power is extremely abundant
and could provide power for a large part of the work required in the
island. It suffers, however, the marked disadvantage that the streams
are subject to sudden and severe floods. Two or three weeks ago the
Coamo River rose 15 or 20 feet and fell again in one night. Its
highest point was marked by the limbs of trees and other vegetation
which it had plastered against the arches of a high bridge. A heavy
afternoon rain in the mountains about its source had caused the sud-
den rise.

Weather Bureau Station,

San Juan, P. R. , November 3, 1898.

205

HURRICANES IN THE ISLAND.

According to history the nineteenth century has seen more destruc-
tive hurricanes than any previous century since Spanish occupation
of the island. The following list is given in Acosta's Notes to Fray
Inigo Abbad's History of Puerto Rico :

July. 1515.
October 4, 1526.
July 26, 1530.

SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

August 23 and 31, 1530.
July and August, 1537.
September 21, 1575.

-, 1740.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

September 12, 1615.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

August 28, 1772.

NINETEENTH CENTURY.

September 4, 1804. August 2, 1837.

July 23, 1813. August 18, 1851.

July 23, 1814. October 29, 1867.

September 21, 1819. August 14, 1886.

July 26, 1825. August 8, 1899.

Of these twenty-two hurricanes, the record of which has been pre-
served, ten have taken place during the present century. Eight
occurred in the month of August, six in July, four in September, and
one in October. Of all the hurricanes, that of 1772 seems to have
been the most severe.

SUMMARY FOR TWELVE MONTHS.

Month.

November. 1898
December, 1898.
January, 1899...
February, 1899 .

March, 1899

April, 1899

May, 1899

June, 1899..

July, 1899

August, 1899

September, 1899
October, 1899...

Highest

Lowest

tempera-

Date.

tempera-

Date.

Mean.

ture.

77.2

118

75.9

74.6

2 20

75.2

74.7

76.6

79.4

Greatest
daily
range.

Month.

Least
daily
range.

Cloudy
days.

Partly

cloudy

days.

Clear
days.

Rain.

Inches.

612

12.08

8
8

9
9

5.34
2.92

8
10

9
9

19
21

.80
2.29

6.09

2.59

7.23

7.53

10.38

13.66

10.21

Maximum

velocity of

■wind-

November, 1898
December, 1898.
January, 1899...
February, 1899 .

March, 1899

April, 1899

May, 1899..

June, 1899

July, 1899

August, 1899

September, 1899
October, 1899...

20
21

24
19
24
19
r66
31
38

1 Also, 19, 22.

2 Also, 28.

3 Also, 7, 19, 20, 29, 30.

4 Also 4, 22, 27.

6 Also, 8, 27, 28.

6 Beginning November IS

7 Eighth, east.

206

PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION.

THE CHIEF DISEASES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1898.

Jose C. Barbosa, M. D. :

Dr. Barbosa. I am a physician, having graduated at Ann Arbor,
Mich., in the class of 1880.

Dr. Carroll. I desire to ask you a few questions bearing on your
work as a physician. What are the chief diseases here?

Dr. Barbosa. Malaria is the principal disease. It is found here
in all its different forms. There is also much tuberculosis, owing to
the condition in which the people live here. We have here sometimes
50 or. 60 persons living in quarters where there is hardly sufficient
space for 10 or 12. The poor live in the lower part of the house and
the wealthier classes upstairs. The lower part of the houses is
frequently damp and altogether unhealthful.

Dr. Carroll. What about smallpox?

Dr. Barbosa. We have a case of smallpox now and then, but it is
sporadic. We have no epidemics of that kind. In 1880 we had some
cases, and again in 1893, but it was not so dangerous as in former
years. We have paid a great deal of attention to precautionary
measures against it. We have given special attention to vaccination.

Dr. Carroll. Is there not a great mortality here among children?

Dr. Barbosa. Yes. The poor people here have too many children
to sustain; they have not the means to provide their children proper
nourishment. Milk costs here a great deal, because of the consump-
tion tax, and is usually stale. Then the crowded way in which the
poor live and the damp places where they have to live are conducive
to disease among the children and adults as well. The principal dis-
eases among the children are bowel diseases, which reduce them to a
condition of weakness from which they are unable to build up their
strength again, owing to lack of proper nourishment and suitable con-
ditions. There is also a great deal of tetanus among the children
owing to the careless way in which the cord is cut at birth — seldom by
a physician in the case of poor children ; usually an old neighbor is
called in and she will cut the cord with a pair of scissors. This care-
lessness, together with the climate, which is favorable to the develop-
ment of tetanus, produces the disease in many cases.

Dr. Carroll. Do the people suffer often from sunstroke?

Dr. Barbosa. Very seldom. We usually have a good breeze, which
greatly modifies the temperature.

NEED OF MEDICAL AID FOR THE POOR.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 16, 1899.
Mr. Gonzales Cordova (physician). I will take advantage of this
opportunity to say a few words in behalf of my country with regard
to questions concerning my profession. I consider Porto Rico the
most enemic country in the world. We are almost without charitable
institutions; so much so, that among a people of 1,000,000 inhabitants
we only have one hospital worthy of the name. That is at Ponce.
We are continually seeing people in the country die for want of med-

207

ical assistance. I think that is a matter of the ntniost importance.
This lack of hospitals should be attended to at once. As there are
judicial districts, so there should be formed hospital districts. If
every town is not able to sustain a hospital, several towns can unite
and among them be able to do so. It is impossible to educate a people
unless you can first attend to their health. I make these suggestions
because I recognize the good intentions of the great country which
to-day protects us and which is striving to do everything for our good.

INSANE COMMITTED TO JAIL.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cabo Rojo, P. R., January 27, 1899.
Dr. Carroll. How many prisoners have you in the municipal jail?
Mr. Ortiz. One madman there only. We send our prisoners to San
German. We only detain prisoners in our jail one day.
Dr. Carroll. Have you no other places for an insane person?
Mr. Ortiz. No ; not even a prison. It is only a detention place.

A LABORATORY NEEDED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Humacao, P. R., February 1, 1899.
Dr. Pablo Font, a physician of Humacao, and Mr. Joaquin Mas-
ferrer, mayor of the city :

Dr. Carroll. I am told that the health of Humacao is very good.

Dr. Font. It is good.

Dr. Carroll. It is a poor place, then, perhaps, for doctors to get
rich?

Dr. Font. Yes; decidedly so.

Dr. Carroll. What are the prevailing diseases here?

Dr. Font. Principally malarial fever in various forms. We have
also typhoid, but it is rare; it is never epidemic, and yellow fever is
almost unknown here. We have at present two smallpox cases,
brought in here from Ponce. We- quarantine such cases out on the
limits of the city. We also have a quarantine place for yellow fever.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many cases of pulmonary diseases?

Dr. Font. Owing to the weather of the winter months we have an
epidemic of grip here. Two or three hundred people are suffering
from that now. There is also very much rheumatism in the town.

Dr. Carroll. What is rheumatism here due to — to dampness on
account of rain or to undue exposure?

Dr. Font. It is due to dampness. The poor people are more sub-
ject to it, because they haven't sufficient covering to keep themselves
warm.

Dr. Carroll. What is the condition of the hospital?

Dr. Font. The hospital is in good condition — at least, in proportion
to the size of the town. It requires to be enlarged a little, but we
haven't the money to do it. I desire to suggest to you the necessity
of establishing a bacteriological laboratory, which might be either in
the capital or other large city of the island. It is an absolute
necessity.

208

Dr. Carroll. What special argument would you advance for hav-
ing a bacteriological laboratory in the island? What would be its
chief uses?

Dr. Font. I give as one reason that there are a great many cases of
hydrophobia in the island, and we have to take them to Havana.
The same is true of croup and diphtheria. If we had such an estab-
lishment in San Juan, we could take patients there. Poor people can
not go to Havana.

Dr. Carroll. Would the cost of maintaining such a laboratory be
large?

Dr. Font. During the Spanish domination there was some talk of
establishing such an institution in Mayaguez, and all the municipali-
ties were to contribute a proportionate amount for that purpose, but
when the war came on the project fell to the ground. Some money
was, in fact, contributed.

Dr. Carroll. Where did the money go?

Dr. Font. History telleth not.

DISEASES IN THE INTERIOR.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Caguas, P. R., February 7, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What are the prevailing diseases here?

Dr. Jimenez Cruz. Paludic fevers and typhoid fever, the latter not
in an epidemic form. Yellow fever, smallpox, and measles are only
of rare occurrence and are brought here from outside. There is a
disease getting more common here every year and which will merit
the attention of the Government. It is malignant pustule, which is
causrht from cattle.

[HeariDg before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 4, 1899.

Dr. Vidal. It will be necessary to have energetic health measures
introduced here. The country is suffering very much for want of
health regulations. For the last two months there has been an
immense mortality in the island on account of smallpox and for want
of vaccination.

Dr. Carroll. That is being altered now.

Dr. Vidal. By the time the remedy is applied a large number of
people will have died. It would have been easy to remedy it before-
hand. It is necessary to Americanize everything, beginning with the
ayuntamiento at Ponce. There are five councilors who have been in
council for ten years who have come to regard it as a business.
Another terrible evil here is the evil of venereal diseases. I am doc-
toring a large number of American soldiers for that. We have a sys-
tem of vigilance, but it is not sufficient. If you want to see the state of
abandonment and distress in which things are here, go to the emer-
gency hospital in the alcaldia and take an American doctor with you.
There is not a needle or anything else to attend to wounded persons.
The poor man who goes there wounded is murdered for want of proper
treatment. I was the titular doctor here and left the position because
I thought it was beneath me as a doctor to treat people as I had to
treat them with the small means afforded.

209

SANITARY CONDITION OF THE CITIES.
STATEMENT OF DR. AZEL AMES, MAJOR AND BRIGADE SURGEON, U. S. VOLUNTEERS.

Ponce, P. P., March 20, 1899.

The sanitary or rather unsanitary conditions of Porto Rico have been
too well known, especially by Army and other visitors of the island
in the last few months, to need any extended comment. That every
disease of a zymotic character — that is, diseases originating in filth —
was widely prevalent — in fact, omnipresent — goes almost without say-
ing. Perhaps no more general filth conditions among a people living so
nearly an outdoor life, and yet so densely packed in a small area, was
ever known, and these conditions, "both as an ever-increasing menace
to themselves and recently to the lives and health of the new pos-
sessors and their representatives, have assumed the utmost impor-
tance. While it has been denied that typhoid fever prevailed to any
extent in the island before the advent of the United States troops,
such a claim can not be made good, though it is beyond dispute that
the volume of the disease was immensely increased by the arrivals
from camps Alger, Chickamauga, etc. The prevalence of malaria,
on the other hand, has not proved as extensive as was probably gen-
erally expected by medical officers of the Army. In fact, the whole
ring of most prevalent diseases except, probably, rheumatism is chiefly
that due to evil hygienic conditions. Syphilis and associated venereal
diseases, long the curse of the Tropics and certainly extremely so in
Porto Rico, were undoubtedly increased by the influx of the Amer-
ican Army; and while the disease has perhaps become more attenuated,
still it is widely prevalent and possesses no small degree of virulence.

To this assemblage of conditions it became the paramount duty of
the medical intelligence of Americans as represented especially by the
Medical Corps of the Army, to address itself, and with great vigor,
skill, and energy. That it has done so may best be known from the
results which have followed.

Mayaguez, the chief city of the western end of the island and the
earliest one, except Ponce, of the principal cities occupied by the
United States forces, was the first to receive any considerable measure
of attention in the direction of public hygiene. Under the sanitary
supervision of Major Ames, at that time sanitary inspector, the effort
was made to rehabilitate its health conditions, and Dr. Hermanez
Nuessa, a very able young Porto Rican physician, educated in the
United States, was created its health officer, and to-day Mayaguez
presents an almost altogether unobjectionable appearance to the vis-
iting stranger. Its water supply is excellent, requiring only proper
filtration to make it acceptable. Its streets are clean, its market
houses the same, and a general air of cleanliness and fineness, thrift,
and modern prosperity is evident. The city council has voted a con-
siderable appropriation, pursuant to the suggestion of Major Ames,
for the improvement of its waterworks in the direction indicated, and
a comprehensive system of sewerage is a probability of the near future.

Aguadilla, at the extreme western end of the island, at the time of
its occupation by the United States troops in October last, it being
the delivery point of the Spanish prisoners at the close of negotiations,
was the representative town of its size in the matters of filth and an
evil hygiene, but under the exceptionably able administration of Major
Mansfield, Eleventh United States Infantry, who has held nearly every
1125 14

210

official relation to it possible, it has become a model town in the
island, the "United States post there being one of the most beautiful
to be found in the Antilles. It lacks an adequate water supply and
drainage, which, with the wealth and energy displayed by its people,
are sure to receive early attention.

Ponce, the largest city and chief commercial port of the southern
coast of the island, including its port or play a, situated on a bay 2 miles
or more from the town, has the merit of an admirable water supply
and of fairly conditioned streets. Its public buildings, city hall, jail,
market houses, abattoir, etc., are of wretched description, and require
to be demolished and replaced. It is probable that all this will be of
speedy occurrence. Its low location and the extensive watershed sur-
rounding it make it especially desirable, in fact essential, that its
sewerage should be a matter of very early consideration. There are
five tentative propositions looking toward this under consideration,
but there is need of a comprehensive board of water supply and
drainage for the island, composed of competent engineers and experi-
enced men to determine this with other similar questions. While the
conditions of life of the lower classes are far superior to those of San
Juan, the capital, the low-lying character of the city's site and perhaps
other causes may account for the unduly large mortality which attends
its sick list. The city is now kept in a cleanly condition and with
adequate sewerage and a continuance of the excellent regulations
recently established can not fail to become in a few years as well con-
ditioned as it is beautiful. A vast gain has been made since the occu-
pation by the troops in every material condition, but the poor character
of the public buildings and the want of proper drainage have .been
insuperable barriers to a progress otherwise possible on hygienic lines.

Guayama, an old town built upon the popular lines of the Moorish-
Spanish character, is by situation a healthful town, but lacked, on the
advent of the American forces, nearly every sanitary requirement.
Under the administration of United States medical and military offi-
cers its condition has been greatly improved and is now likely to
receive still more careful attention in the presence there of old and
experienced officers of reputation for energy, and has already taken
©n features of cleanliness and improvement not hitherto possessed.

San Juan, the capital, perhaps the dirtiest and vilest city in the
island, presented so many difficult problems to the sanitarian on its
occupation by the United States forces as to be well-nigh paralyzing.
It was then without water supply, without any but the most superfi-
cial attempts at drainage, with a population more densely huddled
together under utterly unsanitary conditions than any other similar
population in the United States domain. Narrow in construction,
contracted in its limits, and under particularly bad conditions as to
diseases prevalent, San Juan was apparently as hopeless a proposition
to the health officers as could well be imagined. The first difficulty
was that of the densely crowded mass of human beings occupying, in
families of astonishing size, the ground-floor rooms of the contiguous
dwellings. Their condition may be better imagined than described;
in fact, there are no words equal to the task of telling it. Yet, in the
few months of American occupancy, water from the works in process
of construction by the Spaniards for several years has been brought
into the city. Its fire department has been reorganized and made
considerably more efficient; the health administration intrusted to a
board created by the general commanding, at the head of which is
Capt. L. P. Davidson, Fifth United States Infantry, ably assisted by

211

Dr. Glennan, assistant, United States Marine-Hospital Service, a native
physician, and two members of the municipal council, which board is
accomplishing a tremendous work in the cleansing of the city, in
house-to-house inspection, the abatement of intolerable nuisances and
the regulation of sanitary conditions, the prevention and control of
diseases, quarantine regulations, the removal of domestic waste and
excreta, and various other kinds of hj^gienic work of the utmost
importance. Captain Davidson, recognizing the magnitude of the
work committed to him, promptly ordered from Boston, New York,
and other cities of the United States the most perfect appliances for
the removal of garbage, excreta, etc., and has installed them in an
efficient and well-regulated service. The outbreak of smallpox which
has visited the city has been placed under adequate control and with
the march of vaccination will be speedily eliminated.

The question of the control of the dense, ill-starred population
massed together in the tenements of the lower stories in San Juan is
one that might well appall the most sagacious and experienced sani-
tarian. Without an adequate water supply uritil now, without sewer-
age accommodations, public wash houses, or baths, and with only the
poorest provision for the preparation of food, it has seemed almost
hopeless to accomplish any material change in the situation of this
great population. But already, under the stimulus of Captain David-
son and his associates, endeavors are being mooted, partly by philan-
thropic aid from the United States, to occupy certain lands of the
Government at San Geronimo and build there industrial dwellings
for this class, which can be given to the poorer classes at present
rentals, to which it is believed that 5,000 or more of the poorest
peoj)le could be successfully removed and there be controlled in hygi-
enic matters. It is a bold and great undertaking, as yet in embryo,
but that it will develop into something adequate there seems little
room to doubt.

The health of the United States troops, since they have been so
reduced in number as to make it possible adequately to house and
care for them, especially since the advent of fine winter weather, has
marvelously improved, and sickness is now at the minimum and
below the figures for equal numbers at the majority of posts in the
United States. The people and the soldiers are alreadj^ accustomed
to each other, and the friction which has sometimes to a limited
extent and in a mild degree existed is rapidly being reduced to the
minimum, having been always much exaggerated. Under the more
careful handling of the men and the better regulation of the citizens,
brawls, licentiousness, and petty crimes are steadily decreasing and
the level of public health is proportionately rising. That so much
should have been accomplished under shifting conditions and under
conditions involving haste and waste, poor regulations and uncer-
tainty, and the movement of large bodies of troops in the brief time
which the Americans have occupied the island, seems incredible ; but
that another year is to furnish results far greater still can not rea-
sonably be doubted. There is every reason to believe that sanitary
conditions are abreast of, if not superior to, those in the British "West
Indies, with sanitary appliances of American manufacture far supe-
rior, and all at the end of a few months. When the American army
established itself, intelligent officers of experience took up the "white
man's burden" with an individual sense of obligation and a devotion
worthy of the American citizen soldier.

212

THE VACCINATION PLAN OF GENERAL HENRY.

Ponce, P. R., March 20, 1899.

STATEMENT BY DB. AZEL AMES, MAJOR AND BRIGADE SURGEON, TJ. S. V., COM-
MANDING THE UNITED STATES VACCINE CORPS, DEPARTMENT OF PORTO RICO.

Dr. Ames. The undertaking to vaccinate the entire department of
Porto Rico arose from the increasing prevalence of smallpox and the
evident necessity of taking vigorous measures to control it. It
became evident that there should be a thorough and general vaccina-
tion, and General Henry issued an order requiring compulsory vac-
cination of all inhabitants. The initial question then, of course, was
want of the supply of virus, vaccine lymph, and on inquiry it was
found that to bring it from the United States in sufficient quantity —
the only source available for so large a quantity as would be requisite
for the vaccination of a million people — would be approximately
$50,000 or $60,000. In discussion of the matter with the chief sur-
geon, Colonel Hoff , I suggested that it ought to be possible to produce
our own virus, as the supply of cattle in the island was large and
uncommonly fine, and after preliminary consideration and inquiry I
was placed in charge of the undertaking, which contemplated noth-
ing less than the primary testing for disease of approximately 2,000
cattle, a million vaccinations and revaccinations.

The work of organization of so great an undertaking was one
involving, of course, infinite detail and some considerable difficulty.

It was necessary to secure without great cost to the United States
a sufficient supply of young cattle, to locate them and subsist them
for a considerable period, to procure from the United States initial
lymph and the appliances for vaccination and tests, to organize and
equip a corps of nearly one hundred men, with expert pathologists,
physicians, assistants, etc., arrange for their transportation, and get
them all into effective working order. Of course, the production of
the virus was of itself a very great undertaking, but was but half of
the entire enterprise, and left the organization for the vaccination of
the inhabitants to be provided for.

The great difficulty experienced, after securing the cattle and pro-
viding for their proper manipulation and the regulation of the corps,
was in the matter of procuring the initial vaccine virus for the vacci-
nation of the cattle. This had to be brought from the United States,
and, as was feared, it proved to a very considerable extent entirely
untrustworthy, probably owing to climatic changes incident to the
voyage and conditions under which it was transferred from the
States. Enough, however, was procured to make a beginning, and it
was rapidly multiplied as soon as local stock was established, a,nd
the work carried steadily forward from that time. The magni-
tude of the undertaking and the difficulties attendant will perhaps
be best understood when it is stated that the vaccination require
ments of the public vaccinators employed in the field made it requi-
site that there should be sent from the United States distributing-
station at Coamo Baths 15,000 charged points every day, besides
which there must be gathered from the animals at the camps 1,200
points more for the vaccination of cattle, etc., making a total of
16,200 requisite per day. The work of distribution was simplified by
the division of the island into departments, namely: five with head-
quarters at San Juan, Ponce, Guayama, Arecibo, and Mayaguez, the
effort being to divide the population between these five divisions as

213

nearly equally as possible. These divisions embraced a population
usually of about 165,000 people, all of whom have had either to be vac-
cinated or examined for proof of smallpox or of satisfactory recent
vaccination.

To reach the vaccinators engaged in the work it was necessary to
establish a carrier service from the virus-producing farms at whatever
distance they might be from the distributing station at Coamo Baths,
whereby the virus produced each day to the amount of 16,200 points
should be conveyed to the distributing station. The carrier and his
horse, on arriving each night, must be fed and housed, the hour of
his arrival and departure noted, and the virus placed for safe-keeping
in a cold refrigerator. The next morning it was divided at the dis-
tributing station into unit packages, so called, containing 100 points,
which were placed in quadruple wrappings to protect them against
changes of heat, cold, and moisture, and then sent by mail to their
various destinations, to the extent of 3,000 points each, to every one
of the five vaccination divisions of the island. The virus being com-
mitted to the several alcaldes of the municipalities in the five divi-
sions, is distributed by them to the vaccinators engaged in their respec-
tive jurisdictions.

The work at the virus farm has been so carefully done that when
an animal was selected for vaccinating purposes, after being under
observation for two days as to general health conditions, it was tested
by an injection prepared by the United States Agricultural Depart-
ment, and then retained under observation for twenty-four hours or
more, temperatures being taken carefully from 5 o'clock each morning
until 12 o'clock the same night and duly recorded. The animal
giving satisfactory reactions to these tests had a tag placed in its ear
and took its place in the group for vaccination. Vaccinating tables,
with tilting tops, were constructed, and the animal ready for vacci-
nation, being driven alongside, was instantly strapped to the table top
and lifted to the horizontal and laid upon the table. It was then
thoroughly sterilized, cleansed, and shaved, and vaccinated with the
virus first procured from the United States and later by that pro-
duced on the farm. In gathering the virus from the ripened vesicles
of the vaccinated animals — all of which were under 1 year of age,
and hence of tenderer skin and more likely to be free from all dis-
ease than older animals, as well as being easier handled — much care
was taken.

The virus froni each animal was kept separate and distinct, and
thorough records were kept by the number of the animal from start to
finish, so that the complete record of every vaccine point at the vari-
ous points of the island is in the hands of the vaccinator using it. As
the virus is cut from the animal it is placed on a wire-net drying basin,
from which it is removed to a sterilized glass jar, which is closed and
placed in a refrigerator and left until the work of gathering for the
day ceases. All virus to be shipped to the distributing station is then
taken, one jar at a time, so that there shall be no admixture of points,
and 500 points are placed in absorbent cotton, in shallow tin boxes
made for the purpose, and duly protected by wrappings of absorbent
cotton and oiled silk, and 15 of these boxes are placed in a pannier, two
panniers being slung on opposite sides of the carrier's horse, who
starts immediately upon his ride to the vaccination station, sometimes
consuming half a night in the journey.

In each tin box is placed a printed blank, carefully filled in, giving
the record number of the animal from which the virus was taken, the

214

name of the owner, the location of the farm, the breed, age, sex, color,
weight, and distinguishing marks, general condition of the animal, its
response to tests, whether for tuberculosis or glanders, the date of these
tests, and the operator's name, the date of vaccination, the virus used,
the name of the operator, the number of punctures made, the date at
which the virus was gathered, the number of points charged from the
animal, the number sent to the vaccination stations, the date and hour
of departure — the whole being duly attested by the officer in charge
at the distributing station at Coamo Baths (which was found admi-
rably adapted to the needs of the corps on its occupation, being pos-
sessed of ample space, excellent location, fine conveniences of corrals,
kitchens, outbuildings, tent room, etc.).

The charged points, taken from the tin boxes in which the carrier
brought them, are packed, as before stated, in unit packages of 100
each, great care being taken to keep them always in a cool tempera-
ture in a refrigerator until en route for their destination. Great care
has been taken to distinguish the packages containing the virus by
proper marks and labels, so as to keep them from the sun and in cool
and dry places, and the post-office people have been charged to give
both great care and rapid dispatch to virus packages throughout the
department. They have, at considerable pains, prepared mailing
schedules to enable a package intended for any particular destination
anywhere in the island to be forwarded with greatest dispatch to its
destination.

The work of vaccinating the island has been simplified in a degree
by the efficient use of the division of labor. In each of the four
divisions are jurisdictions or alcaldias, presided over by an alcalde or
mayor, varying in number in different divisions. Under these alcaldes
are numerous precincts or barrios, which are presided over by an
alcalde de barrio, who is responsible to his alcalde for the proper con-
duct of his precinct or district. These alcaldes de barrio are familiarly
acquainted with every person in their precincts. Their assistance
under the plan formulated by the chief surgeon and myself was
availed of to accomplish the desired ends. Full lists were made by
them of all the people in their respective precincts, and at a desig-
nated time, of which due notice was given, the alcalde de barrio sum-
moned 225 people from these lists to a designated place, usually a
schoolhouse in his district. In the order of their arrival each person
is given a numbered check, establishing the number of his vaccina-
tion, so that there is no overcrowding.

The vaccination of these 225 people, or so many as appear and
require vaccination, is a day's work for a vaccinator and his assist-
ants. The organization of this corps of vaccinators, consisting very
largely of native physicians, who are employed under contract by the
directors of the respective vaccination divisions, has been a work of
no small preparation, involving as it does the necessity of procuring
competent men, usually versed in both Spanish and English, dividing
up the territory among them for greater efficiency, keeping in such
communication with them over difficult trails and in remote places as
to secure them their daily supply of virus, properly inspect them and
their work, and secure through them .proper certification of vaccina-
tion and records. It has only been accomplished b}^ the utmost atten-
tion to detail and systematic organization. Every inhabitant is
required to have a public vaccinator's certificate, under the stamp of
the public vaccinator and the seal of the United States.

On presenting himself to the vaccinator, if the person has had

215

smallpox, a certificate is given him so indicating. If presenting a
certificate of recent vaccination from a responsible physician, such
certificate is accepted and the official certificate of vaccination issued.
Otherwise the person on presentation, after cleansing the arm, is
vaccinated in turn, under specific instructions given by the director
of vaccination, a complete record made, and an incomplete certificate
given the person, with instruction to return in one week for examina-
tion, at which time the certificate will be completed, and if the vac-
cination is successful will be stamped accordingly. If not, the
individual is revaccinated and the certificate finally stamped as vac-
cination finally completed. Without these certificates every person
is practically debarred from any participation in any occupation, the
public schools, assemblies, etc., while for failure to report, when
ordered, for vaccination or examination, penalties imposed by the
alcalde follow.

The records alike of the scientific work of vaccination and its
results, testing of the cattle, the measure of success resulting from
the various efforts, and the work incident thereto, will, it is believed,
constitute important additions to the scientific professional literature
of this most important subject. The effort comes at a time and under
conditions favorable, if well handled, for testing thoroughly, on an
enormous scale, the merits of vaccination; this is very desirable at a
time when there seems to be, in different parts of the world, a revival
of the animosity against this invaluable agent for the control of a
noxious disease.

To the personnel of the work its successes must necessarily be more or
less indebted. The conception of the undertaking originated in the
mind of the able chief surgeon of the department, Lieutenant-Colonel
Hoff , of the Medical Corps of the United States Army, and the execution
of it was, as stated, so far as the production of the virus was concerned
and the care of the largest vaccination division, committed to Maj.
Azel Ames, brigade surgeon, U. S. Volunteers, who was more than
fortunate in being able to surround himself with a corps of most
admirably qualified assistants. He was especially so in the oppor-
tunity of securing the services of Timothy Leary, who, although a
young man, was widely recognized as one of the ablest pathologists of
the United States, serving since last summer for scientific purposes in
Porto Rico as a pathologist at the general hospital at Ponce in the
capacity of acting assistant surgeon, U. S. Army. To him has been
committed the work of testing all cattle for disease, and his labors
have been as indefatigable and unselfish as they have been scientific
and fruitful. To no person connected with the undertaking is a larger
debt due for its successes than to Professor Leary. The vaccinating
corps was organized by him into four sections : First, the administra-
tion, with myself at the head, and Dr. Richard Wilson, acting assist-
ant surgeon, U. S. Army, generally well known and universally
esteemed in Porto Rico, as executive officer at the vaccination station
at Coamo Baths.

To Mr. Samuel Moret, a well-known citizen and cattle buyer of
Porto Rico, the entire undertaking is primarily inexpressibly indebted
for the supply of cattle gathered by him at a . trivial expense to the
United States and the painstaking service he has rendered. The sec-
ond section is that of cattle testing for disease, and is placed under
the charge of Dr. Timothy Leary, who, with a corps of 21 efficient
assistants, has been steadily in the field from the inception of the
enterprise. The third section is comprised of two groups, the officers

216

of the first being Dr. L. L. Gillman, acting assistant surgeon, U. S.
Army, and Drs. Gustav Moret, temporarily, and W. E. McConathy,
acting assistant surgeon, IT. S. Army. To this group has fallen the
difficult work of collecting the virus from the vaccinated cattle, a
work full of the utmost difficulty, the greatest responsibility, and the
most fatiguing effort. To this group, in addition to the severe strain
involved in the cattle tests, Professor Leary has given his personal
aid in unstinted measure, as also more or less to the second group of this
section, which is that charged with the duty of vaccinating the ani-
mals. In this group are associated Drs. William Reddin Kirk, acting
assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, and L. E. Barney, acting assistant
surgeon, U. S. Army, with a corps of assistants, and their work has
called for most laborious effort and the best of professional endeavor.
The supply service of the corps has been in the hands of Dr. J. S.
White, acting assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, by general order of the
Department, acting quartermaster, commissary of subsistence, ord-
nance officer, and medical supply officer of the corps, to whom in no
small degree is due its great successes in taking the field and the
small amount of friction with which this work has been accomplished.

The post established at Coamo Baths, under the name of the United
States Vaccination Station, is well known to many of the visitors of
the island as one of the most beautiful and perhaps the best regu-
lated in the department, admirably adapted to the purpose to which it
has been delegated. It has been made, by the efforts of the command-
ing officer and his staff, one of the most completely furnished and
effective of any in the department, guard at this post being furnished
by the Nineteenth United States Infantry, which has also the field
camp. The carrier service, before mentioned, between the camps and
the field is furnished by the Fifth United States Cavalry. The prox-
imity of this plant to the beautiful Coamo baths has naturally caused
it to be much visited by those coming to the baths, and added a new
feature to the already many attractions of that beautiful spot.

That the undertaking is one of greater magnitude than has ever
before been conducted, established on distinctive scientific lines, can
not be doubted ; that great advantages will be derived from it for a
long period of years in the island of Porto Rico is equally beyond
doubt. Smallpox has been for many years one of the worst scourges
of the island, and far more injurious as interfering with commerce,
both foreign and internal, than any other disease. That it is now to
be stamped out can not be doubted. If we had imported cattle, we
could not have done it for less than $25,000, but by manufacturing the
virus here the cost has been only about one-sixth of what it otherwise
would have been.

217

VITAL STATISTICS.
Table I. — Inmates of military hospital from 1889 to first half of 1898.

Year.

Standing
over from
prior year.

Admitted.

Dis-
charged.

Died.

Remain-
ing.

1889

249

242
113
159
199
200
191
308
205
211

3,507
2,658
2,159
2,145
2,239
3,175
3,524
2,999
2,587
1,389

3,360
2,650
2,004
2,027
2,128
3,039
3,081
2,970
2,142
1,218

151
137
109

98
110
145
326
132
169

242

1890 .. .-

113

1891

159

1892 .-

199

1893

200

1894

191

1895 -

308

1896

205

1897...

211

1S98 (first half )

296

Total

2,077

26,382

24,619

1,463

2,124

San Juan, September 26, 1S9S.

Jose Battle, Director, Subinspector.

Table II.

-Inmates of military hospital — Nosological statistics from 1889 to
July 1, 1898.

Year.

Prisoners and
charity pa-
tients.

_co

p. .

+3 O

-a .

rt CD

<B '3
co a

01 CD
CO +3

o>
IS

"co

CS
01

p.
£

fl
P

■3

r-H CO

« 0
28
S ®
a

0>
>

P.
O

CO
CD
CO
c3
Ol
m

-3
a

a
"6
'•B

1889

446

425
431
421
414
130
261
282
328
189

59
49
48
55
40
11
35
73
64
29

1
5

4
4
6
1

10
10
15
14

24
18
34
18
8

32
59
59
34

114

169

185

630

6
o

"3"
"3

7
4

19
3

"3"

386
279
281
195
265
307
299
462
420
209

15
25
16
19

29
24
48
65

75
83

395

• 259
333
291
415
256
520
411
401
283

16
13
21
10
16
13
29
71
49
21

350
235
105
64
115
216
100
115
130
151

999

1890

1891

1,359
1,120

1892.

1,091

1893

2,163

1894....

1895

2,220
1,507

1896..

2,310

1897..

1,510

1898 (first half)...

1,060

Total

3,327

463

300

1,597

3,103

399

3,564

259

1,581

15,339

San Juan, September 26, 189S.

Jose Battle, Director, Subinspector.

Table III. — Marriages, births, and deaths in 1897, as returned by municipal judges.

Municipal district.

ges.

Legitimate
births.

Illegitimate
births.

Deaths.

438

731

516

102

284

218

351

249

231

685

149

130

267

238

286

124

336

187

535

620

1,073

133

825

145

157

353

226

320

127

209

215

272

396

217

752

242

392

676

236

240

186

316

333

425

Ad juntas

Aguas Buenas

Aguadilla

Anasco

Aibonito

Arroyo

Aguada

Arecibo

Bayamon

Barceloneta . .

Barros.

Barranquitas.

Carolina

Caguas

Cayey

Cidra

Camuy

Cabo Rojo

218

Table III.— Marriages, births, and deaths in 1897, as returned by municipal

judges — Continued.

Municipal district.

Ceiba

Coiner io

Ciales

Corozal

Coamo

Dorado

Fajardo..-

Gurabo

Guayanilla

Guayama.

Hato Grande..

Hatillo

Hormigueros.-

Humacao

Isabela

Juncos.

Juana Diaz

Loiza

Lares

Lajas

Las Marias

Luquillo...

Manati

Morovis.

Moca

Mayaguez

Maricao .._

Maunabo

Naranjito

Naguabo

Ponce

Pennelas

Patillas

Piedras

Quebradillas ..

Rio Grande

Rio Piedras

Rincon

San Juan..

San Sebastian..
Sabana Grande
San German . . .

Salinas

Santa Isabel

ToaAlta

ToaBaja

TrujilloAlto...

Utuado

Vega Alta.

Vega Baja

Vieques

Yauco

Yabucoa

Total

Marriages

41
85
56
29
1
14
51
21
21
45
51
18
33
70
22
79
18

103
22
56
20
56
45
63
89
16
14
21
36

118
91
20
33

102
33
35
76

111
92
39

29
25
3
20
135
30
26
14
97
36

3,557

Legitimate
births.

176
329
306
271

45
112

68
143
102
266
223

52
173
183

88
249

19
426
169
135
100
145
241
231
384
159

59
197
115
287
200
154
159
110
334

67
195
392
376
208
446

57
112

74
149

64
463
124

13,489

Illegitimate
births.

103

157

126

331

149

363

265

301

543

213

167

102

114

278

279

101

242

280

265

160

304

446

113

100

233

104

663

163

126

12,471

Deaths.

158
292
466
236
506
72
436
246
234
617
446
212
133
561
321
328
904
224
696
191
300
188
455
273
316

1,418
319
331
224
340

1,778
304
407
231
147
338
421
198

1,272
456
383
606
168
128
223
133
153

1,407
187
330
270
962
851

30,806

219

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222

Table VI. — Marriages, births, and deaths in thirteen districts in the last five

years.

Municipal dis-

Marriages.

Deaths.

tricts.

1894.

1895.

1896.

1897.

1898.

1894.

1895.

1896.

1897.

1898.

28
14
89
47
26
13
51

140
43

316
13
90

43
12
96
50
23
22
33

145
42

166
19
60
19

27
15
47
31
34
14
31
128
54
89
26
46
13

7
67
29
41
14
21
116
50
76
20
36
14

25
11
56
43
27
115
22
89
30
51
19
52
8

203
130
447
316
190
241
455
1,231
450
599
79
462

170
99
527
284
192
246
344
1,397
423
784
114
371
123

163

102
368
289
236
282
424
1,243
443
572
97
455
219

417

238
425
506
292
436
617
1,517
641
662
153
851
239

267

144

567

346

388

371

513

1,418
464
930
105
471

San Juan (1 dist.)-

San German

Trujillo Alto-

289

Births.

Municipal dis-
tricts.

Legitimate.

Illegitimate.

1894.

1895.

1896.

1897.

1898.

1894.

1895.

1896.

1897.

189S.

155

109

282
419
175
283

70
485
196
732

47
285

180
114
322
398
185
320

90
414
212
687

40
278

297
103
338
343
166
326

98
427
202
690

56
344

170

314

544

176

261

102

420

204

679

317

146
150
258
326
153
188

69
384
167
649

51
164

132

147

139

154

133

Arroyo

313

201

276

333

249

Coamo

109

142

141

157

138

Fajardo

406
238

118
387
229

. 119
378
224

98
360
262

89
278
156

San Juan (1 dist.)-
San German

Trujillo Alto
Yabucoa...

"Vieques

137

167

THE FLORA AND FAUNA.

Dr. Stahl, who lias made numerous and careful studies in the
natural history of Porto Rico, with admirable illustrative drawings
in colors, very kindly furnished the commissioner with the following
brief survey of the subject. His ambition is to be permitted to com-
plete his most important work and present it to the Government at
Washington for the use of the Smithsonian Institution. He does not
ask compensation for his work — simply support while he is completing
it, which would, I am assured, take no long time.

Henry K. Carroll, Commissioner.

THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF PORTO RICO.
By Don Augustin Stahl, M. D., Naturalist.

The natural history of Porto Rico is yet unstudied. Its flora will within a
short time be fairly well known; its fauna is a long way from that point, and the
knowledge of its geology extends only to as much as can be seen superficially by
the eye.

The Spaniards in four hundred years have done nothing to acquire a specific
knowledge of its natural history. What is known to-day is from analogy with
studies made in the neighboring non-Spanish islands— the splendid researches of
Dr. Gundlach in Cuba, his valuable work also in this country, although this
latter is not of a general character— and from the copious collection of plants made
by Mr. Lintenis, which is preserved in the botanical garden of Berlin.

The fauna is less known at present than the flora by reason of this latter having
been given preferential study; and those animals inhabiting the seas or the depths
and hidden places of still or running waters, as also those requiring the micro-
scope, are still enveloped in the darkness of the unknown. In the great group of

223

vertebrates we have, in the first division, the mammals, represented by four only
of the Cheiroptera. The Muriate and domestic animals have all been imported, as
has been the mongoose ichneumon (Herpestes mongo), which has caused incalcu-
lable damage among poultry and wild birds which nest low. It is certain that
this animal, which has spread over the island in a most astonishing manner, far
from being a blessing, as was expected when it killed off the rats in the sugar
plantations, has become a veritable plague.

Birds have had special attention from the American ornithologists, although the
greater number of them had been previously classified. This branch is relatively
poor, there being hardly 130 species, of which a third are birds of passage which,
abandon the North American Continent during the winter only and come to
enliven our woods and shores, while the marine eagle (Pandion earolinensis)
mounts to the sources of our rivers and feeds on the fish therein. The indigenous
birds can be distinguished from the transitory species by the greater brilliancy of
their plumage, while the harmonious voice of the ruisenor (Mimus polyglottus)
and that of the cotorra (Psittacus vittatus), which imitates the human voice, cause
admiration. Many have quite delicate flesh. A species of periquito (small par-
rot) has been extinct since the beginning of the century, and many other species,
such as the hawk, carrao, and yaguaza, and the pigeons, partly owing to the rav-
ages of the mongoose and partly to the barbarous destruction of our forests, which
has also removed our most useful trees.

The number of our reptiles and batrachians is small. We know of 7 species of
saurians, 4 testudinata, 4 ophidians (among which is 1 boa and 3 batrachians) . Of
the last the coqui has merited the attention of naturalists by reason of its anom-
alous metamorphosis, leaving the egg as it does in a perfect state without pass-
ing through the preliminary of tadpole life. We have no venomous ophidia. Our
reptiles, as a rule, are harmless, and, with the exception of the flesh and eggs of
the testudinata, useless also.

Our fishes have not yet been studied. Their analogy with those of the Cuban
coast has, however, enabled the greater part of them to be classified. The road-
stead of AguadillaandAguada, celebrated as the spot where the immortal Genoese,
Columbus, touched when he discovered our island on his second voyage, in 1493,
is notable also for the abundance and fine quality of its fishes. Of fresh- water fish
there are but few in our rivers. Species appearing in the estuaries are sea fish
and only ascend the rivers up to where the salt water inflow terminates. Some
of the species attain great size; some are remarkable for their brilliancy of colors,
and some are terrible in their attacks on their prey around the coast, in the bays,
and even in the mouths of the largest rivers.

Without doubt, of our fauna the fishes are the most useful, giving food to thou-
sands of poor people on our coasts. The voracity of the sharks is terrible, as is
also that of their familiars of the family of Plagiostomi, which accompany them
as parasites, the so-called pega (Leptecheneis naucrates) , which adheres to their
body by its suction apparatus, situated on the back of the head and neck. Worthy
of attention, by reason of their strange form, are the eriso, chapin, toro, and
others, all of the family of Plectognathi, and the Hippocampus punctulatus, which
represents the figure of a miniature horse without feet, the body terminating in a
long tail.

Of the second group the invertebrates, divided into articulates andmollusks, we
find among the first the insects, a group of graceful winged creatures of which
hardly one is directly useful to mankind, while some of them are more or less
harmful. The color and variety of our Lepidoptera, especially of the diurnal
species, is charming.

The Coleoptera, whose bodies are protected by a hard and resisting armor, labor
under the unjust charge of causing almost all the ills to which our agriculture is
subject, not only in newly planted fields but also in those whose crops have
already matured. The truth is, they lodge wherever they find sickly or rotten
vegetation or dead plants, to feed on the softening roots and fibers. As a proof
of this, they are generally to be found among the roots of sickly plants, or where
the only vegetation is the refuse that has been cast aside and is rotting.

The larger escarabajos are lovers of palm trees, but are to be found among the
roots of other vegetation far removed from palm groves. The smallest of the
Rhynchophora, scarcely visible to the naked eye, has its habitat among some of
the Solanacese and on the most beautiful of the guayabos. Numerous hidrofili-
nos are to be- seen swimming in pools of stagnant and deleterious waters.

To attribute the disease of the sugar cane to the larvae of the caculo is crass
stupidity which causes public laughter. The author of this fleeting theory for-
merly depended on the fanatical and ignorant belief of his political friends to
sustain it.

The Hymenopterse, or wasp family, are represented by the bee (Apis mellifica).
Apiculture is unknown in this country, where the bee finds material at hand for

224

the preparation of honey and wax. If men of understanding should be sent to
teach our people this industry, the gain in the future therefrom would he consider-
able. Of other species of insects there are hardly any worth the mention. The
comejen, of the tribe of Termites, is one of the most harmful of the country,
destroying in a relatively short time the most solid wooden buildings. The Grillo
talpa, or changa (Gryllotalpa hexadactyla) , is an intrusive foreigner, introduced
here to our sorrow, probably in Peruvian guano, which concealed some of its eggs
or larvae. It has caused incalculable damage in the young plantings of tobacco,
rice, and garden stuff, and attacks everything but leguminous plants.

The class of Arachnida? is poorly represented. In it figure two interesting
species. "The hairy spider (Mygale spinicrus), which excavates holes in the
mountain sides for" a nest. It has a repulsive appearance; its bite is to be feared.
The guaba {Phrynus palmatus) hides under fallen trees in the forests and in the
brushwood of damp caves. This spider is wrongly feared as terribly venemous.
It can inflict a bite with its pointed defenders, but as these are unprovided with
poisonous secretion it is comparatively harmless. The alacran, or scorpion, is
provided with a sting. There remain the Garrapatas Ixodes, an annoying para-
site, which infests cattle and horses, lodging itself in the ears and around the anus.

The Annelida? are not worth mentioning, consisting of a few species of ground
worms and those infesting the body of man and domestic animals.

The Crustacea?, on the other hand, are numerous both on land and sea, in the
rivers and waterfalls. Several kinds of lobsters (family Loricata) are caught on
the rocky shores of our coasts. In our rivers shrimp abound and some species of
large crabs, while among the stones washed by small cascades in the deep ravines
formed by closely-meeting mountain sides our peasants search for the buruquena
(Epilabocera cubensis), which is of delicate flavor. To the same family belong
the centipedes (Scolopendra) and the gongolones (Jidtis). The first-named
inflicts a terrible bite, but the second is wrongly feared, being harmless.

The mollusks are very numerous as well in species as in numbers. The land
species are univalve, only one species of bivalves having been found by Dr. Gund-
lach, near Guanica. Their color is uniform, and at first sight attracts but little
attention. It is worthy of note that many species are to be found only in certain
very circumscribed limits — as, for instance, the meridianal coast has some species
entirely unknown in the rest of our little island. On the shores, either in the sands
or adhering to the rocks, are great numbers of univalves and bivalves of varied
form and beautiful colors. The Venus shell ( Venus dione) is one of the most
curious of the malacologic fauna.

The polypus and cuttlefish, of the order of Cephcdophorce, which abound in
these waters, are much appreciated for their delicate flesh. Their great tentacles,
provided with innumerable suckers, distinguish them from all other mollusks.

The Radiata? are scarce in species; but members of the Echinida? and Asteridae
families, the latter commonly known as starfish, are numerous along the shores.

The Polypi are very widespread along the coral formations of our coast, which
is composed in its greater part of this material, extending some way inland and
resembling real rock formation. On the sand flats the naked polypi and different
forms of medusa? are common. These latter, generally known here as " agua-
viva," are to be found swimming just below the surface, their numerous tentacles
spread out from their gelatinous bodies. They exhibit brilliant iridescent colors,
and are to be feared by reason of the caustic effect produced by contact with their
pulpy bodies. The finest coral growths are to be found in the depths of still
waters. Our sponges are not very serviceable for purposes of commerce.

The flora of our island is as rich as its fauna. From the shore to mountain top,
from north to south, there is a profusion and variety of splendid vegetation.

As in all intertropical countries of the character of Porto Rico, the Dicotyle-
donea?, or plants exceeding in woody element, are more numerous than the Mona-
cotyledonea?, and these latter more numerous than the Acotyledonea?. Belonging
to the first family were the luxuriant and, at times, gigantic trees of our former
extensive and impenetrable forests, among the second the majestic palms, and in
the third the gigantic Felix fern and others of fair size which cover the argilla-
ceotis soil of the crags and high mountains.

If we were to divide our plants into groups according to their utility to man-
kind, we should have to give the food plants first place. Most of these have been
introduced from Europe, Asia, and Africa and are cane, coffee, yam, yautia, plan-
tain, calabash, bean, gandul (a species of bean) , as well as fruit trees and other
useful plants, such as cocoanut, breadfruit, mango, nispero, quenepa, orange,
pomarosa, ernajagua, malla, zarza amarilla, lemon, acacia.

Sugar cane was introduced from the East Indies; coffee from Arabia and Africa;
rice and vegetables from Spain; the plantain, yam, yautia, cocoanut, and bread-
fruit from Africa; mango and orange probably from the Canary Islands; the nis-
pero and quenepa from South America. The only indigenous food plants are yuca,

225

malanga, gunda, yuquilla, maize, aguacate, maguey, and a few others. Tobacco
is also a native and is to-day one of our principal crops, exceeding in quality all
other tobaccos, with the exception of the Cuban leaf from the Vuelta Abajo district.

Our massive forest trees supply fine woods of every description, especially veined
cabinet woods and woods of iron hardness; but the rapid destruction of our forests
under the devastating ax is greatly to be deplored. Unless some energetic meas-
ures are taken, they will have disappeared within a very short time. Our peasant
knows only how to destroy: he has no thoughts for the morrow. Cedar almend-
rillo, capa' prieto, male cedar, laurel sabina, capa' blanca, ortegon, cana fistula
and cana fistula cimarrona, guayacan, pendulo rojo and pendulo bianco, tachuelo,
and many other fine trees can almost be considered extinct in the island, and we
shall soon have to import our timber for building purposes. Whole forests of
valuable lumber have been destroyed by burning, representing a capital lost for
their owners. In course of extinction are also the yaya, magar, tortugo amarillo,
maricao, ausubo, and even the oak. With difficulty the following species are
conserved: The ucar granadillo, guaraguao, and several laurels and, in the high
mountains, tabonueo, cucubano, sebonquillo. and others.

The shores, almost bare of trees, now and then produce gome mangroves of the
red, white, and button species, and magos.

The trees we have named are the most valued for solid buildings and for cabinet-
work. Others of less value and strength are the ceiba, pomarosa, aguacate, geo-
geo, javilla, mamey, guama, and guaba.

Among fruit trees producing succulent fruits are aguacate, nispero, mamey,
mamey zapote, saimito caimitillo, austibo, pomarosa, jagua, cerezo, grosella,
guama, pajuil, and hicaco.

The different classes of higueros are of great value owing to the hardness of the
shell of their fruit.

Among medicinal toxic plants we may mention mamzanilla, tilcoy, tibey rojo,
tabaco, carrasco, rabano cimarron, and all the araceas and many belonging to the
family of Euphorbias.

Distinguished for their beautiful and at times fragrant flowers are the magar,
bello or mauricio, pendulo rojo, cana fistula, guavo, taman, tabaiba, roble, all the
mirtaicas. In this direction the shrubs and herbs are more notable. In the win-
ter season our pastures and mountain sides are covered with convolvuli, sinan-
tereas, verbenas, and leguminosge, and the orchidese and other parasites display
their blossoms on the limbs of trees. On the placid waters of the pools the
Nymphea and Eichhorn\a azurea extend themselves.

The foods most liked by our herbivorous animals are malojilla and guinea grass,
both of which are exotic gramineae, the name of their introducer not being known.
They eat also some of the native grasses, whose growth, however, is very inferior
to those mentioned. Fifty square meters of the former will easily sustain one ox
or horse, while three times the quantity of native grass would be necessary for the
same purpose.

If the flora of our north coast can be distinguished from that of the south, with
only 1° of latitude between them, much more so the floras of the coast and high
mountains, where the corresponding distance is 10° or 1,100 meters of height, equal
to 28° north latitude.

Before terminating we will mention the guano tree, useful for the fiber con-
tained in its great capsules, which fiber we use for stuffing pillows and mattresses.

As textile plants, we have cotton, maguey, and emajagua, and, less useful, the
guasima and some herbaceous malvaceas.

The scope of this article does not allow of a detailed account of the different
plants of our flora, but we have mentioned the most common and notable ones.

We conclude this paper with a list of the flora already mentioned, their common,
scientific, and family names.

Common name.

Scientific name.

Family.

Ortegon ..

Ausubo

Ucar -.

Capa prieto

Capa blanca

Pendulo rojo

Tachuelo.

Guayacan

Espino rubial

Guayabacan

Tortugo amarillo

Coccoloba rugosa

Dipholis

Bucida buceras

Cordia ger ascanttms

Petitia domingensis

Citharexylum quadrangulare

Pictetia squamosa

Guaj acuin officinale

Xanthoxylum ochroxylum

Myrica divaricata

Sideroxylon pallidum _

Polygonese.

Sapoteae.

C ombre tacese.

Borragineae.

Verbenaceae.

Do.
Leguminosae.
Zygophylleae.
Rutaceae.
Myrtacese.
Sapoteae.

1125-

-15

226

Trees whose timber is less strong and resisting.

Common name.

Scientific name.

Family.

Xanthoxylumdava hercules

Rutaceae.

Roble

Laurel

Laizrus -

Byrsonima spicata.

Laurineae.
Malpighiaceae.

Trees with ordinary timber for building and inferior usefulness.

Ceboruquillo

Cabo de bacha . . .

Mamey ..

Mangle, Colorado
Mangle, bianco . .
Mangle, boton . . .

Palo debueso

Palo de doncella.

Mago

Guara.

Jacana

Tbouinia tomentosa . Sapindeae.

Trichilia hirta__ Melicas.

Mammea americana Guttiferae.

Rhizophora mangle Rbizopboreae.

Avicennia nitida Verbenaceae.

Conocarpus erectus Coinbretaceae.

Linociera compacta Olinese.

Byrsonima lucida Malpigbiacea9.

Hernandia sonora j LaurineaB.

Cupania americana i Sapindaceae.

Sucuma multiflora ■. | Sapotaceae.

Trees whose timber is of poor quality and of slight duration.

Jobo

Almacigo

Cayur

Jaboncillo

Palo de muneca
Ceiba

Palo de burro ..
Palo de jaqueca

Acbiotillo...

Masa

Spondias lutea

Busser a gurr uf er a

Anona palustris

Sapindus saponaria

Rauwolfia nitida

Eriodendron anfractuosum

Caparis verrucosa

Tbespesia populnea

Alcbornea tifolia

Hedwigia balsamif era

Terebintbaceae.

Do.
Anonaceas.
Sapindaceae.
Apocyneas.
Bombaceae.
Capparideae.
Malvaceae.
Euphorbiaceas.
Terebintliaceae.

Trees whose wood is fit for fine cabinet work.

Magar

Tbespesia grandiflora

Cedrela odorata

Malvaceae.

Magnolia portoricensis

Colubrina ferrginosas

Exostemma floribundum

Do.

Euphorbiaceae.
Do.

Taiti

Indigenous fruit trees.

Guanabana

Anon

Corazon

CMna dulce

Cerezas

Pajuil

Guayaba . . .

Jagua

Caimito

Aguacate . .
Guama

Anona muricata

Anona squamosa

Anon a reticulata

Citrus aurantium

Malpighia punicif olia

Anacardium occidentale

Psidium paniferum

Gnipa americana

Crysopbyllum cainito . .

Per sea gratissima

Inga laurina

Anonaceae.

Do.

Do.
Aurantiaceas.
Malpigbiacese.
Terebinthacese.
Myrtaceae.
Rubiaceae.
Sapoteae.
Laurinae.
Leguminosse mi-
mosae.

227

Trees and plants imported and propagated.

Common name.

Scientific name.

Family.

Ciruela

Almendro

Cafe

Pomarosa.
Nispero - . .
Quenepa . .

Coco

Saman

Acacia

Mangifera indica ...
Spondias purpurea
Terminalia catappa

Caffea arabica

Jambosa vulgaris. .

Sapota achras

Melicocca bijuga ...

Cocos nucifera

Calliandra saman...

Acacia lebliek

Terebinthaceae.

Do.
Combretaceae.
Rubiaceae.
Myrtaceae.

Sapindaceae.
Palmae.

Leguminosae mi-
moseae.
Do.

Trees and plants useful for various purposes.

Guasima

Emajagua ...

Guano

Guaba.

Higuero

Maguey

Juan caliente

Malla

Acbiote

Bejuco prieto

Guasima ilmif olia . .
Paritium tiliaceum
Ochronia lagopus..

Inga vera

Crescentia cujete..

Agave

Rourea glabra

Bromelia

Bixa crellana

Hippocratea ovata .

Butteriacese.

Malvaceae.

Bombaceae.

Leguminoseae.

Bignoniacese.

Linaceae.

Terebinthaceae.

Bromeliacese.

Bixineae.

Hippocrateaceae.

Plants considered as poisonous.

Manzanillo

Carrasco ..-•-

Javilla

Tibey bianco

Yuca

Tibey Colorado . .

Don Tomas

Rabano cimarr6n
Bejuco de mona .
Barbasco

Hippomane mancinella
Comocladia ilicifolia...

Jura crepitans

Ysotoma longiflora

Janipba manihot

Tupa assurgens

Jatropha multifida

Diff enbachia seguine . .

Cisampelus pareira

Saurella alba...

Eupborbiaceae.

Terebintbaceae.

Eupborbiaceae.

Lobeliaceae.

Eupborbiaceae.

Lobeliaceae.

Euphorbiaceae.

Aroideae.

Menispermeae.

Canellaceae.

Bayamon, P. R.

WOODS OF PORTO RICO AND THEIR USES.
[Revised by the Director of Agriculture, San Juan, for tbe Commissioner.]

Spanish name.

English name.

Specific
gravity.

Uses.

Abelluello .

Abispillo

Aceitillo —
Aceitunillo
Algarrobo .

Almendro

Aquilon

Ausubo

Bucare

Cacao cimarron

Cafeillo

Caimitillo

Caimito

Canela

Canelilla

Ca pa bianco

Capacillo

Capa prieto

Caracolillo.

Cedro macho ...
Cedro Hembra .

Cenizo

Cerezo

Co.jova

Satin wood

Gum animae or carob. .
Indian cherry; almond
Bullet wood

Fire wood

Star apple

Cinnamon .

Cedar (bastard) ..
Cedar

White goose foot ,
Cherry tree

.75
.90

.90

.88
1.09

.77
1.08

.85

1.78

.85

.87

.75
1.20

Boards.
Shooks.
Cabinet wood.
Boards.

"Wagon wheels and other objects
where rough usage is required.
Boards.

Do.
Much used for building.
Boards.

Walking sticks, firewood.
Charcoal.

Shingles, barrel staves, charcoal.
Boats.
Boards.

Do.

Do.
No use.
Boats, boards.
Hard wood for building.
Boards.
Cabinet wood.
Formerly for hogsheads.
Shooks.
Posts and fencing.

228

Woods of Porto Rico and their uses — Continued.

Spanish name.

English name.

Specific
gravity.

Uses.

Corazon.

Coscorron.
Corcho

Bull's heart of sweet
sop.

Cuero deSapo :..

Cucubano

Cienigilla

Dama Juana (a bush)

Ebony. -.

Espejurlo-bobo

Espinillo (a very large

tree).

Espinorubio

Flamboyant - --.

Gallina (a shrub).

Gen gen

Geno geno

Guaba.- - -

Guajanillo, same as cara-

cohllo.

Guama

Guanabana

Guasabara

Guasabarillo

Guasima

Guasimillo.-

Guabara

Guara - — .

Guaraguao.

Guayaba .-

Guyacan . - --

Guayabota.
Aceituna...
Higuerillo. .
Higuero

Soursop .

Hortegon
Hucar

Hucar amarillo. .
Hucar Colorado. .

Hucarillo

Huso amarillo ...

Huso bianco

Huso Colorado...

Jaboncillo

Jagua

Jobo

Juso-

Laurel bianco . .
Laurel amarillo

Lechicillo ,

Limoncillo

Mahogany

Maria

Maricao

Maza

Moca

Mora -

Mameyuelo

Moral ._

Multa

Muneco

Naranja

Negralora.-t

Nispero

Nuez moscado . .

Hoja menuda

Oak _

Palo bianco

Palo bobo

Palo de hierro . .
Palo polio

Palo puerco.
Palo santo . .

Pendula

Pimiento

Pomarosa . . .

Guava fruit tree
Lignumvitae

Gourd tree

Soapwort .

Bay tree .
Tola"."'.

Mulberry

Species of mulberry.

Shrub-

Bitter orange .

Tropical plum.
Nutmeg -

Shrub .
do

Shrub

Rose apple .

.65
.90

.84

.82

1.08
1.10

.68

1.16

.66

1.09

.66

.51

1.25

1.06

1.07
.93

1.30
.63

1.12
.84

.79
1.20

1.02
.57

1.06
.59
.48
.91

1.02

.77

.54

1.07

.87
.70
.84
1.02
.70

Charcoal.

Boards.

Used for charcoal and to sharpen
steel instruments and carpen-
ters' tools.

Hut building, firewood.

Boards, firewood.

Boards Tone of the fine woods).

Firewood.

Boards.
Firewood.

Do.

Machete handles.

Wooden pans of gold seekers.

Shade for coffee.
Firewood.

Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.

Fibre used for rope.
Firewood.

Do.

Do.
Boards and cabinet wood.

One of the hardest building woods

of the island.
Posts.

Boat building.
Boards.
Firewood; fruit furnishes the

peasants cups, etc.
Hardest wood known.
Hard wood (coffee and cocoa
shade).

Do.

Do.
Hard wood.

Do.

Do.
Boards.

Boards, coaches, and wagons.
Fence posts.
Posts.
Furniture.
Boards, furniture.
Firewood.
Cabinet.

Do.

Do.
Cabinet, firewood.
Firewood.
Coffee shade.
Cabinet wood.
Boards.

Fruit used for coloring rum, etc.
Firewood.

Boards.

Hut building.

Do.
Charcoal.

Handles for machetes, pans for

gold seekers.
Charcoal.

Boards, posts.
Very hard wood.
Charcoal (fruit said to be 30 per
cent sugar).

229

Woods of Porto Rico and their uses — Continued.

Spanish name.

English name.

Specific
gravity.

Uses.

.87
1.07

.89

.85
1.11

.55
1.13

..66

1.12
1.25

Do.

Roble

Oak

Shrub .

Tabonuco, a very resinous

shadow of this tree are poisoned
by its exhalations. Useless.
Timber.

tree.

Do.

1.05

the drug digitalina).

Yaiti

.94

"Walking sticks.

Five-leaved silk cotton
tree.

ing wood.

1.11

.74

Shrub

rope fiber.

VEGETABLES OF THE ISLAND.

Achiote . Annato seed, used for coloring rice, etc.

Ajo % Garlic.

Ajonjoli -Sesame seed.

Algarroba Carob bean.

Apio - Celery.

Arroz - Upland rice.

Batata Sweet potato.

Berengena .Eggplant.

Calabaza Squash or pumpkin.

Cana dulce Sugar cane.

Cebolla Onion.

Col Cabbage.

Eddoes. . _ A tuber used for food.

Frijol Black bean.

Gandul Small red bean.

Gingamboa Seed like a small lentil.

Guisante Pease.

Gumbo Okra, used for soup.

Habichuela String bean.

Hedionda „ Small berry used by natives instead of coffee.

Higuera Gourd used, to make peasant's cup, ladle, and spoon

Kenep Kenep.

Lechosa A species of muskmelon.

Lechuga Lettuce.

Lenteja Lentil.

Leren Species of small potato.

Maiz Corn.

Malagueta Tabasco pepper.

Mani Peanut.

Mel6n Melon.

Nabo : Turnip.

JSTami .Yam, a large tuber.

Papas Potatoes.

Pepino Angola Angola cucumber.

Pimienta Green pepper.

Rabano Radish.

230

Remolache Beet.

Tallote A corrugated, pear-shaped green vegetable.

Tanier A plant, the leaves of which are boiled and eaten.

Tabaco — Tobacco.

Tomate Tomato.

Yuca Cassava, manioc, a starch food.

Zanachoria - . Carrot.

Zandia. _ . Watermelon.

FRUITS OF THE ISLAND.

Aguacate Alligator pear.

Almendro Wild almond.

Cacao Chocolate bean.

Cafe Coffee.

Caimito Small red fruit.

Cereza : Tropical cherry.

China . . Sweet orange.

China injerta . Bitter sweet orange.

Cidra Species of grapefruit.

Coco -.- Cocoanut.

Corazon Soursop, a large sweet fruit.

Corozo Ivory nut.

Coyoll Coyoll palm fruit.

Fresa.. .Wild strawberry.

Fruta de pan Breadfruit.

Grosella A kind of gooseberry growing on a tree in clusters like

grapes.

G-uanabana Custard apple.

Guayaba Guava.

Guinda Species of currant.

Guineo ... Small plantain.

Hicaco .- -. Coco plum.

Higos chumbo Cactus pear.

Lima Lime.

Limon Lemon (sweet).

Mamey . . . Mamee, sopota.

Mangle . . .White pulp inclosed in shell of fruit of mangrove tree.

Mango _. Mango.

Mangotin Mangosteen , fruit of size of apple.

Multas _-- Mulberries.

Naranja Bitter orange.

Nispero . .Russet fruit, very sweet.

Nuez moscada ...Nutmeg (spice).

Pajuil A small pulpy stone fruit.

Pinas Pineapples, three varieties — sugar loaf, Mayaguez, and

Cimarron or wild.

Platano .Plantain or banana; there are 20 or more varieties.

Pomarosa Rose apple, an edible berry.

Tamarindo .Tamarind fruit.

Toronja Grape fruit.

Uvas de playa. Seaside grape (so called in British West Indies).

MEDICINAL AND OTHER PLANTS.

Acerga Flavoring herb.

Anil Indigo.

Arrowroot

Cana fistula. Medicinal plant.

Calantro Herb used for soup.

Flor de nacahuita. Dried flour used medicinally.

Gengibre Ginger.

Helecho Male fern.

Mabi Bark used for liquor.

Malanga A farinaceous root.

Mato A small round gray bean, medicinal.

Oregano Wild marjoram.

Patchouli A mint-like plant.

Perejil .Parsley.

Tabaluco A resin extracted from a tree used as vermifuge.

Yuquilla Ginger-like medicinal root.

231

THE INSULAR GOVERNMENT.

CHARACTER OF THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1898.
Seiior Luis Munoz Rivera, secretario de la gobernacion :

Dr. Carroll. I heard a great deal about you even before I left the
United States, and I am very glad of this opportunity to meet you.
I desire your views on the condition of things in Porto Rico, and as
to what would be best to be done to advance the welfare of the island.

Mr. Rivera. If you will give me concrete questions, I will be bet-
ter able to give you the information you desire.

Dr. Carroll. What are the present political conditions of Porto
Rico? Are the Porto Ricans divided on party lines; and if so, on
what lines?

Mr. Rivera. Under the Spanish rule in Porto Rico there existed
two political parties — one a small one, the party of the rulers, whose
basis was the Peninsula ; the other a large one, composed almost entirely
of natives of. the country. The ruling party was able to keep itself
in power for a long period, thanks to the electoral privileges which
were conceded them. In the opposition partj^ all the Porto Ricans
were united, but on the establishment of the autonomous regime, and
on the declaration of universal suffrage in 1897, the Peninsula party
was reduced to an insignificant minority, and the Porto Rican party
was divided into two branches. One of these branches, more moder-
ate than the other, was called the Liberal party, and the other party,
more advanced, called itself the Radical. The Liberal party is much
larger than the Radical party and has won in all electoral struggles
since the establishment of autonomy in the island. Their defeats
irritated the Radical party, which resorted to violent proceedings,
making use at times of even personal insults, which has brought on
a condition of affairs making politics very difficult in this country.

When the American army took possession of the whole island in a
definite manner on October 18, things were in the following situation:

When General Brooke, who was of the opinion that the various sec-
retaries should continue the exercise of their respective functions,
continued in office the secretaries who had received their election to
office by the votes of the Liberal party, their adversaries inaugurated
a violent campaign against them, in spite of old unions being dis-
solved and in spite also of the fact that the council of the island tries
by every means to bring to its side all conflicting elements in the
island. I do not think that any great difference exists between the
two parties in their primary principles, and I believe the present
opposition is owing entirely to reasons of personal rancor on the part
of those who have determined the struggle. The citizens of Porto
Rico are for the most part democrats (I use the word "democrats"
in the broad sense of the word, not as indicating the tenets of any
political party). All of them aspire to preserve the individuality of
the country within the union of the states, and as no fundamental
principle divides us, it is possible that concord will soon be reestab-
lished and that the Government of the United States will find in the
island immense opportunities for working out her objects and for
arriving at an era of progress and general welfare. That is my idea
of the general condition of the island.

232

Dr. Carroll. May it be said that tlie autonomous system is fairly
installed?

Mr. Rivera. When the Americans arrived the autonomous system
was fully introduced, but to-day the government is a military one,
and that government settles matters having any importance.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to have an explanation of the general
scheme of government here at the time our troops arrived, and, if it
would be just as convenient, I would be pleased to have you divide
the subject into the three parts — the legislative, judicial, and execu-
tive— and give me a plain exposition of each.

Mr. Rivera. The legislative power was exercised by two chambers,
representatives and councilors of administration, who constituted a
sort of senate. These chambers had the power to legislate on esti-
mates, public instruction, sanitation, charities, public works, and, in
general, upon everything which affected the life of the island locally.

Dr. Carroll. Were they subject to any veto power?

Mr. Rivera. Yes; the governor-general had the right of vetoing
the statutes voted by the chambers which required his approbation to
acquire executive character. The opportunity of exercising this right
of veto never arrived, because the first legislature was dissolved
immediately on being called, owing to the war.

Dr. Carroll. How were the members of the legislature elected?

Mr. Rivera. The election of representatives was by universal suf-
frage, exercised by all males above the age of 25 years. The election
of councillors, or senators, was by indirect suffrage; that is, the towns
elected their representatives, who in turn voted for the senators, but
had no other function.

Dr. Carroll. How many members were there in the senate?

Mr. Rivera. The senate was composed of 15 members, 8 of whom
were elected by popular vote, as before stated, and 7 members were
named by the Spanish Crown.

Dr. Carroll. Were the representatives all voted for on the ballots?

Mr. Rivera. Yes ; all of them.

Dr. Carroll. How many of them were there.

Mr. Rivera. Thirty-two.

Dr. Carroll. This was the system prevailing under autonomy?

Mr. Rivera. Yes.

THE EXECUTIVE POWER.

Mr. Rivera. The executive power was exercised by a governor-
general and four secretaries, one of public works and public instruc-
tion, another of justice, another of finance, and one of gobernacion
(government). No act of the governor was valid unless one of the
secretaries added his assent to it — that is to say, it must have the
approbation of at least one of the secretaries, and the secretaries in
turn could not decree any measure without the approbation of the
governor ; so that together the council of administration and the gov-
ernor had charge of all executive functions, and it was their duty to
apply all statutes passed by the chambers. The secretaries were
required to be members of one of the two chambers — either of repre-
sentatives or senators. The governor, besides the power which he
exercised in company with the secretaries, took under his charge all
matters of a diplomatic character and was the sole manager of eccle-
siastical matters in the island by virtue of the patronato real or spe-
cial powers conferred on him by the Holy See for that purpose,
making him virtually the head of the church here. The governor,

233

together with the secretaries, named all the employees of the colony,
and he alone the employees of his special secretarial department. But
in each ministerial department the secretary was at the head of affairs
and directed without hindrance of any sort all matters pertaining to
his department. The governor-general had the right to evoke and
dissolve the chambers and to remove his ministers at will.

THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT.

The judiciary was directed by the secretary of justice, and was
composed of the territorial superior court at San Juan, which had
jurisdiction of appeals from all civil and criminal judgments and
decisions ; of the two audiencias, one at Ponce and one at Mayaguez,
which only had jurisdiction in criminal matters; of several justices
of first instance in the chief city of each district, who, as their desig-
nation indicates, attended to preliminary proceedings and also suits
of a civil character only. There was also a municipal justice in
every city and town of the island, established to punish offenses for
which the maximum penalty or punishment prescribed did not exceed
one month's imprisonment, and who also had jurisdiction in civil cases
where the amount involved was not greater than $200.

RELIGION.

The public treasurer paid all expenses connected with the Catholic
Church in the island, which was the religion of the State, and in every
city and in every town there were churches exclusively for Catholic
worship. In Ponce only does there exist a Protestant church and
minister. In the country there are no followers of any other religion.

I will now compare the autonomous system with the system which
it succeeded. Before the establishment of autonomy, or under the
old system, the Governor- General was absolute master of the destinies
of the country. He directed finances through a manager, who was
his subordinate, who had under his order the chiefs of all the other
departments, so that the country did not have a voice in any way in
its government. The governor was surrounded by a number of influ-
ential persons, to whom he granted favors, and on whom he depended
to keep up the appearance of a system of representation which was at
bottom completely false. There was a provincial deputation, with
very limited powers, such powers as it had being purely administrative
powers, and the budget of the country was voted by the Spanish
Chambers, in which Porto Rico had a representation of 16 members
and 3 senators, which representation it kept under the autonomous
government. As regards the municipalities, they had no liberty for
the administration of their interests, and all their acts were submitted
for the approbation of the Governor-General, who appointed all munici-
pal employees, naming arbitrarily every employee, even down to por-
ters and janitors, and removing completely all initiative from the
municipalities. It can be said that the Governor- General did every-
thing in the government of Puerto Rico.

Dr. Carroll. The present military government, as I understand
it, is a continuation of the former system of government, with such
changes as military control might require.

Mr. Rivera. That is the case.

Dr. Carroll. Then, the autonomistic system is not in operation
to-day?

234

Mr. Rivera. I can not consider that we are to-day an autonomous
government, because the fact of the invasion dissolved the chambers,
and the secretaries are not responsible members of the government.
They have to appeal to General Brooke.

Dr. Carroll. It is a system of government ad interim, awaiting
legislation from the United States to make necessary changes?

Mr. Rivera. The country generally understands that, and desire
and hope that the United States will legislate for them in- such a way
that their road to progress will be easy.

Dr. Carroll. Would the Territorial system of the United States
be a satisfactory system for Porto Rico, with such adaptations as
may be necessary?

Mr. Rivera. I will answer that at some length. The Territorial
system of the United States is perfectly applicable to Porto Rico —
with a governor at the head of the country ; a secretary to consult with
him, to keep him informed ; a manager of the treasury ; a manager of
the post-office, and a manager of public works, which office does not
exist in the Territories of the United States, but which is here neces-
sary and indispensable, because public works can not be here exclu-
sively a municipal matter. These functionaries would be sufficient to
manage all matters of the Territory. The business of the government
should be further simplified by the concession of absolute liberty to
the municipalities, so that they themselves could resolve, without any
hindrance, their own municipal problems, the administration of jus-
tice being under the direction of the Supreme Court. There should
exist also a legislature, with power to make laws, which should be
submitted for approbation to the Congress of the United States.

The country would be satisfied with this system, and under its pro-
tection would prepare itself gradually for statehood, which is the
highest aspiration of the natives of the country, a consummation
which might arrive in a comparatively short period of time if the
culture and richness of the island be taken into account, which are
equal to the minor States of the Union itself. Porto Ricans desire
that the military occupation should be as brief as possible, and that
the situation at present existing shall be normalized, not being subject
to the will of the governor or the President of the United States, but
that the colonial life shall be subject to the necessary and appropriate
, laws.

To conclude, Porto Rico aspires to statehood and accepts as a
transitory condition that of a Territory, asking that the military regi-
men may be concluded as soon as possible.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose that the people of Porto Rico want true
home rule, not only for the general affairs of the island but for munici-
palities. Now, I am told that there are a great many municipalities,
more than are really needed for the island ; that there is a great deal
of municipal machinery, and that it would be better that some of the
municipalities should be merely towns and villages. If that is so, I
desire to ask whether it would not be well to inaugurate the system of
counties which we have in all our States?

Mr. Rivera. I don't consider the system of counties practicable in
this country.

Dr. Carroll. Let me explain further. These counties are judicial
districts. At the county seats, so called, are the county courts, places
for the registration of property transfers, mortgages, wills, etc. , a board
of taxation, a school superintendent, etc., and the general business of
the county is there transacted. The county is also a legislative dis-

235

trict. It would seem that there ought to be similar divisions here,
and would it not be well to call them counties and give them county
government?

Mr. Rivera. As regards the county court-house, under the judicial
system as at present in vogue every group of five or six municipalities
has its judge of first instance. As to municipal matters generally, I
think every municipality should be its own master and not be subject
to any county council; that if it saw fit to build a road or a bridge
or other improvement it should be free to do so.

Dr. Carroll. They have' that right under our form of government.

Mr. Rivera. Then I don't see the advantage of having that division.
Is the object of the county to resolve questions affecting a number of
communities all together?

Dr. Carroll. Partly that and partly to stand between the munici-
pality and £he State. For example, as districts convenient for
electing members to the legislature; as districts convenient to the
exercise of judicial functions; as districts convenient for the regis-
tration of deeds and other documents; as districts convenient for the
exercise of school superintendency; for the construction and mainte-
nance of county roads and bridges, and for the purpose of assessment
and collection of taxes and remittal to the State authorities.

Mr. Rivera. I believe that such an institution or organization
would be both practical and useful, and we possess almost the same
institution here to-day, except that we have an anarchical state of
affairs existing in these institutions at present, some so-called coun-
ties being in one district for judicial matters, in another district for
military matters, and in another district for other matters; but I con-
sider the proposition you suggest a very practical and useful one.

Dr. Carroll. The object of the county is to unify all those inter-
ests and to bring home to the people the privileges of government, so
that in a country where it may cost a great deal to travel the people
may not have to go very far to seek governmental aid in any direc-
tion. If the Territorial form of government is introduced here in its
simplicity, it would probably do away with a great many posts which
exist under the present government. Would that be an objection?

Mr. Rivera. Not in the least. The country would be pleased to
see the government simplified and the disappearance of useless
sinecures.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask what were the limitations of suf-
frage previous to the establishment of universal suffrage in 1897?

Mr. Rivera. Voting was only allowed to those persons who paid to
the state taxes above the value of $5 without regard to what they paid
to the municipality, and all public servants and employees also had
votes, no matter what their salaries. It was an original and curious
system under which those who collected the money could vote, but
those who paid it out had no vote ; by which means the government
was able to retain in power its own party continually, and although
consisting of an insignificant minority in point of numbers these voters
were the absolute dictators of the island. It has been known to hap-
pen in San Juan that the number of voters who were employed by the
state were greater in number than the number of citizen voters ; there-
fore it can easily be seen that all outside parties together had no voice
in the government.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well to change the minimum age
limit with respect to the right of suffrage by reducing it from 25 years
to 21 years, as is the general rule in the United States?

236

Mr. Rivera. Taking into consideration the state of education of
our people and also the difference in race — the Anglo-Saxon race being
a considering and debating and calm people, whereas the Latin race
is excitable and undeliberative, and at the age of 21 years a man of
the latter race has not formed character — I think it unwise to make
the change suggested. I consider that the Government of the United
States should give this matter of suffrage earnest attention, because
it is perhaps the most serious which it will have to resolve. From
the vote will proceed the government of the country, and experience
has shown us already that it would be extremely dangerous to hand
over our future to the masses, who are entirely without civic educa-
tion and who might be wrongly directed by the audacity of agitators
who would make them their tools. I wish to emphasize the fact, before
our interview closes, that I am earnestly in favor of the establishment
here of a Territorial form of government with the modifications pro-
posed, and I can say that with the more genuineness because I hold an
office which will be swept away by the change to a Territorial form.

THE PROVINCIAL DEPUTATION.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 5, 1898.

Mr. Manuel Egozcue (a merchant and vice-president of the provin-
cial deputation). I hand you some books which refer to the provincial
deputation, which I present to you. I was at the head of this institu-
tion for six months, during which time, I think I can say truthfully,
the country made some advance. One of these pamphlets treats of
the rules governing vaccination, another of the provincial lottery, and
there are also several reports here.

Dr. Carroll. I thank you very much for these books; I shall find
them valuable. I am desirous of information in regard to the pro-
vincial deputation.

Mr. Egozcue. The promulgation of the provincial law in Porto Rico
and, as a consequence, the establishment of the provincial deputation
was the first, step which the Spanish Government made in favor of
administrative decentralization.

The ayuntamiento was governed by a law which limited all popu-
lar action with reference to their peculiar interests, because in the
most important branches of the administration, and in their munici-
pal budgets, the direct inspection of the governor-general was required,
whose authority assumed all civil and military powers ; then came the
deputation to fill a felt necessity demanded by the liberal spirit which
has always been manifested in the country, for thus the said munici-
pal corporations were not subjected to the absolute judgment and will
of the governor, except that in permanent functions a commission of
the deputation, which was elected by the people subdivided into elec-
toral districts, knew of the local affairs and informed the superior
authority after a careful examination of these. The orders emanating
from the central provincial authority have been generally executive.

The deputation came also to give impulse to the branches of bene-
ficencia, instruction, and public works and health, establishing an
asylum and colleges, and giving impulse to roads and cart roads for
the development of the wealth which was found stationary on account

237

of the want of the elements which would determine its progressive
movement.

Then, with the promulgation of the first reforms in the system of
autonomy, the deputation occupied an important place in the adminis-
trative life of the country, charged the country with the government
and direction of the peculiar interests of the province, the stimulation
of its material interests, extending to everything in general which
has reference to public works — telegraphic and postal communication,
territorial and maritime, agriculture, industry and commerce, emigra-
tion and colonization, public instruction, beneficencia and health,
assemblies, expositions, and other institutions for industrial develop-
ment (fomento) and other analogous objects, without other limitations
than those inherent faculties in the sovereign power which the laws
always reserve to the government of the nation.

The centralization of the state thus became almost annulled, and
the Province saw administered directly and liberally its interests by
a popular corporation ably judging of its necessities and eager to
supply them. The ayuntamientos moved also in their proper orbit
and the deputation was the protecting center which guaranteed their
popular action, and assisted with its elements to render aid in those
beneficent enterprises for their respective municipal objects.

The provincial deputation to-day has property worth $1,145,000.
The cities of the island are its debtors to the extent of over $150,000,
and the deputation itself does not owe more than $70,000 or $80,000.

Dr. Carroll. Then the island has no debt?

Mr. Egozcue. No; none whatever.

Dr. Carroll. The provincial deputation has a treasury, and the
provincial government has another treasury. Why is that?

Mr. Egozcue. They have separate treasuries because they have sep-
arate functions and separate collections. Each collects its income inde-
pendently of the other. Although connected with the deputation, I
am in favor of its disappearance, but not until after the establishment
of another government.

Dr. Carroll. Was the provincial deputation under the central
government, or did it run parallel with it?

Mr. Egozcue. Neither was subject to the other. They were inde-
pendent bodies, with independent functions. The high officials of
the provincial deputation are not paid any salaries. They are elected
by popular vote and are not subject to anybody.

Dr. Carroll. There are two departments, I understand, which
were under the direction of the provincial deputation. One was that
of fomento, and the other that of gobierno.

Mr. Egozcue. No; it was purely administrative in its functions.
Fomento was entirely under the charge of the provincial deputation
under the autonomistic government, but not gobierno.

Dr. Carroll. I thought those two departments were provided for
in the budget.

Mr. Egozcue. They simply made distribution or apportionment of
the expenses of the gobierno, without having anything to do with it.

Dr. Carroll. Well, the expenses of the province which were
approved in Madrid also included these expenses, did they not?

Mr. Egozcue. The last ones did not go to Madrid at all for approval.
They were approved here.

Dr. Carroll. The budget I saw was for 1897-98.

Mr. Egozcue. It was reformed after it was adopted, and the refor-
mations came in the form of decrees and royal orders.

238

Dr. Carroll. Can we get the estimates for 1898-99?

Mr. Egozcue. There was no new estimate furnished. As the coun-
try was in a state of war, the Government ordered that the previous
one should be adopted.

Dr. Carroll. Then the last one did not go to Madrid?

Mr. Egozcue. The provincial deputation estimate is the one that
did not go to Madrid.

Dr. Carroll. When was the provincial deputation established?

Mr. Egozcue. It was established when the decentralization of power
commenced. You will find a full statement of it in the paper which
I have included in the several documents handed to you. The pro-
vincial deputation was the bulwark of defense against the Spanish
Government. It was formed by popular election. The}7 have the
same thing in Spain; each province has one; but there the vice-
president is named by the Crown, while here he is elected by the peo-
ple. It is not legislative ; it is purely administrative. It is nothing
more than a court for the protection of the people against the govern-
ing bodies ; for instance, against the municipalities. It had to approve
the estimates made by the municipalities, and where they transgressed
the law in drawing up their estimates the provincial deputation
intervened to see that the estimates were changed in that respect and
made to conform to the law.

Dr. Carroll. To whom was the provincial deputation responsible?

Mr. Egozcue. I was and still am the vice-president of the provin-
cial deputation and one of its permanent committee. Among the
twelve provincial deputies five are chosen by the deputation itself to
form a permanent committee to transact its current business. The
deputation, as a body, meets only twice a year. In all the Spanish
provincial deputations the deputies have salaries, but in Porto Rico
they never have had salaries.

Dr. Carroll. Are the twelve deputies all elected on one ballot or
slip, or were they elected by districts?

Mr. Egozcue. By districts.

Dr. Carroll. What districts — the military, the judicial, or are
there distinct districts for the purposes of the provincial deputation?

Mr. Egozcue. The judicial districts. I wish to add here that the
provincial deputation is the only institution in Porto Rico to-day
which represents the popular vote. The present secretaries of the
Government wish to do away with the provincial deputation at once,
but I think it would be a pity at present to do away with the only
institution in the island whose officers were elected by popular vote.
Manuel Lopez does not wish it, but the other secretaries are trying to
justify the salaries they are drawing.

THE AUTONOMISTIC SYSTEM.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner. ]

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. I shall be very glad if you can give us a succinct
statement of the insular civil government.

Mr. Manuel F. Rossy. Owing to the representations made by the
autonomist party; owing, also, in part to the pressure exerted from
Washington during the Cuban war and to the situation in which Spain
found herself as a result of that war, the autonomous government of

239

Porto Rico was instituted. Our programme had specially in vieWtwo
objects: One was the citizenship of every inhabitant of the island, and
the other was the installation of local self-government. Accepting
these views and responding to our desires, the Spanish Government
formulated the articles of the autonomous government which were in
force Until the occupation of the island by the American forces. The
Spanish Government recognized the Spanish citizenship of every inhab-
itant of Porto Rico and gave them representation to enable them to
take part in imperial decrees in all matters relating to the national
affairs. In regard to the second point, the Government gave us power
to direct our internal affairs, but not to the extent which we required.

In obedience to these two principles, the following is the autono-
mous constitution:

A Governor-General, named by the Peninsula Government to repre-
sent it here in Porto Rico, who was at the same time the military and
naval commander of all the forces stationed here.

A local government consisting of a president and four secretaries —
namely, a secretary of the treasury, a secretary of the government,
one of justice, and the fourth of fomento. The secretary of fomento
includes the following portfolios: Public works, education, agricul-
ture, and commerce. I was minister of public instruction under the
first autonomical government. These ministers were named by the
Governor- General from members of the political party which obtained
a majority in the elections.

Dr. Carroll. What was that election for?

Mr. Rossy. For the purpose of electing members to constitute the
local parliament under the autonomous regime.

Dr. Carroll. Was that the first real election the people here had
had?

Mr. Rossy. That was not a real election; it was so unreal that I and
my party retired from the government. The insular parliament was
composed of two chambers, the higher one called the council of admin-
istration and the lower the chamber of representatives. The latter
chamber was composed of thirty-two members, elected by universal
suffrage throughout the island. Any male person who had attained
the age of 25 years and resided in the island was entitled to vote.

Dr. Carroll. Are persons under the age of 25 regarded as infants
in the eyes of the law?

Mr. Rossy. That is only the case respecting the right of suffrage ;
in all other civil matters 23 years constitute majority. The council
of administration is composed of fifteen members, seven named by
the Govenor-General from among persons resident in the island who
possess certain requirements (which are too extensive to go into ad
extenso) and eight elected by the people at large. Each of these
chambers named its president and discussed everything concerning
the management of the chambers and concerning the legality of the
election of their respective members. This regimen has not been
carried out here in its amplitude, because after the formation of the
first cabinet war with the United States intervened, the autonomous
government was suspended, and things went on without any autono-
mous government. The ayuntamientos or municipal corporations
which administered municipal business came under the autonomous
municipal law. This never was put into practice. Above the munici-
pal government there is a provincial government, which has jurisdic-
tion over all questions in which persons who are not satisfied with
municipal acts seek redress or correction at the hands of this body.

240

It has the characteristics of a superior tribunal. The provincial govern-
ment was for the whole island as one province. Everybody was agreed
that this body had to disappear, because the rest of the mechanism
had not been brought into play. That is the extent of the insular
government as lately decreed.

Dr. Carroll. Will you give a general view in outline of the duties
and powers of the Governor-General under this autonomistie system?

Mr. Rossy. The following was the theory of his duties and powers
under that system: He was a sort of constitutional king, according
to the European system, because he had no powers of government
vested in himself alone. The secretaries governed in their respective
departments, and any act promulgated by the governor, in order to
become legal, had to have the consent of the secretaries, which secre-
taries made themselves personally responsible for their government
to the insular parliament. The whole system is very analogous to
the constitutional parliament system adopted by European countries.
In military and naval matters the insular government had no juris-
diction. Orders came direct from the Peninsular Government.

Dr. Carroll. What was the scope of the duties and powers of the
secretaries?

Mr. Rossy. The secretaries were the chiefs of the administration of
their respective departments, in the management of which they were
subject to the laws respecting the same and to those which might be
promulgated by the insular parliament. In other words, they were
executive chiefs.

Dr. Carroll. What was the scope of the functions of the legis-
lative department?

Mr. Rossy. The insular parliament had the power to legislate on
all local questions except those which involve questions affecting the
Empire in general, military and naval questions, war, and questions
affecting the constitution.

Dr. Carroll. Did they have the power to fix the budget of expenses
and salaries in the island?

Mr. Rossy. Yes ; with the obligation of voting, in addition to insu-
lar estimates, the amount assigned by the nation as our proportion
of the general contribution.

Dr. Carroll. Had the insular parliament the right of fixing the
customs duties without reference to Madrid?

Mr. Rossy. No; they did not have that power. This was the only
exception to the rule above mentioned. The tariff was fixed hy a
commission appointed by Spain, in conjunction with another com-
mission appointed by the island, who arranged and fixed the tariff
schedules and everything else connected with the custom-house in
Puoto Rico.

Dr. Carroll. Is that the tariff that the Americans found in opera-
tion here?

Mr. Rossy. No ; they never got further than the naming of their
employees for the customs service. The present is the old Spanish
system.

Dr. Carroll. How long has it been in force?

Mr. Rossy. I can not say with certainty; but I believe it is the
modus vivendi which was arranged when the last treaty was abro-
gated, in 1890 or 1891.

Dr. Carroll. Is the present tariff satisfactory to merchants?

Mr. Rossy. No; it is too high. It tends unduly to favor what they
call Catalonian business men.

241

Dr. Carroll. Returning to the question of legislation; did the
legislature legislate directly for the districts and municipalities, or for
the municipalities through the districts?

Mr. Rossy. I do not understand the question fully.

Dr. Carroll. Do the districts here correspond to our counties in
the United States?

Mr. Rossy. No ; they are different. A municipal district here con-
sists of a portion of territory embracing a certain number of houses;
that is the basis of the municipality. There are 70 municipal dis-
tricts in Puerto Rico.

Dr. Carroll. What is meant by the "seven districts?"

Mr. Rossy. That is a division for military purposes. Each of the
70 municipal districts has its municipal government, and these munic-
ipal governments are subject to the provincial deputation. The
island is further divided into 11 judicial districts entirely distinct
from the municipal and military divisions. The military districts of
the island are the capital, Arecibo, Aguadilla, Mayaguez, Ponce,
Guayama, and Humacao, at the head of each of which there was a
military commander.

Dr. Carroll. What is the composition of the municipal govern-
ment?

Mr. Rossy. The actual state of affairs in municipal and provincial
government is the old one. Thej^ did not have time to get down to
that before the war broke out. They had elections in February and
March and war broke out in April, and municipal government
remained as it was under the old regime.

Dr. Carroll. What was the former municipal government?

Mr. Rossy. The old system, which is at present in force, has a
municipal council elected by all persons residing in the municipality,
and is composed of members called councilors, varying in number
from nine to twenty-four, according to the importance of the munici-
pality. Once elected, they met and named their mayor, unless the
Governor-General should wish to name the mayor, which he could do,
but the person so named by him had to be one of the councilors.

Dr. Carroll. What was the term of the councilors and mayors? .

Mr. Rossy. The councilors remained in offi.ce four years, half of
them being replaced every two years. The mayor held office for two
years.

Dr. Carroll. Is the mayor intrusted with large powers?

Mr. Rossy. Mayors have a twofold official character. As delegates
of the Governor- General, they receive orders in regard to political
government; as head of the municipality, they have to execute the
mandates of the councilors, and had, by virtue of their office, certain
powers over priests, vigilantes, and other matters of a purely local
character, which they exercised at discretion.

Dr. Carroll. Are the highways controlled by the municipal gov-
ernment or by the provincial?

Mr. Rossy. Roads are divided into two classes — one class called
municipal roads and streets and the other called provincial roads.
The former are those within the immediate limits of the municipality,
and provincial roads are those which connect the municipalities.
Provincial roads are under the jurisdiction of the provincial govern-
ment.

Dr. Carroll. Can you inform me in regard to the schools of the
municipalities?

Mr. Rossy. The schools are governed under a law promulgated by
1125 16

242

one of the Captains-General, and also by the school law of the new
autonomous government. It is a provincial matter. The naming of
teachers is under the immediate jurisdiction of the secretary of
f omen to. In respect to financial matters, such as payment of salaries,
repairs of school buildings, etc., the schools depend upon the munici-
pality.

Dr. Carroll. Do the mayors direct the municipal police, munici-
pal fire department, and similar municipal matters?

Mr. Rossy. They have charge of the police. There are further
boards, called local boards, whose duties include the inspection of
schools and education generally. They are named by the mayors of
each municipality.

Dr. Carroll. Who prescribes the text-books?

Mr. Rossy. Formerly they were prescribed by the Governor-Gen-
eral, but they are now prescribed by the secretary of fomeuto.

Dr. Carroll. Have the mayors also powers of magistrates to hear
and determine cases of any kind?

Mr. Rossy. Absolutely none.

Dr. Carroll. What is the range of salaries paid the Governor-
General and heads of the several departments of the insular govern-
ment?

Mr. Rossy. The Governor-General has an annual salary of $20,000
and a house, besides $2,500 for entertaining and $2,500 for furniture
and fittings. The president of the council and the secretaries each
have $8,000 annually, without houses.

Dr. Carroll. Can a secretary hold more than one portfolio?

Mr. Rossy. Each can hold only one portfolio. The x^resident can
hold, besides the presidency, another portfolio; but he is legally
allowed to draw only one salary.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any fees besides these salaries?

Mr. Rossy. None whatever ; but in the corrupt times we have had
here everybody has looked out for himself.

Dr. Carroll. I have been informed that the cost of maintaining
the governmental machinery of the island has been too large and
that there has been too much of it.

Mr. Rossy. That is absolutely so.

Tuesday, November 1, 1898.

Mr. Rossy . To-day affairs in the island are worse than ever, because
the autonomous government did not have time to promulgate new laws,
and we have our own constitution and the old Spanish constitution,
both partly in effect, and there is continual confusion, and no one
knows where to look for his authority.

Until the 18th of last month there were a great many unnecessary
employees whose salaries amounted to $32,000 a month, of which a few
still remain. The old intendencia remains just as it was with its four
sections — secretary's department, central administration, auditor's
and accountant's office, and treasury — in each one of which there is a
regular army of emirioyees. To give you an idea of the unnecessary
and cumbersome machinery and number of employees in this depart-
ment, suppose, for example, that a judge orders $50 to be refunded
to a person for certain purposes. In order to collect it it is necessary
to go through the following steps : You have to apply to three or four
of its interior departments, in each one of which you have to get two
or three signatures and have three or four entries made in the books
of the office. You have to pay a "gratification" to one of the inferior

243

clerks in order to have him steer you through all this. Then the in-
tendent gives his signature ordering the payment to be made, and
finally the document is taken to the treasurer to be cashed. All
these formalities occupy much time, frequently consuming the morn-
ing hours of five or six days and costing in "gratifications" $5 or
more. I have been a victim of this system in my profession as a law-
yer which often takes me to this office. Under the jurisdiction of the
intendencia are all the custom-houses of the island, which are also
oversupplied with employees, and in which scandalous robberies took
place, and still do, not by taking money from the custom-house
directly, but by connivance on the part of some of the employees and
certain merchants to defraud the government of its revenues. The
former collector at the port of Ponce, who was appointed on the 22d
of February of this year (and I mention these facts because they are
public property) was, when appointed to office, known as a poor man,
up to his eyes in debt, with nothing to eat and little to wear. When
the Americans landed there, he had paid off his debts, amounting to
15,000 or $6,000, he had bought a printing establishment for about
$2,500, and he was living in luxury with horses and carriages on a
salary of $208 a month.

Everything connected with the collection of taxes and everything,
in short, referring to the financial department of the government is
under the jurisdiction of the intendencia. The political organization
was under the jurisdiction of the secretary of government. The
secretary of the government was really the secretary of the Governor-
General and had under his jurisdiction the political management of
the country, so that the secretaries appointed under the autonomous
government were only figureheads and could not perform their func-
tions independently.

I think there will be much difficult}^ in the way of coming to a clear
understanding of the present political situation here in Porto Rico
because of the confusion which has been caused by changes in the
form of government following each other in quick succession. For-
merly there was a definite form of government which had in it no
suggestion of self-government, all the employees being Spaniards. As
soon as the difficulty with Cuba arose, Canovas, who was then prime
minister, had a law passed decentralizing the government, taking
away from the Governor- General the right to exercise certain govern-
mental powers, such as direction of i_>ublic instruction, posts, tele-
graphs, and some others which were turned over to the provincial
deputation, and a more ample municipal law was promulgated.
While the country was getting used to this new order of things, Cano-
vas was killed and Sagasta came into power and gave the autonomi-
cal system to the island. While this latter system of government
was being introduced and before it had been completely established
in all its parts the American forces invaded the island and gave us a
military government, so that we have now a mixture of the three
forms of government, resulting in much confusion as to the exact
status of governmental matters in the island.

Dr. Carroll. What is the fiscal year in this island?

Mr. Rossy. From the 1st of July to the 30th of the following June.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any officials of the government who are in
receipt of income from more than one source.

Mr. Rossy. There are none. In some cases, however, when the
chief officers wished to increase the salaries of minor employees beyond
the limits of what they were legally entitled to receive (such limits

244

being those of salaries paid to employees in similar positions in Spain)
they added to the legal salary a "gratification" or bonus.

Dr. Carroll. I have noticed a provision for that in the budget.
Is it to be translated as a bonus or an allowance?

Mr. Rossy. The employees who were favored in that way collected
the money; you can translate it as you please.

Dr. Carroll. Was it according to law?

Mr. Rossy. No; it was contrary to law. The salaries could only
lawfully be equal to those paid in Spain of persons holding correspond-
ing positions there, not in excess of them. But, in order to keep the
letter of the law while they violated its spirit, they called the extra
compensation in excess of their rightful salaries a "gratification."
The colonels in the army here received $400 additional in that way.

Dr. Carroll. It would seem that if the amounts appropriated for
the church and the military establishment of the island were cut out
of the budget it would make a difference of over 2,000,000 pesos.

Mr. Rossy. Yes; about two and a half million pesos.

Dr. Carroll. Then it would seem possible, if these two items are
not to be provided for, to do away with some of the taxes which are
burdensome. Moreover, there will be this difference now: There will
be a more honest, capable, and intelligent set of officials in charge of
the administration of the custom-house and other branches of the
government.

Mr. Rossy. I think it will be possible, as you suggest.

Dr. Carroll. Suppose the Government of the United States should
allow the amounts collected from customs and internal revenue,
beyond the amount necessary to administer the custom-house and col-
lect the taxes, to remain in the island for its needs?

Mr. Rossy. It would not be safe to suggest that here. If some of
these people knew that they were to have 2,000,000 pesos and more
spent here thej^ would be killing each other trying to get some of it.

Dr. Carroll. I should think it could be spent on schools and other
needs of the island.

Mr. Rossy. I believe the country has resources sufficient to con-
tract a loan that would enable us to meet all our needs, and it seems
more just that the public improvements to be undertaken here should
be borne in part by future generations who will equally have the
benefits of them, so that a loan for, say, fifty years should be con-
tracted and distribute the burden of expense, rather than compel the
present generation to pay in two or three years for public works des-
tined to last a hundred years.

Dr. Carroll. Why is it that Porto Rico has no debt?

Mr. Rossy. Because the Government has always collected here
more money than was required to meet the island's expenses. In
June, 1897, there was $1,600,000 in the public treasury of the island,
but it has disappeared. The Spanish Government has made way
with it..

Dr. Carroll. How was the great military road built?

Mr. Rossy. By assigning a certain amount in the budget every
year, during a period of about twenty-two years, for that purpose.
The people got very tired of it because of the excessive and unneces-
sary expenditures of money in its construction. It was a great work,
but the cost was far out of proportion to what it should have been.
Taxation here is not heavy. What affects the poor man chiefly is the
consumption tax, which makes it difficult for him to clothe and feed
himself properly. Besides, as everything has been neglected, he has

245

no hospital to go to when he is sick and has no proper schools in
which his children may receive an education.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any income tax here?

Mr. Rossy. No.

Dr. Carroll. Judge Russell, of the evacuation commission, under-
stood that there was such a tax?

Mr. Rossy. What Judge Russell may have had in mind was what
is called the territorial tax, which is paid by property holders on the
value of the lease of the property. The tax is not based on a man's
capital, but on his income from the property he owns. For instance,
this house might be calculated as producing $1,500 a year; in that
case the owner would pay 5 per cent on that amount, but he would
not have to pay any other tax on the house. This form of tax does
not apply to stocks, bonds, or other forms of property. The tax • is
charged on lands under cultivation, a deduction being made of 30
per cent to cover cost of cultivation and harvesting. This tax results
in injustice in the country districts because it is badly distributed.
The assessors who have the work of apportioning the amount to be
paid by each estate are a political body and favor adherents of their
political party to the prejudice of their opponents, and they generally
assess more in proportion for the small property holders than for the
large ones.

THE CIVIL PENSION LIST.

San Juan, P. R., November 5, 1898.

Mr. Manuel Fernandez Juncos:

Mr. Juncos. I have been in the island about forty years and am
familiar with the general conditions throughout the island as to poli-
tics, customs administration, and almost any other subject about
which you would wish to ask.

Dr. Carroll. I desire a statement from you in regard to politics.
I understand that you are a leader of the Liberal party.

Mr. Juncos. Since the change of government I have abstained from
politics altogether, so that the parties might reform themselves with-
out the pressure of influence of their former heads. Politics to-day
consists more or less of personal feelings which were initiated before
the last election, but I believe that this state of affairs is only transi-
tory and that it can easily be calmed by the good sense of the Gov-
ernor-General, as the feelings of our political men are not really as
violent as they appear to be.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to have you describe the general cus-
toms here. I think that was one of the things you stated you could
give me information about.

Mr. Juncos. The nation, as a whole, suffers for want of education.
Only for about sixteen years has the system of free education been in
existence, and that very imperfectly. In rural districts the working
people are so scattered about that they do not get the benefit of these
institutions. The general character of the Porto Rican is a mild and
hospitable one, his chief fault being lack of will force. This should
be one of the points to be attended to in his education. As far as I
can find out by my own research, the natives are well disposed toward
the new government. From the old government they received such
education as they have and such customs as now prevail, but these
advantages, if they can be called such, came so modified and so

246

wrapped up in restrictions that the affection of the people of this
country for the mother country has been somewhat lukewarm.

I think that the condition of this country can be materially improved
by the following three things : First, the implanting here of American
laws and customs; second, by the wise direction of a stream of white
immigration which would lend force to the inhabitants and better the
economic conditions of the people in the next generation; and, third,
legislation which would enable this country to place itself in close
commercial communication with other parts of the world, which it
ought to be able to do owing to its favorable geographical position,
and thus acquire a large amount of commercial prosperity. The
change of government has materially altered the estimates for this
year. We should dispense with a great number of items which are
not now necessary, but which are found in the last estimates made.
The gain which will result to this country in one year by the change
of government will not be less than $2,000,000 of income and may be
near $3,000,000. In view of this economy it appears to me to be only
just that a corresponding reduction should be made in the heavy
duties and imposts under which the people are suffering I hand you
a statement showing a few items which ought to be cut out from the
estimates. They represented the net savings resulting from the mere
fact of the change of government. The amount in round numbers is
$3,119,937. I have not taken note of the military question, as the
island is still occupied by the military body, but if that were deducted
from the expenditures, the net saving would be materially increased.
I would strongly advise the government to form a new estimate
from January, because if the collection of taxes is carried on as it is
now being done, at the point of the ba3^onet (that is, soldiers are
accompanying the tax collectors through the country), the island will
be left without any money whatever.

Dr. Careoll. I had not heard of that before. When did that
occur?

Mr. Juncos. That is general through the island in the collection of
taxes. Under present conditions the estimates which were compiled
by the Spanish Government are a ridiculous thing to keep in force,
because they include salary items for positions which now do not exist
and for employees who are not now here. Nevertheless these items
are being collected.

Dr. Carroll. I notice that you include in those statements that
you have handed to me an item of nearly $500,000 for public works
as an item which can be omitted. Are not the public works covered
by that item necessary?

Mr. Juncos. These amounts are only in relation to the last esti-
mates. The estimates were made out in July last, and that amount
was assigned to public works.

Dr. Carroll. For what economic year?

Mr. Juncos. The year 1898-99. As the country was at war, and
public works could not be commenced because of the prospect that
they might be destroyed, I think the item should be struck out and
a new estimate put in on a new basis.

Dr. Carroll. These items might apply to buildings or roads or
light-houses or anything of that sort, as I understand it.

Mr. Juncos. It might have referred to any class of public works.
Public works are all right, but it is wrong to leave them in these esti-
mates. Any amount deemed necessary- can be put into the new esti-
mate. I don't mean to say that these amounts are not necessary,

247

but I say that it is only right and just that the amount assessed for
that purpose should be in a new estimate.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think most of these should be struck out?

Mr. Juncos. No; the title under which they were classed there was
not proper.

Dr. Carroll. Have you an exact knowledge of all the pensioners
included in this amount of "$362, 700.

Mr. Juncos. Yes. As in Spain, it was the custom to pay to the
widows of civil employees who had served a certain number of years a
pension in proportion to the salary they received, and to widows of
officers of the army and navy. There were also what are called retir-
ing pensions; that is to say, military or naval officers could retire at
a certain age and receive a pension. I should state that the pension
fund was made the instrument of great abuse. Ministers in power
used to send their relatives and friends here and keep them in active
service for a while, and then these relatives would go back to Spain
and retire on a pension for the rest of their lives. It is clear that in
time a pension list will be established here to pension the relatives of
those who die or to pension those who have been injured in the serviec
of the government, but for the present I consider that the whole
amount can be wiped out.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think that there are any claims these pen-
sioners have which the incoming government would not be free to
disregard? Are there none that might be due to invested funds or
anything of that kind?

Mr. Juncos. The Spanish Government has the obligation of con-
tinuing those pensions which were granted wholly for state reasons;
that is to say, for services given to the state. There are, a few pensions
granted here both by the provincial government and by municipali-
ties, but they will be continued doubtless by the bodies which granted
them. I think the question you raise ought to be settled by the Peace
Commission in Paris.

Dr. Carroll. Will you kindly explain what is meant here by dietas
comisiones, which appear in this list?

Mr. Juncos. It was a gratuity given to employees, which was also
abused from the Governor-General down. It was an amount assigned
to employees above their salaries when they made journeys on govern-
ment business. For instance, when the Captain-General made an
official trip around the island he was given $1,000 for personal
expenses, and the first thing the Captain-General did on arriving in
the island was to make this trip, even though the preceding Captain-
General had just made one.

Dr. Carroll. Is this $150,000 item for subvention to the railroad
company not a permanent obligation of the Government?

Mr. Juncos. No. It was a contract made between the French rail-
road company and the central Government of Spain, although the
amount was called from the insular treasury. I don't see how the new
Government can be made responsible for the contract, and more espe-
cially as I understand that the Constitution of the United States does
not allow of bolstering up by payment of subventions in private under-
takings. This was the amount required to bring the earnings of the
company up to the guaranty of 8 per cent of its capital. The contract
read that the day the company earned 8 per cent from its traffic the
Government should pay nothing.

Dr. Carroll. What are the establecimientos pios put down here at
$7,716?

248

Mr. Juncos. They are gratuities made to schools of education
erected by religious orders, which schools at the same time make a
charge for tuition to pupils. There is not included in this amount
the sum granted by the Deputation fpr the Esculapian Fathers, who
receive a house and a certain amount annually. This amount stated
refers to a college of the kind I have described situated in Ponce.

THE PENSIONERS.

San Juan, P. R., November 4, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask you particularly about the class
of pensioners and what claim these pensioners would have upon the
United States, if any?

Mr. Julian Y. Blanco, secretary of the treasury. Some of the
pensioners are out of the island and there was an order that after
July those residing in Spain should be paid there. I can not give all
the data 'in regard to these pensioners.

Dr. Carroll. I would like very much to have details regarding
them and the basis of their claims.

Mr. Blanco. The pension bureau in Madrid used to decree that
such and such persons were entitled to pensions. Some of these pen-
sions were granted for military service and others for civil service.
There was a great deal of abuse committed with these pensions.

Mr. Andres Crosas. I know a party who was a major in the army.
At his death his widow and daughter were granted a pension. The
widow died and the daughter got married and the whole of the pension
was lost. Afterwards the daughter, who had a large number of chil-
dren, lost her husband, who was a planter, and she by some hocus-
pocus arrangement commenced to receive the pension that her mother
used to receive.

SALARIES AND ABUSES.

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1898.
Mr. Andres Crosas (an American citizen engaged in business for
many years in Porto Rico): The salary of the Captain-General of
Porto Rico was $25,000 a year; he also had a house and servants.
But during the term of their service here, which was generally
three years, they managed to store up about $300,000. There is a
problem for you to figure out — how they managed to do that. In
fact, if the Captain-General happened to be any sort of a good busi-
ness man he cleared out with a great deal more than that. Abuses of
official office, however, were not confined to the Captain-General. I
can give you the name of a civil engineer who remained here about
eighteen months. His salary was something like $4,000 a year. He
lived here in elegant style and was seen at every public place of
amusement. At the expiration of the eighteen months he left here
with $100,000. He did not resign, but asked for a furlough to go to
Spain. It was granted. When the four months were drawing to a
close, he asked for three months more, which were granted. When
the three months were drawing to a close, he asked for a further
extension of two months and got that. All this time he was receiv-
ing his salary, and his substitute, acting here in his jdace, nftd an

249

increase in salary. When the term finally expired, he asked to be
transferred to a position in Spain, and he was transferred accordingly.

Dr. Carroll. Referring to the former government, did the Captain-
General have vacations every year?

Mr. Crosas. No; he generally stayed here until withdrawn.

Dr. Carroll. Did he go to the mountains?

Mr. Crosas. He generally went around the island; but. when he
went, he made it out that he was visiting the island officially and, of
course, put in a bill for it. Generally, such visits brought about
$9,000 extra into his pocket.

Dr. Carroll. The term of office of governors of Territories is four
years. Perhaps Congress would wish some light as to the salary that
should be paid to the governor, who, I presume, will be an American.

Mr. Crosas. Yes; we want an American, a real American; not a
whitewashed American. As to salary, some say about $6,000 a year,
but in my opinion the Government could well afford to give him
$12,000 a year in gold and a house. All the military forces that we
had here, the naval and the arsenal, were paid by the island. Spain
never paid a single cent for those objects, and this island was the
fattening place for the Spaniards. Sometimes they called us a prov-
ince, and sometimes a colony, but we were nothing more than one of
those places on the coast of Africa where they go to make themselves
rich. When the ten years' war started in Cuba, they called on the
treasury here for assistance, and took from it -$1,200,000. I am not
certain of the amount, because at that time I was considered a rebel
and had to get out of the country. Then there was a remittance of
about $600,000, and later a further remittance of about $200,000. This
was a loan which the island made to the Spanish Government to sup-
press the rebellion in Cuba. Well, after having that put away on
the shelf without touching it, they pretended to say that they would
pay that debt by making a steamer touch once a month at the island
and each trip of the steamer would be reckoned at $13,000. These
trans-Atlantic steamers belong to the prominent men of Spain, so it was
a ease of playing into their hands. Thej' were to reserve freight and
passenger spaces from here to Spain, but frequently they did not take
a pound to Spain, though sometimes thej^ did crowd a few passengers
in. Some time ago, according to the lowest estimate, we ought to
have had $600,000 with which to build an aqueduct. At the time of
the annexation of Santo Domingo, the Government took a large
amount of that fund. Seeing that the fund in the treasury was dis-
appearing, it was decided to build a hospital on a large scale, and
every one of the natives voted in favor of it, not because they thought
it would be wise, but so as to convert the money into brick and stone,
which could not be taken away. The hospital was planned on too
large a scale, and consequently for two years there was nothing done
on it. There was always a case of smallpox in the jail, and they
decided to convert the hospital into a jail. As to the penitentiary, the
Spaniards did a wrong thing here on their evacuation fr.om the
island. They took particular pains, as they thought it were an act of
grace, to set free about 400 of the worst criminals — thieves and cut-
throats—and decent fellows who are in there for petty vices are still
locked up. I believe that those who have been liberated in that way
are the fellows who have been robbing; and burning' around the island.

250

INSULAR ACCOUNTS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., February 11, 1899.
Mr. Nicholas Daubon, of San Juan, P. R.

Mr. Daubon. I was formerly interventor, and when General Brooke
came, he named me auditor of revenue in the treasury. On the 31st
of December I learned with surprise that my post was to be abolished.
As I can not understand how any administration can exist without
auditing, I went to General Henry with this document, in which I
asked to be continued in the post, having had forty-one years of serv-
ice, and Dr. Coll, to whom it was referred, sent it back to General
Henry with an indorsement. The fact of this post being abolished
permits Dr. Coll to audit his own affairs, which is against morals.
The secretaries are taking to themselves functions Avhich they have
no right to. They are returning sums which have been left as collat-
eral to secure due performance of some service or contract. They
have no right to do that.

Dr. Carroll. On what plea are they doing it?

Mr. Daubon. The accounts are not examined.

Dr. Carroll. Were the accounts generally kept carefully under
the Spanish regime?

Mr. Daubon. Yes. After the American invasion everything became
paralyzed, because the Americans were in possession of some parts of
the island and the Spaniards of the others. I opposed the return of
the securities, which were deposited in the treasury, because before
returning a bond the accounts connected with that bond have to be
examined. They haven't examined the accounts, but have returned
the bonds and freed the sureties from responsibility.

Dr. Carroll. Can you give me some instances?

Mr. Daubon. Ramon Mendez Cardona, Jose Mendez Arcaya,
Negron Sanjuajo, Luis Sanquirico, and Carlos Penaranda. There
are many more.

Dr. Carroll. What were they bonded for?

Mr. Daubon. These were bonds for the faithful performance of
their duties in the custom-house. According to the treaty of peace,
the American Government bound itself to respect all cases which
were decided in Spain by the court of appeals, which were then in
progress. Spain has abolished every office in connection with the
colonies, Cuba and Porto Rico, except the court of accounts; and if
this court to-morrow were to order that any of these former employees
should pay amounts for any particular object, there would be no bond
under which to hold them responsible.

Dr. Carroll. Did you present to General Henry these facts about
the return of the bonds without the accounts connected with them
being audited?

Mr. Daubon. Yes. The accounts are in Madrid. They are being
examined there, and these men should have been held until the
examination of the accounts is completed and the results known.

Dr. Carroll. Were they released by act of a court, or merely by
act of the secretary?

Mr. Daubon. General Heniy issued an order allowing bonds to be
returned in certain cases where there was no claim against the per-
son, and these secretaries have taken the order in a general sense.

Dr. Carroll. I have been informed that a year or two ago, when
there was a surplus in the treasury, it was transferred to Cuba and

251

used by Spain in the prosecution of the Cuban war. Is there any
truth in that statement?

Mr. Daubon. We expended money by order of Spain, for account
of Cuba, to the extent of $1,000,000, more or less. AVhen the Ameri-
cans surrounded this island and established a blockade, and thus cut
off from Porto Rico its principal source of income, the Spanish Gov-
ernment directed Fernandez Juncos to draw against the Spanish treas-
ury for that amount, and it was done ; but as they went on making
these payments after that date, in small amounts, Spain still owes us
$61,000 for Cuban account. From the last ten years' war Spain owes
us nearly $3,000,000.

Dr. Carroll,. It was used in the prosecution of the Cuban war?

Mr. Daubon. Yes. The money was sent in hard cash to Cuba by
order of Spain. The mistake has been made in trying to differentiate
between American and Spanish sovereignty as regards the treasury
of Porto Rico. This treasury was independent, collected its own
budget, and spent the money it collected, or a portion of it. When it
did not have enough it had to economize.

Dr. Carroll. You sent about $500,000 a year to Madrid to pay for
expenses of administration of the colonial office?

Mr. Daubon. Not so much as that.

Dr. Carroll. It was $488,000 in 1898?

Mr. Daubon. Porto Rico had to pay 16 per cent of the amount in
the national budget for the administration of the colonies. When the
liquidation of the year 1878 was made it was seen that Spain owed
Porto Rico $3,000,000 for account of Cuba. I have documents in my
possession to prove it. The Spanish Government ordered Cuba to
place in its budget every year an amount to go toward this sum. It
did so for one year and then ceased doing so. Cuba owes that to
Porto Rico, and if Cuba is declared independent, it will be a claim
on Cuba.

THE CIVIL GUARD.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Plainfield, N. J., May 26, 1899.

Sehor Lucas Amadeo, of Utuado, Puerto Rico :

Dr. Carroll. I desire a statement in regard to the civil guard, its
police functions, and just what that famous organization was as it
existed in Puerto Rico.

Senor Amadeo. It was essentially a military body, much like the
gendarmerie of France. Its aspect or its form was not entirely that
of a rural police; it was more of a military organization.

Dr. Carroll. How extensive was it?

Senor Amadeo. I think from 800 to 1,000 men; I am not sure about
that. After the civil war in Spain this body was made up especially
to pursue and capture bandits, thieves, etc. , and then the same body
was extended to Porto Rico for the same purpose. General Sans was
the first Spanish general to bring over the civil guard into Porto
Rico, and he brought this body over just about the time of the strongest
political strife in the island, and this general, being somewhat of a
despotic character, employed the forces of the civil guard to subserve
his own political ends and aspirations in the island by compelling the
people to vote the way he wanted them to.

Dr. Carroll. It was a fine body of men, was it not?

Senor Amadeo. When it was first established there by General Sans7

252

he employed in it a great many of the soldiers who were in Porto
Rico already, and thus it was not such a fine body of men as it might
be expected to be : but later, when these men were drafted from Spain,
then the body took on the aspect which it has recently had.

Dr. Carroll. In what way did they become oppressive, if thejr did
become oppressive?

Sehor Amadeo. By direct opposition to any political voice that the
people might want to express at the polls. They would prevent them
from voting by being very exact with their cedulas, their electoral
cards; and political feeling being very strong between the people of
the country and the Spanish party, the civil guard would use their
influence to keep the people awav from the polls, either by threats or
forcibly? .

Dr. Carroll. That was not of their own initiative?

Senor Amadeo. It was during the recent times, when the island was
divided into two distinct bodies — the people of the island and the
Spanish Government, which looked with suspicion upon everything
that was done by the sons of the country and would oppress them in
any measure that they wanted to take, and therefore used the civil
guard as one of their instruments.

Dr. Carroll. Was it most oppressive during the years known as
the "componte?"

Senor Amadeo. Yes; as you suggest, it was during this " componte"
that the greatest tyranny was exercised by this civil guard — of course,
always under orders — because the people of the country, the Porto
Ricans, had established secret societies with the object of separating
themselves, if possible, from the Spanish as much as they could, and
then the civil guard not only attacked them in an indirect way, as you
may say, but directly punished them and inflicted tortures by their
1 ' componte " system.

Dr. Carroll. Was the civil guard superior in influence to the
municipal police?

Senor Amadeo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Did their spheres of influence or power conflict at
all?

Senor Amadeo. The civil guard had the authority and right to
invade any premises or territory in the island in search or pursuit of
bandits or any political offenders that they were running down.

Dr. Carroll. You have referred to brigandage. Did that exist
previous to the late war?

Senor Amadeo. No; not before the war, or was very rare. It may
be said to have become known since the war.

Dr. Carroll. That is pretty well over with now?

Sehor Amadeo. Yes; completely.

THE INSULAR LOTTERY.

The lottery was authorized by royal decree and formed a part of
the estimates of provincial income. The prizes were guaranteed by
the whole of the provincial income. Of the net proceeds of each draw-
ing, one-half was paid into the public treasury. Drawings were held
every twenty days in San Juan. There were 27,000 tickets at $2.50
each, divided in tenths, of 25 cents. Of the total sum, three-fourths
was paid in prizes. These amounts could be altered to suit the pro-
vincial requirements. The drawings were held in public. At all
drawings armed forces were present.

253

INSULAR REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES.

[Compiled from " Presupuesto General de'Gastos e Ingresos" for 1897-98.]
Estimates of receipts of Porto Rico for 1897-98.

FIRST DIVISION— TAXES AND IMPOSTS.

Pesos. Pesos.

Territorial taxes 410,000.00

Less 50 per cent, which is to be handed over to the pro-
vincial deputation 205,000.00

205, 000. 00

120, 000. 00

251,200.00
Total for first division 576,200.00

SECOND DIVISION— CUSTOM-HOUSES.

I. Customs duties:

Duties on imports 2,631,000.00

Duties on exports . 254.000.00

2,885,000.00

II. Special duties:

Charges on loading and unloading of merchandise
and embarkation and disembarkation of pas-
sengers (transferred entire to the provincial depu-
tation) ._ ." 245,000.00

• Warehouses 1,100.00

Fines and confiscations 5, 800. 00

Transitory dues of 10 per cent on custom duties. - . 241, 000. 00

247, 900. 00

Taxes on industry and commerce 240, 000. 00

Less 50 per cent, due provincial deputation 120, 000. 00

Royal dues and dues on transfer of property . 148, 000. 00

Mining imposts 200.00

Cedulas personales (passports) 31, 000.00

Ten per cent tax on railroad passenger and freight traffic. 11, 000. 00

Consumption tax on petroleum . 61 , 000. 00

Total for second division 3,132,900.00

THIRD DIVISION— MONOPOLY REVENUES.

I. Stamped papers:

Bulls . 1,200.00

Stamped papers and instruments of indebtedness 97, 000. 00

Forms for payments to the State 32, 000. 00

Forms for receipts and accounts 7,000.00

Forms for drafts 17,000.00

Forms for insurance policies and bank and company shares 4, 000. 00

Drafts for use by the press 3,000.00

Custom-house stamps and documents 23,000.00

Total for the third division 184,200.00

Postage stamps (transferred entire to the provincial deputation) . . 128, 000. 00

FOURTH DIVISION — PROPERTY OF THE STATE.

I.. Income produced: <

Rent of property 100.00

Rent of waste and unappropriated lands

Building lots 1,000.00

Products of slate mountains _. 100.00

Rent from confiscated clerical property 100. 00

II. Products of sales:

Sale of property prior to law of 1872 2, 000. 00

Sale of property subsequent to law of 1872 5, 000. 00

Sale of waste and unappropriated lands 1 , 000. 00

1,300.00

8, 000. 00

Total for fourth division 9,300.00

254

FIFTH DIVISION — INCIDENTAL REVENUES.

Pesos. Pesos.

I. Various classes ._ . — - 1,500.00

Cessions and restitutions - 1,900.00

Six per cent interest on delayed payments 2, 600. 00

Halt anatos (clerical term for the receipts for

titles and decorations) . . . - . - 100. 00

Undetermined products of prison work 2, 000. 00

Received on accounts unprovided for in estimates 4, 000. 00

12,100.00

II. Closed accounts: *

First division 22,000.00

Second division 100. 00

Third division . 2,000.00

Fourth division 700.00

24,800.00

Total tor fifth division.... 36,900.00

Imposts for raffles and lotteries (to be transferred entire to the pro-
vincial deputation) 145, 000. 00

RECAPITULATION.

Taxes and imposts _■_ 576,200.00

Custom-houses 3,132,900.00

Monopoly revenues 184, 200. 00

Property of the State 9,300.00

Incidental revenues 36, 900. 00

Total , 3,939,500.00

Total estimates of expenses for 1897-98 3, 536, 342. 19

Total estimates of receipts for 1897-98 - 3, 939, 500. 00

Surplus 403,157.81

Estimate of expenses for the island of Porto Rico for 1S97-9S.

FIRST DIVISION— GENERAL OBLIGATIONS.

I. Assignment for expenses of the colonial ministry — per-

sonal: Pesos. Pesos.

Salary of the minister .. 960.00

Secretary's department 21,976.00

Registry and notarial division 1 , 544. 00

Superior committee on the debt 856. 00

Archives of the Indies ^ . , 216. 00

Library and museum, colonial 688. 00

Maintenance of archives and library 1,312.00

27, 552. 00

II. Assignment for expenses of colonial ministry — mate-

rial :

Various expenses 5, 321 . 60

For buildings and repairs 304. 00

.Maintenance of archives and library 6, 664. 00

Library and museum, colonial . 336. 00

Superior committee on the debt . .... 192.00

Custom-house statistics..' _. ... 240.00

Undetermined expenses . 1, 000. 00

14,057.60

III. Auditing of accounts — personal: Employees of the colonial divi-

sion of auditing department 15,664.00

IV. Auditing of accounts— material: Material and various expenses

of the colonial division of the auditing department 1 , 128. 00

V. Incidental expenses:

Traveling expenses of civil and ecclesiastical func-
tionaries 12,000.00

Exchange and losses thereon . 30, 000. 00

Coinage of money ._*...'

42, 000. 00

255

Pesos.

VI. Judicial fees .." 3,400.00

VII. Interest, sinking fund, and negotiation of notes 32, 000. 00

VIII. Pensions: Pesos-
Civil pensions 85.000.00

Military pensions 71,000.00

Favor pensions --- 1,000.00

For retired soldiers and marines, 158, 000. 00

For those who have completed the term of service. 24, 000. 00

Temporarily suspended 9, 000. 00

Emigrants from America . 700.00

348, 700. 00

IX. Bonuses: Bonuses allowed pension classes 14,000.00

Total of first division 498,501.60

SECOND DIVISION — WORSHIP AND JUSTICE.

I. Tribunals — personal:

Superior court of the island, .. 59, 360. 01)

Criminal court at Ponce 23, 625. 00

Criminal court at Mayaguez 23, 625. 00

106, 610. 00

II. Tribunals — material:

Superior court of the island 4,300.00

Criminal courts 2, 100.00

Indemnities 6,900.00

13, 300. 00

III. Judges of the first instance and ecclesiastical justices:

Judges of the first instance 34,010.00

Judges, ecclesiastical 4,200.00

38, 210. 00

IV. Judges of first instance and ecclesiastical justices —

material:

Judges of the first instance 843. 75

Ecclesiastical justices . . -. 135. 00

978. 57

V. Service commissions:

Subsistence and traveling expenses . - - 1 , 000. 00

Notarial expenses . -- 600. 00

Rents of buildings.... 3,720.00

5, 320. 00

VI. Worship and clergy — personal:

Clergy of the cathedral 42,400.00

Parochial clergy 124,940.00

167,340.00

VII. Worship and clergy — material:

Expenses of buildings, bulls, and conciliar seminary 26, 270. 00

VIII. Reformatory and prisons — personal:

Reformatory _ 273. 75

Penal prisons 58,582.30

58, 856. 05

IX. Reformatory and prisons— material 6, 934. 00

Total for the second division 423,818.80

THTRD DIVISION— WAR.

I. Superior administration — personal:

Salary of the Captain-General and gratuities (the

salary is given in the sixth division) 432. 00

Salary and gratuities, lieutenant-governor. _• 8, 288. 00

Staff of the army, and office employees 30, 795. 00

Staff of the army, artillery 12,025.00

Staff of the army, engineers 16,125.00

Staff of the army, military justice 6, 650. 00

Staff of the army, administrative corps . . , 16, 025. 00

Staff of the army, military sanitation 19, 150. 00

256

I. Superior administration — personal — Continued. Pesos. Pesos.

Military clergy 180.00

Gratuities 4,528.00

114, 198. 00
Less for vacancies and on leave 6, 853. 67

107, 344. 33

II. Superior administration — material:

Staff of the army 900.00

Government and military commands 1, 250. 00

War audits 100.00

The army staff 700.00

Military sanitation 200.00

Subordinate administration 122. 50

3, 272. 50

III. Permanent army corps — personal:

Infantry 689,211.14

Cavalry .... 4,049.79

Artillery 149,521.51

Sanitary brisrade 4, 542. 52

Colonial fund 16,195.10

Preparatory military academy 600. 00

Invalids : 371.44

Gratuities 9, 246. 00

873, 737. 50

Less vacancies and on leave 12,769.32

- 860, 968. 18

IV. Volunteers: Fifes and cornet bands 4, 565. 76

V. Active commissions, reserves, and substitutes:

Commissions in active service. 57, 036. 60

Chiefs and officers waiting to embark 9, 000. 00

Reserved for San Domingo pensioners 324. 00

Disciplinary militia about to be mustered out .8, 740. 00

Chiefs and officials acting as substitutes and super-

, numary 23,700.00

98, 800. 60

Less vacancies and on leave. 5, 200. 00

93, 600. 60

VI. Clergy and hospital service _ 4,756.00

VII. Various materials:

Utensils and lighting 724.00

Hospital supplies 63,491.75

Military transportation 60,590.00

Artillery supplies 9,000.00

Engineers' supplies 10,000.00

Rents and cleaning buildings , 5,151.00

Water... 400.00

149, 356. 75

VIII. Various expenses 3, 500.00

IX. Pensions accompanying medals 4,000.00

X. Colonial war fund for the disabled and orphans. ... 9, 600. 00

XL Disciplinary brigade of Cuba 11,413.64

Total of the Third Division 1,252,377.76

FOURTH DIVISION— THE TREASURY.

I. Administration — Personal:

Director-General of the Treasury 12. 250. 00

Auditing-General of the state administration 20.000.00

Central treasury 6, 800. 00

Clerks and employees 16,160.00

55, 210. 00

II. Administration— Material 3, 700. 00

257

III. General objects: Pesos. Pesos,

Rents of offices... 3,110.00

Transfer of funds 2,000.00

Printing.. 4,750.00

Valuing real estate 12.000.00

21,860.00

IV. Incidental expenses: Service commissions 2,900.00

V. Expenses of collecting taxes and incomes — personal:

Central administration of taxes and incomes 26, 375. 00

Local administration of custom-houses and col-

lectorships ._ 760.40

Custom-house coastguards .. 657. T"

168, 195. 00

VI. Expenses of collecting taxes and incomes— material:

Central administration of taxes and incomes 1, 000. 00

Local administration of custom-houses and col-

lectorships 3,035.00

Custom-house coast guard 900. 00

— 4,935.00

VIII. Various expenses: Transportation of printed forms 4. 000. 00

Total for the fourth division 260,800.00

FIFTH DIVISION — NAVY.

I. Land service— personal:

General service 52, 209. 00

Special service -- — 15,516.00

General expenses - 2, 150. 00

II. Vessel service— personal:

Ship assigned to the station 37, 437. 20

Hydrographic service 10, 848. 00

Service of the commanding general and captain of

the port 3,612.00

General expenses 1,200.00

69, 875. 00

53, 097. 20

5, 195. 00

III. Land service — material:

General office expenses . 3, 380. 00

Semaphores and special service ., 1,815.00

IV. Vessel service— material:

Repairs and renewals . 10,681.00

Rations 12,975.00

Coal. 2,645.00

Clothing.... ..... .- 300.00

Medicines and hospital supplies 600. 00

27, 201. 00

V. General expenses - . 3, 300. 00

Additional improvement of the national navy . 64, 000. 00

Total for the fifth division 222,668.20

SIXTH DIVISION— GOVEENMENT AND INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.

. General government — personal:

General government, secretarial and technical inspection

departments. 85,940.00

II. General government — material:

Service commissions 1,000.00

General government 2,000. 00

Cablegrams... 22,870.00

Expenses of the palace and house of acclimatization. 3,096.00

Commission on statistics 300.00

Unforseen expenses 3,500.00

Technical inspections 3, 000. 00

III. Council of administration and local tribunal of offi-
cial litigation — personal:

Council of administration _ 20, 000. 00

Tribunal of litigation 5,500.00

1125 17

35, 766. 00

25, 500. 00

258

IV. Council of administration and local tribunal of offi-

cial litigation — material: Pesos. Pesos.

Council of" administration ... 2, 000. 00

Tribunal of litigation .., 500.00

2, 500. 00

V. Division of local administration — personal: Attention to this duty. 23, 750. 00

VI. Division of local administration — material: Expenses for mate-

rials and rent 2, 500. 00

VII. Delegations of the general government — personal: Regional

delegations 22,200.00

VIII. Delegations of the general government — material: Regional

delegations .... 4,000.00

IX. Civil guard— personal : Body of civil guard 310, 075. 29

X. Civil guard — material: Materials for the guard 41, 557. 88

XI. Public order — personal: Corps of vigilance and security. . . 86, 480. 56

XII. Public order — material: Corps of vigilance and security . 5,812.10

XIII. Postal, telegraphic, and telephonic service — personal: Tele-

graph stations 28,840.00

XIV. Postal, telegraphic, and telephonic service — mate-

rial:

Telegraph stations 7,700.00

Ocean transportation 79,406.00

International Postal Union 200.00

87, 306. 00

XV. Navigation— personal: Light-houses _. 20,625.00

XVI. Navigation — material:

Ports 34,650.00

Light-house examinations . 3, 000. 00

New works, preservation and repairs of light-
houses... 37,000.00

Purchases, rents, and gratuities... 9.913.00

84, 563. 00

XVII. Civil construction — material: New works, preservation, and

repairs 10,000.00

XVIII. Board of control of waste lands:

Personal 360. 00

Material 100.00

460. 00

XIX. Examinations for professorships: Expenses of examination ... 300.00

Total for the sixth division 878,175.83

RECAPITULATION.

First division— General obligations. 498,501.60

Second division — Worship and justice 423, 818. 80

Third division— "War 1,252,377.76

Fourth division— Treasury 260,800.00

Fifth division— Navy 222, 668. 20

Sixth division— General government and interior 878, 175. 83

Total 3,536,342.19

Comparative statement of expenditures for the years 1897-98 and 1896-97.

1897-98.

1896-97.

Net
decrease.

General obligations

Worship and justice

War.... _

Treasury

Navy

General government and department of interior

Total expenses

$498,501.60
423,818.80

1,252,377.76
260,800.00
222,668.20
878,175.83 i

S499.236.16
435,68s. 22

1,271,119.36
281, 772. 87
193,668.20

1,766,642.70

3,536,342.19

,127.71

$734.86
11,869.42
18, 741. 50
20,972.87
29,000.00
888,466.87

911,785.52

259

Comparative statement of receipts for the years 1897-98 and 1896-97.

1897-98.

1896-97.

Decrease.

Taxes and imposts . - -

Custom-houses

Monopoly revenues ..
Property of the State
Incidental revenues..

Total receipts . .

$576,200

3,132,900

184,200

9,300

36,900

3,939,500

$850, 000

3,300,000

300,000

10,000

250,000

4,710,000

$273,800
167,100
115,800
700
213,100

770,500

Budget of the deputation provincial.

[Compiled from "Presupuesto General de Gastos e Ingresos" for 1897-98.]

ESTIMATE OP EXPENSES FOR 1897-98.

FIRST DIVISION — PROVINCIAL DEPUTATION.

Administration provincial: Pesos.

Personal 64,700.00

Material. 7,160.00

Lottery:

Personal 11,650.00

Material 11,530.00

Beneficencia:

Personal _... ..'.." 16,391.00

Material 33,725.00

Public correction 25,000.00

Various expenses 9,175.00

Debt ;_. 35,800.00

Closed accounts 6, 130. 48

Total for first division 221,261.48

SECOND DIVISION— GOVERNMENT.

Postal and telegraphic service:

Personal ."... 90,590.00

Material 80,916.00

Sanitation:

Personal 10,780.00

Material 1,516.00

Vaccine station 2,400.00

Medicinal baths 1,000.00

Hospitals and asylums . 23,052.00

Total for second division 210,254.00

THIRD DIVISION — INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.

Public instruction:

Personal ■_ 82,295.00

Material 37,900.00

Public works:

Personal 72,290.00

Material 589,789.52

Colonization 3,910.00

Total for third division 786,184.52

RECAPITULATION.

First division— provincial deputation 221,261.48

Second division— government 210,254.00

Third division— interior department 786, 184. 52

Total 1,217,700.00

260

Estimates of receipts for 1897-98.

Pesos. Pesos.

50 per cent of the territorial taxes 205. 000

50 per cent of the tax on industry and commerce . . . . . 120, 000

Apportionment to the municipalities . 150, 000

475,000

Sale of postage stamps . .. 128,000

Tariff charges on loading and unloading merchandise and passen-
gers . 245.000

Proceeds of the lottery ;■_ 309, TOO

Income from the institute and normal schools . . 5, 000

Income from orphan asylum and school of art 5, 000

10,000

Closed accounts 50, 000

Total., 1,217,700

Summary of the hvo budgets.

RECEIPTS FOR 1897-98.
General budget :

Taxes and imposts .. . §576,200

Custom-houses • 3,132,900

Monopoly revenues ... ..... 184,200

Property of the state 9,300

Incidental revenues 36, 900

§3, 939, 500

Budget of provincial deputation:

Territorial and industrial taxes 325, 000 .

From municipalities •_ 150, 000

Tariff charges on loading, unloading, etc 245, 000

Postage stamps. . 128,000

Proceeds of lottery 309,700

Other sources 60, 000

1,217,700

Total 5,157,200

EXPENSES FOR 1897-98.
General budget:

General obligations $498, 501 . 60

"Worship and justice 423,818.80

War 1,252,377.76

Treasury 260,800.00

Navy 222,668.20

General government and in terior 878, 175 . 83

$3, 536, 342. 19

Budget of provincial deputation:

Administration, provincial. 71, 860. 00

Lottery 23, 180. 00

Beneficencia _- 50, 116. 00

Various items . 76,105.48

$221 , 261 . 48

Postal and telegraph service 1 71 , 506 . 00

Sanitation, etc 38,748.00

210,254.00

Public instruction 120, 195. 00

Public works 662, 079. 52

Colonization 3,910.00

786,184.52

1,217,700.00

Total of two budgets 4,754,042.19

261

ANALYSIS OF THE BUDGET OF PORTO RICO.

[By Senor Julian E. Blanco, Secretary of the Treasury: presented to the United States com-
missioner November 8, 1898.]

The last budget, approved in Madrid the 25th of June, 1897, divides expenses as

follows:

Pesos.

Section 1. — General obligations: Salaries and materials of the colonial
ministry, of the court of accounts in Madrid, of pensions, and other
payments in Spain ... . 498, 501.60

Section 2. — Worship and justice: Tribunals of the island, penal estab-
lishments, worship, and clergy 423, 818. 80

Section 3. — War: Salaries and material of the army, military sanita-
tion and administration, transport, pensioned orders and decora-
tions, etc '. 1,252,377.76

Section 4. — Treasury: Salaries and material of all the offices thereof,
expenses of collection, etc 260, 800. 00

Section 5. — Navy: Salaries and material of this department in the

island 222,668.20

Section 6. — Government and interior: Salaries and material of the
government general of the island; auxiliary centers and employees;
civil guard and civil police; posts and telegraphs; light-houses, ports,
public works; education 878, 175. 83

Total... 3,536,342.29

These expenses must be met by the following income:

Section 1. — Territorial tax: Direct tax of 5 per cent on the net incomes
on No. 1 :

1. Real estate and cattle 410,000.00

2. Industry and commerce 240, 000. 00

3. Royal dues on transfer of property 148, 000. 00

4. Mining dues 200.00

5. Internal passports . 31,000.00

6. 10 per cent on passenger tickets, transport of merchandise by

rail and coasting steamers 11, 000. 00

7. Consumption tax on petroleum 61,000.00

Section 2. — Custom-house:

Imports 2,631,000.00

Exports 254,000.00

901,200.00

Special dues:

1. Loading and unloading merchan-

dise, embarking and disembarking

passengers . 245, 000. 00

2. Mercantile deposit (warehouse) ... 1,100.00

3. Fines and confiscations . 5,800.00

4. Transitory dues of 10 per cent on

import duties 241, 000. 00

2, 885, 000. 00

492, 900. 00

3,377,900.00

Section 3. — State (monopoly) income: Stamped paper, instruments

of all classes.... 312,200.00

Section 4. — State property: Sale and rental of waste lands and gov-
ernment property, commutation of censos (clerical mortgages) .-.-. 9, 300. 00
Section 5. — Eventual income:

Lottery tax and raffles ,. 145, 000. 00

Balances of accounts, interest for delay in pay-
ments, amounts paid after closing last budget. . . 36, 900. 00

181,900.00

4, 782, 500. 00

262

The State granted the following items to the provincial deputation
to enable it to cover its expenses:

Pesos. Pesos.

50 per cent of the territorial tax 205,000.00

Loading and unloading tax 245, 000. 00

50 per cent of the industrial tax 120. 000. 00

Posts and telegraphs 128, 000. 00

Lottery 145, 000. 00

843, 000. 00

Leaving the state income at. . . - 3, 939, 500. 00

Expenses... _ 3,536,342.29

Surplus „ 403,157.71

The autonomous constitution of this island being promulgated on
the 11th of February, 1898, in which the insular government was
authorized to form its own budget for local purposes, excluding gen-
eral obligations, war and navy, understanding that it should vote the
amount which the Spanish Cortes might agree to as expenses of sov-
ereignty, the government drew up the budget for 1898-99 in June of
last year with the modifications which the new regimen (autonomous)
required, taking over the amounts which had been assigned to the
provincial deputation which had been formerly ceded to that cor-
poration.

Owing to current events, the national Cortes had not yet voted their
budget, neither had they fixed the amount which this island should
pay for expenses of sovereignty, so the insular government left stand-
ing the same amounts as had figured in the last budget.

In the new budget, therefore, appeared, in section 1, expenses:

Pesos.

General obligations, as before 498,501.60

Section 2 (worship and justice) was increased to 454, 773. 80

Section 3 (war) as before 1,252,377.76

Section 4 (treasury) was reduced to _ 225, 825. 00

Section 5 (navy) as before .. 222,668.20

Section 6 was divided in two:

Government, increased to _ . 906, 070. 83

Fomento, amounting to 886, 735. 12

Expenses amounting to . . 4, 446, 952. 31

To cover which the items of income were 4,782,500.00

Leaving as before, a surplus of 335,547.69

The outbreak of the war prevented the collection of the larger part
of these items, and the insular government, to make up the deficiency,
established the following transitory taxes:

Pesos.

Export tax on cattle . 14,000

Import tax on tobacco from Cuba 1 2, 000

War tax on letters and telegrams 37, 000

Discount from salaries and pensions 71, 724

Discount from provincial and municipal employees. 25, 000

Total.. 120,724

The United States Government took possession of the island by
virtue of the protocol, and the insular government continues admin-
istering as a council of secretaries on its behalf . Therefore the income
can be considered reduced as follows:

Customs collected direct by the United States Government without
intervention of the Secretary of the Treasury §3. 377, 900

Personal passport (cedulas) farmed out by the Spanish Government
before leaving 31,000

263

Tax on passengers and petroleum, suspended by the war $72, 000

Stamped paper, etc. , abolished by General Orders, No. 4. _ 312, 200

Lottery 145,000

Total reduction 3,938,100

Former income. . .* ' 4,782,500

Leaving the Secretary of the Treasury 844, 400

No notice is taken of transitory dues, such as surcharge on letters
and telegrams, as those that are not suppressed will soon be so. In
detail the Treasury will now collect :

Pesos.

1. Territorial tax on lands and cattle 410,000

2. Industrial and commercial tax . 240, 000

3. Royal dues on transfer of property (since annulled) 148, 000

4. Mining dues, waste lands, etc ... - - 9,500

5. Eventual taxes 36,900

Total 844,400

With which to pay the following expenses of civil administration :

Section 2. — Worship and justice. . $454, 773. 80

Less clergy . 193,610.00

Section 4.— Treasury 225,825.00

Less salaries and material paid by the United States 146, 070. 00

$261,163.80
79, 755. 00

89,742.90

Fomento. including 766,928 for public works, roads, railroads and
light-houses 886,735.12

Section 6.— Government 906,070.83

Less governor-general ... 76,471.00

Tribunal of contention 6,000.00

Post-offices 291,832.00

Civil guard 351,633.17

Civil police 92,292.66 818,228.83

Total expenses 1,315,495.92

Income.... 844,400.00

Deficit 471,095.92

Which will have to be taken from the amount for public works 766, 928. 00

Reducing that amount to 295, 833. 08

The budget for civil administration expenses is to-day as follows:

Pesos.

Worship and justice (without clergy) _. 261, 163. 80

Treasury (without customs or coast guard) 79, 755. 00

Government, reduced to 87, 842. 00

Fomento, including only 295,833.08 for public works. 415, 639. 20

Equal to income 844, 400. 00

As will be seen, the United States Government to-day takes posses-
sion of the easiest collected tax, that of the custom-house, amounting
to 3,377,900 pesos, from which deducting the expenses for manage-
ment thereof, or say, 146,070 pesos, there remains, net, 3,231,830 pesos,
which covers with excess all the expenses of sovereignty paid up to
the present, including war, navy, and colonial ministry, and pensions,
1,975,547.56 pesos, leaving a balance for no purpose of 1,256,282.44
pesos, with which there is sufficient to pay all the expenses of our
present local budget without necessity for any other taxation, or, say,
844,400 pesos, and still leave a surplus of 411,882.44 pesos.

Against this surplus without application the recourse left to the

264

civil administration to meet the expenses of 844,400 pesos is either
very problematical, as, for instance, the 36,900 pesos interest on over-
due taxes, etc., and 9,800 pesos rent of State lands, or else is difficult
of collection in the present unsettled state of affairs, as is also the
410,000 pesos tax on income from property (agricultural) and the 240,000
pesos tax on commerce and industry and the professions.

These facts should be considered in making the budget for next
year, but without prejudice to the immediate granting to the civil
government such sums as it may need to cover its expenses.

To cover the expense of the department of justice it need's at least
261,163.80 pesos, and for urban and suburban police, at least (if order
and tranquillity are to be restored by these bodies in place of the
civil guard and the civil police, which formerly cost 440,000 pesos)
200,000 pesos; to give impulse to the work on roads and public works,
to-day paralyzed, another 200,000 pesos; a total of 661,163.80 pesos,
which, with the surplus from custom-house receipts, 1,256,282.44 pesos,
would still leave a surplus of 595,118.64 pesos.

(1) The sum of 120,724 pesos, quoted as representing the transi-
tory dues, is wrong, owing to a mistake of the Official Gazette, and
should be 150,724 pesos. This, however, is immaterial, as the amount
will shortly be suppressed and will disappear in toto.

(2) The tax of 240,000 pesos on industry and commerce has been
reduced by superior order, and I have solicited the revocation of the
order. This tax is completely separate and apart from any tax col-
lected through the customs, and forms one of the few recourses left
to the civil administration for its needs, which it will be unable to
cover if the sources of income be further suppressed or diminished.

(3) The division of the collection and administration of taxes — the
custom-house by the military and the others by the civil authorities or
secretary of the treasury — causes a number of conflicts and much con-
fusion, and, should be altered if a smooth and orderly working is
required. Either the office of the secretary of the treasury should dis-
appear or be converted into a mere paying branch of civil accounts,
all collections being made b}^ the military; or else the treasury should,
as before, take charge of all collections, including customs, and all
payments for military expenses should be drawn against by the mili-
tary chiefs, under authority of their paymasters. In this way the
safes of the treasury, to-day empty, would become the central deposi-
tory, and due inspection and vigilance of all income and expenses
could be exercised, replacing what to-day amounts in this direction
to a state of financial anarchy.

Porto Rico, November 8, 1898.

THE CODES AND COURTS.

SYNOPSIS OF THE SPANISH CODES.

By Seiior Herminio Diaz, Secretary of Justice.

THE CIVIL CODE.

The civil code in force has been drawn up by the Spanish legislative
chambers on the following bases:

(1) It takes as its capital inspiration the sense and intention of the
civil institutions of historic law of that nation, regulating, explaining,
and harmonizing the legal precepts which were in force in Spain before

265

its promulgation and adopting the rulings which doubtful points of
the same had given rise to in practice.

(2) The operation of the laws and statutes, as well as the nationality,
naturalization, recognition, and conditions of judicial entities, are
therein adjusted to the constitutional and legal precepts in force in
Spain.

(3) It establishes two forms only of marriage — the canonical and the
civil — granting to the former the same legal consequences as to the
latter and decreeing both indissoluble.

(I) The juridical relations consequent on marriage as affecting the
persons and property of the married parties and their descendants,
paternity, and affiliation, the successive parental rights of the father
and mother over minor children, civil effects of the union of the parties,
and, in fine, everything relating to family law is handled in conformity
with previous Spanish legislation, notoriously influenced in those mat-
ters by the doctrines and precepts of the Roman Catholic Apostolic
religion.

(5) It does not allow the investigation of paternity, except in cases
of crime or the existence in writing of the undoubted wish of the
father to recognize his offspring, deliberately written with this view,
or when a question of the possession of property arises. It allows the
investigation of maternity and authorizes the legitimization of off-
spring by subsequent marriage or royal decree, this latter being per-
mitted onty when the first is impossible, and allows prejudiced third
persons to impugn both recognition and legitimization when not
effected within the conditions of the law. It also authorizes adoption
by contract and judicial authority, fixing the requirements of age and
consent, and also prohibitions preventing the inconvenience which the
abuse of this right might introduce into the organization of the family
proper.

(6) Characterizes and defines cases of absence and presumed death,
establishing guaranties for the assurance of the rights of the absent
and his heirs, which, while allowing those concerned who have an
interest in the estate, either by testament or legitimate succession, to
enjoy their rights of inheritance, in no case authorizes the surviving
spouse to remarry.

(7) Allows the law, testament (will), or fauiilj- council to name the
guardians of minor children, elemented persons, legally declared
prodigals, and persons laboring under civil disability.

(8) Fixes the legal age at 23 for civil effects, and establishes the
emancipation from minority by the marriage of minors, or voluntary
emancipation by permission of living persons, when the minor has
attained 18 years of age.

(9) Creates a registry for acts affecting the civil conditions of per-
sons, in which should be inscribed births, marriages, recognition of
natural offspring, legitimization of same, deaths, and naturalization;
it directs that these operations be accredited by such inscriptions
only, except when they have taken place before the creation of the
registry or when the registry has disappeared.

(10) Maintains the principle of ownership, the division of property
(laws affecting), the principle of accession and of coownership on the
lines of fundamental articles of historic law, and respects the spirit
of the laws of water rights, of scientific productions, of literary and
artistic authorship, and of mines, as ruling on its promulgation.

(II) Defines possession in its two phases — absolute, or emanating,
from and coexisting with right of use; limited, and springing from a

266

holding which can be proved to be separate and independent from the
right of use. Upholds the results of this distinction both in the form
and manner of acquiring property, establishing the particular results
as affecting hereditary property; the personal unit of the person hold-
ing property, excepting in case of indivisibility of property, and deter-
mining the effects of such ruling by the public authorities, the pre-
sumption being in the holder's favor; enjoyment of benefits accruing
therefrom according to the nature thereof, the crediting of expenses
and improvements, and the conditions attending the loss of possessory
rights according to the class of property.

(12) Defines usufruct, use, and habitation, and regulates the limits
of the right of use and forms of division, firstly, by title and, secondly,
by law. States the rights of the person enjoying usufruct respecting
the things enjoyed according to kind and situation thereof at the time
of the beginning and termination of the period of usufruct. Fixes the
principles on which to decide doubtful questions in practice regarding
the usufruct and use of mines, forests, plantings, cattle, improvements,
obligations as to inventories and bond, registration, payment of taxes,
defense of rights of enjoyers of usufruct and of owners, both in the
courts and outside, and the proper and legitimate procedure in order
to cancel such rights, all in obedience to the principle and practice of
Spanish law.

(13) Classifies and divides " servidumbre " (servitude as applied to
property) into continuous and discontinuous, positive and negative,
apparent and nonapparent, according to its condition of exercise and
use; legal and voluntary, according to the origin of its cause. It
respects the doctrines of historic Spanish law regarding the means of
acquiring servitude, rights and obligations of the owners of estates
affected actively or passively thereby, and procedure for canceling
such rights and obligations. In special chapters defines the principal
servitudes fixed by law respecting water rights and urban and suburban
property.

(14) institutes occupation as one of the modes of acquiring property,
regulates rights over domestic animals, treasure trove, and appropria-
tion of abandoned personal estate, and leaves in force as a complement
of these dispositions former laws of chase and fisheries.

(15) Preserves the essence of former Spanish legislation as regards
wills in general, their forms and solemnities, their different classes,
such as open, closed, military, maritime, and those subscribed to in
foreign lands, and also everything relative to the capability of dispos-
ing of and acquiring by will, the institution of entail, of disinherit-
ance, bequests and legacies, conditional or terminal institution, exec-
utors and revocation, or inefficiency of the terms of wills; organizing
and classifying such laws as formerly existed and complementing them
by the addition of what was thought necessary to insure the facility
and legality of testamentary expression.

(16) It does not allow fiduciary substitution to pass the second gen-
eration, not even in direct line, except such substitution be made in
favor of persons living at the time of death of testator. It divides the
estate of deceased into three parts: (1) "Which is the legitimate inher-
itance of the children, divisible among them in equal parts; (2) which
he can divide as he wishes among them, and (3) which he can dispose
of by will as he pleases. The half of the obligatory heritage, adjudi-
cated according to proximity of parentage, without prejudice to excep-
tions, constitutes, in default of legitimate descendants, the heritage
of the ascendants, who can choose between taking it or having the

267

estate pay their sustenance. It gives to recognized natural offspring
a share in the heritage, and if they have been legitimatized, they are
entitled to one-half of what their shares as legitimate children would
have been. This amount can be increased when only ascendants exist
to inherit.

(17) Establishes for the widow an usufruct of the deceased husband,
limited to an amount equal to what a legitimate child, if any, could
have inherited, and determines the cases when usufruct shall cease.

(18) Invites to take a share in intestate estates. The ascendant
relatives, legitimate descendants, natural offspring, brothers, sisters,
and children of these, the widow or widower. This succession does
not pass the sixth degree in the collateral line. When, in default of
relatives, the state inherits, the estate passes to benevolent, or educa-
tional institutions in the town where the deceased lived or, if there
are none, to those of the province. As regards reservations, right of
increase, acceptance or repudiation of inheritance, benefit of inventory,
collation and partition, and payment of hereditary debts, it expounds
juridical doctrines of great exactness.

(19) Takes cognizance of simple obligations (contracts) and explains
their nature and effect. Retains the historic idea of "mancomuni-
dad," joint action, and, with general principles, solves the questions
arising from the relations between creditor and debtor, and those
arising from the subject of a contract being a thing divisible or a
thing indivisible. It defines the elements of legal entail as affecting
different kinds of contracts, alternative, conditional, with terms and
with a penal clause. Simplifies the procedure for annulling contracts
by separating into two groups, one of which is subjected to the doc-
trines generally accepted as affecting the terms of the contract and
the other of contracts of an essentially different element. Establishes
general principles for the proof of contracts, and fixes a maximum
above which all contracts of gift or restitution, of constitution, of
rights, of renting, of property, or of personal service shall be made in
writing, in order to be valid before a court in suits of execution or
complement.

(20) Considers contracts as mere titles of acquisition when they have
for an object the transfer of ownership of some similar object. Sub-
mits contracts to the principle that the mere coincidence of purpose
between those contracting establishes the legal link between them,
even in cases requiring determinate processes for the transfer of
property and the drawing up of deeds. Establishes conditions neces-
sary for consent, both as regards capability and legal power there-
for, and accepts the sacred modern principles of the nature and
object of contracts, their cause, form, and interpretation, and the
causes of their annulment or rescindment.

(21) Accepts the existence of quasi contracts and determines the
responsibilities that may accrue from the voluntary acts given effect
to thereby, in conformity with the principles of justice as understood by
the doctrine of historic law unanimously accepted by modern codes.
Recites the effects of culpability and negligence when not constitut-
ing a crime or misdemeanor. Obligations arising from misdemeanors
or crimes are left to be treated under the penal code, both in cases
when the accused incurs civil responsibility and when this responsi-
bility is incurred by the person under whose custody or authority
the accused may have been.

(22) Allows liberty of contract in antenuptial agreements, and

268

takes for granted that when no antenuptial contract is made the
parties have wished to establish a legal partnership of earnings.

(23) Antenuptial contracts can be entered into by minors who
possess the legal conditions for marriage. These contracts must be
subscribed to by the persons who give consent to the marriage.

(24) Gifts of parents to children are considered as advances of her-
itage.- Expresses the rules governing gifts between husband and wife
during the period of their matrimonial life.

(25) States that the marriage portion and inheritance property can
be made the subject of antenuptial contract, but that when the mar-
riage portion is not specialty mentioned it shall be considered as not
included. The husband has the management of the marriage portion,
and gives a deed of mortgage, so as to insure the rights of the wife,
rules being established for the sale or decrease of such portion, for
the usufruct thereof, and for the charges that it incurs, which admit
the principles of the laws of mortgage in everything organic and leg-
islative in the matter, leaving the woman freedom during her married
life to undertake the defense of her property against the prodigality
of her husband.

(26) It explains the forms, requisites, and conditions of all con-
tracts and their effects, keeping within the lines of historic legislation.
Defines and fixes the nature and effects of donation, stating who may
give and receive, the limitations, revocations, and reductions, the
formalities to be gone through, the relative duties of giver and
receiver, and everything tending to prevent prejudicing the offspring
of the giver thereby, or of his legitimate creditors, or the rights of
third persons.

(27) In its final disposition abolishes all legal bodies ruling before
its publication. Does not concede retroactive effects if such preju-
dice acquired rights, and establishes the organic basis as an addition,
allowing every ten years sach reforms as the practice and progress in
the science of law in other countries may make advisable.

LAW OF CIVIL PROCEDURE.

This law determines the form of procedure of the diverse civil
matters which can be tried before our courts.
Its bases are the following:

(1) Steps or petitions (suits) instituted before the courts of first
instance, trial, and appeal can not be taken personally by the parties
interested except in determinate cases mentioned by the law. Except
in those cases, power of attorney must be given to a functionary, styled
procurator (procurador), who, in the name of his client and under the
direction of a lawyer (abogado), takes the steps in the matter.

These procurators collect fees according to a tariff which will be
stated later. Lawyers are subject to no tariff. They may charge
whatever they think their work is worth, but the client has the right
of challenging the account before the court in which the suit has been
tried, if he thinks it excessive. The court obtains the opinion of the
board of directors of the college of lawyers thereon, and decides.

(2) Procurators, lawyers, clerks of courts, and judges' secretaries
must defend gratuitously those persons who have proved their poverty
to the court.

(3) Establishes rules determining before which judge or court of
first instance a suit should be heard, taking as the primary basis that
such one as the litigants have voluntarily selected shall alwa}Ts be

269

considered competent therefor. If any judge of court is conducting
a case not within his jurisdiction the parties interested may request
the judge within whose jurisdiction it falls to demand the turning of
the suit over to him.

(4) In one suit distinct claims not incompatible among themselves
can be embodied if all the claims come within the power of the judge
to pass upon and if they can all be settled by a suit of one character.

(5) Any litigant can' recuse any judge or tribunal sitting on his
case if such be a relative of the other litigant up to the fourth degree
either of consanguinity or affinity, or the iawyer defending the other
litigant if a relative in the second degree; also if any of them have
previously been denounced by the litigant as principal, accomplice,
or accessory of a crime; or in general, if any fact tends to affect their
impartiality, or inclines them to favor either of the litigants. On the
recusation being made and justified the judge must pass the case to
the substitute provided for by the law. If he do not, and the litigant
prove the motive of his recusation, the judge is severely punished and
can even be criminally proceeded against.

(6) Determines the form in which all judicial resolutions and judicial
formalities must be drawn, the method by which the cooperation of
other judges must be sought in cases where any steps have to be
taken outside of the territory of the judge acting, and the period
within which resolutions must be written.

(7) If the litigant thinks that the judge has infringed the law by
issuing any order or resolution in connection with a suit in process
before him, and before final decision be given thereon, he can ask to
have it quashed, and, on the judge refusing, can appeal to the superior
court.

(8) The superior tribunals, when the inferior ones fail in their
duties, and judges of courts, when lawyers or procurators are disre-
spectful in the conduct of the cases, can apply any of the following
correctives: 1, admonitiou; 2, warning; 3, suspension from practice
or employment for not more than six months.

(9) Before any suit can be instituted the plaintiff can exact what is
called a "conciliatory meeting," to be held before the municipal
judge, to endeavor to arrive at an amicable arrangement. If not suc-
cessful, then the plaintiff can formulate his suit before the judge com-
petent to sit on it.

(10) All questions not turning on any of the matters which will be
detailed later must be ventilated and decided by one of the following
forms of suits: "Declarative suit of major degree," "declarative suit
of minor degree," "verbal suit."

(11) Questions to be decided by major declarative suits are: Those
exceeding 1,500 pesos value in litigation; those in which the matter
in litigation can not be valued; cases concerning political rights or
questions of honor; cases of personal exemption of privileges, affilia-
tion, paternity, interdiction, and other cases turning on the civil
status and conditions of the person. Cases to be decided by minor
declarative suits are those in which the subject of litigation is of
greater value than 200 pesos but does not exceed 1,500. Verbal suits
are those where the subject of litigation has a value not exceeding
200 pesos.

(12) The procedure of the major declarative suit is as follows: The
claim is presented in writing, accompanied by the documents on which
the plaintiff founds his case and by a literal copy of the whole as
duplicate. The judge then orders the defendant to give written

270

notice of his participation in the suit, which must be done within nine
days, counting from the day following the judge's notice to the plaintiff
that he has so advised.

If the defendant does not comply, the case is proceeded with and the
defendant declared in default, in which case, on the request of the
plaintiff, the defendant's property can be attached while awaiting the
result of the trial.

Should the defendant, however, have complied within nine days,
the judge orders him to put in a pleader within twenty days, in writ-
ing, which pleader is handed to the plaintiff for written reply within
ten days. This reply is handed to the defendant for him to adduce in
writing new arguments if he thinks proper.

After this, if either or both litigants have so requested, the case is
opened for proofs. If the issue is a point of law and proofs are
unnecessary, the parties can ask for judgment, and verdict must be
given without further steps.

If proofs are to be submitted, the judge orders that within twenty
days the litigants shall submit those on which they propose to justify
their allegations.

Any of the following proofs are permissible: (1) Sworn examina-
tion by either one of the litigants of the other before the judge; (2)
presentation of public or printed documents; (3) examination of the
books or correspondence of some merchant who, if interested in the
case, is obliged to show them — if not interested, he can refuse; (4)
opinion of experts ; (5) examination by the judge personally; (6) testi-
mony of witnesses called by the litigants.

The litigants haviug stated what proofs they propose submitting,
and the term for so doing having expired, the judge orders the exam-
ination of same within thirty days if ail the proofs are interinsular
and six months if some have to be examined outside of Puerto Rico.

The proofs are examined in the following manner: If one of the
litigants wishes the other to testify under oath, he draws up in writ-
ing a set of questions which he presents closed and sealed to the judge,
who fixes a day for the examination. On this day both litigants
appear, and in their presence the judge breaks the seal. The witness
is then required to swear by God that he will tell the truth, and the
questions are put to him. The judge's secretary draws up a docu-
ment of what has taken place, containing the replies which the wit-
ness has dictated to him. In this document both litigants can have
embodied the questions and observations which they think necessary
to establish the truth of the statements on which the interrogatories
have turned.

When public documents are to be submitted as evidence thej*, or
certified copies thereof, drawn up by duly authorized functionaries,
must be presented when the claim is made, or with the reply made to
the claim by the defendant, if the documents are of previous date. If
of later date, they can be produced during the period allowed for the
proposition of proofs to be submitted. If either of the litigants dis-
putes the authenticity of the original or certified copy of a public doc-
ument, the other must ask that it be compared with the original. The
law considers as public documents: Deeds authorized before a notario;
certificates given by brokers of entries in the books recording their
transactions (brokers in Spain and colonies have to keep certain books
legally defined and are licensed under bond) ; papers granted by public
functionaries in the exercise of their duties; extracts from books of
registry in the public archives; certificates of birth, marriage, and

271

death given by the persons charged with keeping the books of regis-
try of same; certificates of judgments and of judicial proceedings.

If any private document is to be offered as proof, it must be pre-
sented within the same periods as allowed for public documents. To
be valid as testimonj^ the signatory must acknowledge his signature
before the judge; and if he denies it, the signature must be passed on
by experts in caligraphy in comparison with other signatures by the
same person.

The examination of merchants' books and correspondence must take
place in their office in their presence or in that of their delegate and
of the litigants if they wish to attend. The true finding of this exam-
ination, which the judge himself must make, or his clerk, or the clerk
of the court (escribano), if the litigants so request, is to be put in
writing then and there and attested by all present. The litigants
may exact the insertion in this document of any observation they
think proper.

The evidence of experts may be used when scientific, artistic, or prac-
tical knowledge is required to appreciate some influential point of
the suit. The litigant proposing this evidence must clearly state the
object or point on which the expert has to pass. Experts are named by
both litigants appearing before the judge, who endeavors to bring about
an agreement between them as to how many are to be named, which
number must be either one or three. If they do not agree, the judge
decides as to the number, according to the importance of the case,
and draws, by lot, one name from among several, which is decisive.

The examination by the judge of some place or object, if necessary,
is also direct evidence.

The litigants can assist at such examination and can make such
observation as they think proper. The result of the examination
must be put into writing and signed by all present.

The litigant wishing to use the testimony of witnesses must draw up
a list of the questions to be asked and present a list of the witnesses
to be called. The judge fixes the day and hour for the examination,
at which the other litigant has the right of cross-examination. Wit-
nesses must be sworn; and if a witness be a relative, intimate friend,
employee, or servant of the litigant calling him or if interested in
the suit, he can be challenged by the opposite party, and if the chal-
lenge is upheld by reason of the above incompatibilities, the evidence
shall be struck out.

On the termination of the maximum time allowed for the taking of
evidence, even if all the evidence proposed has not been produced, the
litigants are notified to present in writing, through their attorneys,
within twenty days, the remarks they think necessary regarding the
testimony taken. On the completion of this the judge gives a verdict.
Further on in this paper the right of appeal allowed by law will be
entered into.

(13) Minor declarative suits mentioned in paragraph 10 are shorter
than those just treated of. Their procedure is as follows : Having
presented the claim, the document on which it rests, and duplicate
copy of the whole, the judge orders the defendant to put in an ap-
pearance by writing within nine days, counting from the day follow-
ing the notification. If the defendant does not appear within the
stated time, he is declared in default, and the case continues. If the
claimant so requests, the defendant's property may be attached to
await the result of the trial. The defendant on making his reply
should state all the arguments in his favor, whether or not he is in con-

272

formity with the facts alleged by the complainant. If both litigants
are of one accord, and the question is reduced to a point of law, a
meeting is held before the judge, in which both state their interests
orally, and sentence is given. If the litigants should not have been
in accord, the case is opened for proofs, and six days are granted for
submitting testimony. The same class of testimony, offered in the
same way, can be produced as already mentioned in "major suits."
The term mentioned for proofs having ended, no matter whether the
testimony has been offered or not, a meeting is held before the judge,
both litigants state their case, and judgment is given. Later the
appeal allowed in these cases will be stated.

(14) The verbal suits mentioned in paragraph 10 are the most rapid
of all. They are tried before the municipal judge. The claim having
been presented, both litigants are ordered to appear before the judge
at a certain day and hour. Both appear and, in order, state their
cases. If the testimony offered can be examined then and there, it is
so examined; if not, a day is named for such examination. Having
examined the testimony, or the day named for doing so having passed
without this having been clone, sentence is given. All steps in the
suit have to be reduced to writing by the judge's secretary aud the
document signed by all taking part in the case. Appeal allowed in
these suits will be treated of later.

(15) Questions involving litigation can be settled by the parties sub-
mitting them to a court of lawyers, if they do not wish to take them
to the courts. In this case the following rules must be observed:
The number of lawyers composing the court can not exceed five and
must always be an odd number. They are to be named by the liti-
gants in joint accord. The litigants must have drawn up before a
notary a deed stating date, names, professions, and residence of the
signatories, the period within which judgment must be given, the
amount of the fine to be paid by the party not accepting the verdict,
and the name of the place where the sittings are to be held.

After the deed is drawn and the referees or substitutes have
accepted the nomination, they shall notify the litigants that within a
given time they must present their briefs in duplicate. If either
litigant neglects to do so, the case shall continue without him, with-
out prejudice to his being called on to pay the stipulated fine. The
briefs shall be given to the opposite litigants, granting them a certain
time in which to propose their replies, after which time the case shall
be opened for proofs in the form as expressed in paragraph 11.

After the proofs have been heard, and if the litigants so wish, a
day may be named for them to appear and make oral observations.
After this judgment is given. If any points of discord among the
referees fail to obtain a majority of their votes, the points in question
shall be submitted to the judge, whose decision shall be accepted.
Of the appeal allowed in both cases I will treat later.

(16) With the same object as the former exists another form of
suit called friendly composition, the procedure of which is the same
as that recorded in paragraph 15 with the difference that those form-
ing the court need not be lawyers.

(17) Against judgment given in suits treated in paragraphs 11 and
12, appeal is allowed in second instance to the court of appeals,
which court is composed of three judges of the supreme court. In
02'der to do this, all the testimony which has been written in the case
is placed before the court of appeals, which fixes a day for the appel-
ant to appear, and the secretary of the court draws up a resume of
the case.

273

This resume is handed the litigants for them to express themselves
in conformity therewith or to make known if anything has been
omitted therefrom which should have been included. Having
expressed their conformity, or having made the observations which
they think necessary, they may ask that testimony be taken, but
only when the judge of first instance has refused to accept, or when
in any case not attributable to the litigant, he did not take certain
testimony in the first instance, or when the time allowed for testimony
in the first instance shall have concluded and some matter of abso-
lute bearing shall have arisen afterwards, or when either of the liti-
gants shall swear that some defect exits, of which he previously had
no knowledge, or when the litigant declared in default by the judge
shall have appeared after the time conceded for testimony.

If both litigants are agreeable that these proofs shall be taken, the
court shall so order it. If they are not agreeable, the court shall
order what it thinks proper. If the court orders that the testimony
be taken, there is no appeal against its resolution. If it does not do
so, the right of requiring it to reconsider the matter is given, and on
its refusing to reconsider the matter, there is a right of appeal, which
will be treated of later. For the purpose of hearing all testimony
before the court of appeals, the same rules are in force as mentioned
in paragraph 11. To take the testimony, if such has been offered, a
day is fixed for the counsel to state the case orally to the court, which
being done, judgment is given. Against this judgment there is
right of appeal, which must be lodged in the manner to be treated
of later.

(18) The right of appeal against judgment indicated in paragraph
13 lies before the judge of first instance. The judge, upon receiving
the brief and hearing the claimant who lodges the appeal, fixes a day
for the appearance of both litigants, who state their case. The judge
then gives a verdict.

(19) When, in the cases of appeal referred to in paragraphs 16 and
17, the party lodging the appeal does not appear before the court of
appeals to sustain it within the period conceded, which must not
exceed twenty days, the case must be returned to the judge for exe-
cution without further steps.

(20) When judges infringe the laws through negligence or igno-
rance, the litigants have the right, if prejudiced by such action, to beg
the superior court to order damages occasioned by such infringement
to be paid by the judge so infringing. This claim, according to the
amount it relates to, must be ventilated by one of the forms of suit
referred to in paragraph 10.

(21) Besides all the matter already treated of, the law which I am
now analyzing determines the form in which the judgment shall be
executed and the resolution to be adopted when the person dies intes-
tate, when minors are living or heirs who wish for a judicial division
of his property. The same law treats of meetings of creditors and
failures and the steps to be taken in those cases. It is not possible
that a paper of this scope shall go into detail about these dispositions.

(22) When a creditor suspects that his debtor is sacrificing his goods
oris trying to hide them, the object being to evade payment of a debt
already due, he can ask that a sufficient quantity of goods or prop-
erty be attached to cover the debt in question and all the expense
occasioned by the attachment. The judge is obliged to order the
attachment in every case in which the debt can be proven by the pre-
sentation of documents.

1125 18

274

(23) Within the same law we have a privileged suit, when the col-
lection of a debt is in question, called executory suit. This can only
he made use of when the debt has been acknowledged by the debtor
in a public document drawn before a notary or privately acknowledged
by him as having been subscribed to before a judge, or when no docu-
ment exists, but the debtor confesses under oath before a judge that
he does owe the amount.

This form of suit can also be employed when the collection of a bill
of exchange is in question, or of any security to bearer,- or to original
policies of contract made through the intervention of licensed agents
or brokers.

In this suit the judge orders the debtor to pay. If he does not pajT
immediately upon being ordered, a sufficient quantity of his property
is attached to cover the claim, interest, and costs. If the debtor so
require and he pay the debt, interest, and judicial expenses which
have been incurred, the suit is not continued. If he does not pay,
the attachment is made. Within three days after the attachment is
made the debtor can present his evidence, which is subject to the
creditor for him to refute, if he thinks proper, which he must do
within four days following, after which the suit is opened for testi-
mony, which must be proposed and heard within the next ten days
following, after which judgment is given. The judgment must con-
sist of one of the three following results: (1) Either the suit must
continue until the attached goods have been sold at auction in order
to pay the creditor; (2) it must not be continued; (3) or all the steps
are null and void by reason of some of the regulations decreed by the
law determining the procedure of this class of suit having been
infringed. The right of appeal, as mentioned in paragraph 16, is
applicable to these judgments, and against the decision of the court
of appeals there is a right of appeal in the form which will be treated
of later.

(24) In the cases of eviction from either urban or suburban property,
of obtaining alimony, of making valid the right of retraction, reten-
tion, recovery, or possession of an object, or the prevention of the
construction of anj^thing prejudicial or causing harm to one's property
the law now being treated of determines the proceedings as brief as
the necessity of the case requires.

(25) Of the recourse to appeal treated of in paragraph 16, only the
supreme court in full session can treat. Its records can be taken
advantage of should the substantive law of right have been infringed,
or the law which determines the rules to be observed in the steps of
the suit treated of. Those wishing to have recourse to appeal for
infraction of the substantive law must require the court of appeals to
give the sentences against which they wish to appeal within ten days
of their request and to provide them with a certified literal copy of
the same. This certified copy must be presented by the appellant to
the supreme court within fifteen days, counting from the day fol-
lowing its presentation by the court of ppeals to the supreme court,
which then hears arguments of both sides and decides whether there
has been an infringement of the substantive law, giving verdict
accordingly.

If appeal is to be had for infringement of the law determining the
rules which should have been observed in the steps of the suit in ques-
tion, the appellant must present to the court of appeals a statement
in writing of the infringements which he thinks have been committed
and stating that the recourse is justifiable. The court of appeals

275

admits the recourse and sends a copy of the document to the supreme
court with a literal certified copy of the part of the suit only in which,
according to the allegations of the appellant, the infraction was com-
mitted. The supreme court discusses the matter and then decides.

(26) In the matter of former verdicts or verdicts against which no
appeal can be had by reason of a court of last appeal having arrived
at a decision thereon, or the verdict having been accepted by both liti-
gants, a revision can be asked for if some decisive documents shall
have come into the possession of either of the litigants afterwards, or
if judgment shall have been based on documents which had previously
been declared forgeries without the knowledge of the court, or might
be so declared afterwards ; or if, having given judgment on the strength
of testimony, such witnesses had been condemned later for perjury
on the particular evidence; or if judgment had been obtained by sub-
orning the judge or by actual violence. These records can only be
taken advantage of before the supreme court and the procedure is
very brief.

(27) In its last article the law under discussion treats of the rules
for verifying acts called "Of voluntary jurisdiction," which are those
in which the intervention of the judge is necessary without the for-
mal suit having been brought.

These facts are: Asking permission to adopt, when law makes adop-
tion necessary; the temporary guardianship of persons; the supple-
mentary authority to contract mortgage; the procedure for putting
into writing a verbal will; the opening of closed wills; information
necessary when the dispensation from certain laws is applied for; the
steps for opening a lawsuit; information regarding "perpetua memo-
ria;" the administration of property of persons whose whereabouts
are unknown; the voluntary auction of property and the laying down
of the boundaries of property.

LAW OF MORTGAGE.

We know that a mortgage constitutes a right of real estate, guaran-
teeing the fulfillment of a contract. The law of mortgage, as stated
by its constructors, and as it really is, adopts the system which has
publicity for its basis, which system, the Germanic, is highly recom-
mended by the best writers on legal subjects.

Publicity does not allow of hidden mortgages. Neither does it
allow that persons of good faith can be endangered by liens on the
property they are interested in unless such liens be found duly regis-
tered. A person possessing rights which he has neglected to inscribe
can not prejudice, by an omission for which he alone is to blame, a
person who, being unaware of the same, may have acquired an estate
or lent money thereon with a mortgage as guaranty. The registry
is open to everyone who wishes to search the titles of real estate for
the purpose of lending money thereon, for claiming rights thereon, or
for any other matter in which he may have legitimate interest in
knowing the condition of the property and the lien attached to it.

It may be said that a person lending money on mortgage lends
rather to the property than to the owner of the property ; the value
of the mortgaged property becomes the debtor. The personal debtor
is only a representative of the property. The lender does not care
about the qualities, credit, or condition of the person to whom he lends.
What matters to him is whether the value of the estate which guar-
antees him payment is sufficient to insure it at due date. The debt

276

in these cases is not really owed by the owner of the estate as such,
but is passed from one owner to another when the estate is sold, thus
making the person who may own it at the time of due date the person
who is to liquidate the obligation. The creditor is in this way well
protected; each creditor thus knows what preference he has over
other creditors and has nothing to fear from mortgages or liens being
hidden, as persons can not prejudice him in his rights unless they have
them inscribed in the registry. In this way capital is confined to solid
and safe investment, and property owners can obtain credit in propor-
tion to their real wealth, the circulation of money is increased, and
new springs of wealth and prosperity are brought into existence.
Having indicated the general principles on which our mortgage law
is based, I will now make a resume of its special precepts.

The law names the towns in which registries shall be established,
so as to facilitate the inscription of mortgages. These towns are San
Juan, Caguas, Humacao, Guayama, Ponce, San German, Mayaguez,
Aguadilla, and Arecibo.

It orders that the following shall have inscription in registries:
Deeds of transfer or deeds of ownership of real estate or of the royal
dues imposed on same; the deeds by which are constituted, recog-
nized, modified, or extinguished the rights of usufruct, use, habita-
tion, alienation of usufruct, mortgages, church liens, servitude, and
of all other rights; deeds or contracts by virtue of which any property
or royal dues are adjudicated, even if they are accompanied with the
obligation of transfer to others or of the inversion of their amount in
determinate objects; executive verdicts in which are declared a legal
incapacity for administration or the presumption of death of persons
or of those which impose punishment of interdiction or any other by
which the civil capacity of persons as regards the free disposition of
their property is modified ; contracts of rent of real estate for more
than six years or by which the rent for three years or more have been
paid in advance, or, when possessing none of the stated conditions, the
contracting parties shall have mutually agreed to have the deed reg-
istered ; deeds of acquisition of real estate or royal dues possessed or
administered by the state or civil corporations or ecclesiastical bodies ;
and, lastly, after certain formalities, documents drawn up in foreign
countries.

For the purpose of registry, national debt bonds and bank shares,
and shares of mercantile companies or of ordinary corporations of any
class, are not considered as real estate.

Registry can be asked for by him who transmits, him who acquires
or has an interest in sharing the right of the property to be inscribed,
and by legitimate representatives of any of them.

Each property inscribed for the first time shall be given a distinct
number, which shall be correlative, and the corresponding inscrip-
tions shall be marked with an ordinal number.

The system adopted by the law is not that of the transcription of the
document, but its inscription. Every inscription has to express the
following requisites: The nature, the situation and boundaries of
the property inscribed, or of those whose rights are affected by the
inscription, with their superficial measurement in square meters; the
nature, extent, conditions, and charges of the right on which the right
which is the object of inscription is based; the nature of the deed to
be inscribed and its date; the name or surname of the person or cor-
poration or collection of persons interested, in whose favor the inscrip-
tion is to be made ; the name or surname of the person or the name of

277

the corporation or juridic entity from whom the property or rights to
be inscribed immediately proceed ; the name and domicile of the court,
notary, or functionary who authorizes the deed to be inscribed ; the
date of presentation in the registry of the deed, also the hour and day
of its registration.

As regards the effect of registration the general principle is that titles
which have not been inscribed shall not prejudice a third person, who
may not have intervened in the act or contract of the subject of the
deed. This principle is admitted to be without exception and in force,
even against creditors otherwise privileged.

At times in the registration of some properties there are made what
are known as "preventative annotations," which have for an object that
in all negotiations engaged in by the owner of the property in ques-
tion respecting such property such annotations shall appear. These
annotations can be executed by him who claims the property as his
own in a suit, by him who has claimed the constitution, declaration,
modification, or distinction of any royal dues thereon, by him who has
obtained under the provisions of the law an order of attachment which
was put in force against the real estate of his debtor, by him who has
obtained an order prohibiting his debtor from administering his prop-
erty, by him who has entered a suit for the purpose of obtaining an
order annulling or modifying the capacity of a person for disposing of
his property, and by him Avho has presented for registration any deed
whose inscription can not be effected because of some defect in the
title. The law in each case determines the effect produced by these
annotations. The effects of registration and annotation are lasting
as regards third parties while the registration is not canceled or left
without effect and during the period named within which the annota-
tion is valid.

On treating specially of mortgages these are described, stating that
they constitute a real right, forming a part of the contract for which
they serve as a guaranty and which follows the property mortgaged
into whosesover hands it passes.

Only the following are subject to mortgage: (1) Real estate, ina-
lienable royal dues within the provisions of the law on real estate.
(2) Buildings constructed on other persons' land without prejudice to
the rights of the owner of the land. (3) The right of usufruct, in
which case the mortgage terminates when the usufruct terminates by
an act foreign to the wish of the person possessing such usufruct.
(4) The mere property, in which case, if the person possessing the
usufruct and the owner are one, not only will the mortgage continue,
but it will also be extended to the usufruct itself, in case the con-
trary has not been agreed upon. (5) Property formerly mortgaged,
although a clause may exist that it shall not be remortgaged, in which
case the right of collecting on the first mortgage is always perma-
nent. (6) Rights of surface, grazing, water, wood, fuel, and other
similar natural rights, in which case the rights of others participating
in the property must always be respected. (7) Railroads, canals,
bridges, and other works of public service, whose exploitation the
Government has conceded for ten years or more, together with build-
ings and land which, although not directly and exclusively destined
to that particular service, belong to private ownership and form-part
of the said works. (8) Property belonging to persons who are not
allowed the free disposition of same, in cases where the formalities
prescribed by law for their disposal have been complied with. (9) The
right of voluntary mortgage, subject to the confirmation of this same

278

right. (10) Property sold with the agreement of reselling, if the
buyer limits mortgage to the amount which he shall receive in case of
reselling. (11) Property in litigation, if the claim in which the suit
originates has been accorded "preventative annotation" or if the
registration books prove that the creditor was aware of the litigation.

The following can not be mortgaged: Income and rent due when
separated from the propertj^ producing them; (2) movable property
when permanently fixed in buildings, either for their ornamentation
or comfort or for the use of some industry, except when mortgaged
jointly with the buildings; (3) public buildings; (4) bonds issued by
the state, provinces, or towns, bank shares, and bonds or share of
bonds of any enterprise or company of any sort whatever; (5) royal
dues on property, when such dues form a future but not present claim ;
(6) servitudes, except when mortgaged jointly with the property which
they affect, and excepting water rights in all cases; (7) the right of
usufruct constituted by the laws to the parents on goods of their chil-
dren, or to the surviving spouse on property of the deceased spouse;
(8) use and habitation; (9) mines, until definite title of concession
has been obtained, even when such mines exist in one's own property.

The mortgage is understood to constitute a lien on the estate, its
natural growths, improvements, pending harvests, and rents not
received at the time of the falling due of the contract. It is also
understood to constitute a lien on indemnities conceded or owed to
the owner by insurers of the property mortgaged, or for sums paid
for forcible appropriation of the property in the public interest.

In case of the estate passing to other hands, furniture placed per-
manently in the buildings and improvements other than repairs, if
paid for by the new owner, are not considered as forming a part of
the mortgage. Neither are growing crops or rents due if belonging
to said new owner.

When several estates are mortgaged as a guaranty for one debt,
the amount for which each estate is liable is to be specifically stated.
The mortgage remains in force until the whole amount of it has been
paid, even though the debt shall have been partly paid. When a
mortgaged estate is divided into two or more, the debt shall not be
divided also, except by the consent of debtor and creditor. In con-
trary cases the creditor can claim the whole amount of mortgage
against either of the new properties formed by the division, or against
both at the same time. Mortgages granted by persons who, in the
judgment of the registrar, have not the right to grant them shall not
be valid, although the grantor may later acquire such right.

If a mortgaged estate passes to the hands of a third person before
falling due, the payment therefor at its due date must be obtained
from such third person. The right of foreclosure of mortgage trans-
pires in twenty years, dating from the day in which such foreclosure
could have been legally undertaken.

Mortgages are divided into two classes, called voluntary and legal.

Voluntary mortgages are those agreed upon by contracting parties
or imposed by the owner of property constituting the subject of mort-
gage. This can be effected personally or by persons holding power
of attorney. To be valid they must be drawn by a notary and
inscribed in the registry of property. All mortgages can be sold or
disposed of or ceded, which concession must also be effected by a deed
drawn by a notary and registered in the same way as stated above.

Legal mortgages are those which the law allows to certain persons as
a means of guaranteeing their property. Married women, minors, the

279

helpless children under control of their parents, possess this right.
Others are those given by the husband to protect the property handed
to him as the dower of his wife. It is given to guarantee reservable
property of children. It is given by guardians to guarantee property
of their wards. It is claimed by the State and municipality to guar-
antee due taxes of the past fiscal year and those liens granted as a
premium for insurance on the estate insured.

On treating of the manner in which the registries have to be con-
ducted, the law of mortgage orders, firstly, that the books of all the
registries be alike and of the pattern ordered by the government,
with a view of preventing frauds and falsifications. These books are
called daybooks, and in them inscriptions are made.

The registry must be opened on all working days, six hours each
day. Outside of these hours all work therein is prohibited. When
the hour strikes for closing the registry the registrar must state, on
the first blank line following the signature of the last inscription, the
fact that he has closed the registry for the day and the number of
operations which have been concluded during the day. In each reg-
istry a separate book is kept for the inscriptions of each municipality.
On taking a document for registration an entry must immediately be
made of the day and the exact hour of its presentation and a resume
of the contents of the document. Within fifteen days from such entry
the inscription or refusal, in case the document has any defect pre-
venting its inscription, must be made.

The books are public and may be examined by anybody interested.
The registries are classed in three categories: First, second, and third.
Only those holding titles of lawyers are allowed to take up the pro-
fession of registrars, and positions as registrars are granted by com-
petitive examinations. Those admitted by a competitive examination
are first appointed to a registry of a third class.

COMMERCIAL CODE.

This code gives us a conception of mercantile law in the most scien-
tific form. Whether an action is mercantile or not, it takes into con-
sideration the nature of the action and the person executing it. It
thus widens considerably the horizon of mercantile legislation, giving
a place therein to all those transactions which the progress of the age
and industries have brought within its scope and to all which future
events may bring.

Our code, inspired by these principles, considers as mercantile
actions all those mentioned in it and all those of an analogous nature,
thus admitting a determination "a posteriori" of mercantile actions
which can be undertaken either by the practice or uses of merchants
themselves or, if occasion requires, by the courts of justice.

Accepting the principle of liberty of working, it recognizes the right
of mankind to dedicate itself to any of the industrial or mercantile
professions, and only exacts as an adequate condition the requisites
which the civil code marks for the possession of a juridic entity. The
legal incapacities, which carry with them the limiting of contracting,
have been reduced to very narrow limits. It reduces the age of
minority, with respect to capacity for engaging in business, to 21
years, when the minor is emancipated and has a personal individu-
ality. For the benefit of minors, it establishes a principle that they
can enter into commerce, whatever be their age, when they wish to
continue the business left by their parents or those whose heirs they

280

niay have become. In these eases the guaranty of their guardians is
required.

Married women can undertake business with the tacit consent of
their husbands, who, if not granting it, are under the obligation to
make their denial publicly. Married women of more than 21 3rears of
age can establish themselves in business when divorced in cases where
their husbands are under their guardianship, or when the husband
is absent and his whereabouts are unknown, or when suffering penal
punishment or civil disability. Foreigners are granted the same com-
mercial privileges as Spaniards if, under their own legislation, they
are competent to engage in business.

Taking into consideration that the great spread of commerce requires
publicity in its operations with a view of guaranteeing third parties
affected thereby, the mercantile register is fully developed in the code
and its sphere of action is broadened, making it a base and starting
point of the largest mercantile undertakings.

This registry is under the jurisdiction of the courts and is managed
by an independent functionary, who obtains the position by competi-
tive examination. His books are open to the inspection of anybody
wishing to see their contents. There are two books. In one of them
are inscribed the documents of corporations and mercantile societies,
and in the other documents of private merchants, who have a right of
option in the matter. In places where it is necessary, a third book is
kept for the registration of vessels.

Corpdrations and mercantile societies are obliged to keep, besides
other necessary books, a book of minutes, which has to contain the
resolutions passed in general meetings or meetings of directors of the
companies with reference to their operations. It authorizes the use
of mercantile letter copy book, and determines the manner and form
in which merchants' books have to be kept in order to have the value
of testimony in lawsuits and for the purpose of insuring exactness
between the different entries in the respective books of each trans-
action.

Any transaction established by credible entries in mercantile books
can be offered as testimony in the courts.

All mercantile contracts must be guided by the commercial code
as regards validity, capacity of the contracting parties, renovation,
interpretation, and extinction in matters not provided for by dispo-
sitions of the civil code. The most ample and unlimited liberty is
allowed in the form and celebration of contracts. The proof of the
existence of contracts is allowed by the same means as employed in
civil law, except that evidence of witnesses in contracts whose amount
is greater than 300 pesos is to be submitted by written proofs.

The effects of delay count from the day following the termination
mentioned in the terms of the contract.

A freedom of exchanges is allowed, and they can be established in
any place, either by initiation of the Government or by concession of
the Government, at the request of private persons, after full informa-
tion has been taken about their public utility. The Government
reserves to' itself the right of conceding or refusing an official char-
acter to the quotations of private exchanges. All possessing civil
capacity for contracting can freely exercise the profession of middle-
men. The exercise of the functions of stock-exchange brokers,
exchange brokers, commercial brokers, and ship brokers and inter-
preters is also free. A notable difference, however, is established
between the judicial effects of contracts entered into through the inter-

281

vention of agents not authorized by the Government, it being neces-
sary to prove their transactions by methods offered under common or
civil law in all cases when such agents are not publicly accredited
in their respective markets.

Determines the method of forming mercantile societies, allowing
the most ample liberty for the associates to constitute the society as
they see fit. The government does not take any intervention in the
internal management or in the complete publicity of whatever acts
of the society might effect third persons. The code also treats of all
classes of mercantile companies in existence and those that may come
into existence later on through new combinations, but not of the
mutual associations or cooperative societies, calculating that these
have nothing in them of a mercantile nature, as their transactions
are not carried on with a view of earning money.

Limited partnerships and anonymous companies can represent their
capital by shares to bearer or registered shares, without in any way
taking into account the extent of their operations. These last-named
companies are allowed to purchase their own shares or lend money
on them.

All commercial shares have to be registered in the name of the
holder until 50 per cent of the nominal value has been paid up, after
which time they can be converted into shares to bearer, if their stat-
utes so ordain or if a resolution be passed to that effect.

Anonymous companies are obliged to publish monthly their balance
sheets in the monthly Gazette.

Collective and limited companies must resolve by meeting of share-
holders the method to be employed when they wish to liquidate. Anony-
mous companies must during that period continue observing their
statutes. No special form of contract is required for mercantile com-
mission, but the commission agent must, under his signature, state
whether he is working on commission and the name and residence of
his principal. All contracts entered into by commission agents are
irrevocable and have legal effect between the contracting parties.
The principal has the right of claim against his commission agent
when this latter shall have exceeded the limits named in the commis-
sion.

As regards factors, emploj^ees, and apprentices, the first named
must have the power of attorney registered in the mercantile registry
before entering into his position. Other employees need not be so
authorized.

The depositing of goods in a warehouse shall be considered as a con-
tract, which shall only be completed when the goods are delivered.
The depository is entitled to compensation, except when he expressly
renounces it, and is responsible for all damage, prejudice, and loss
suffered by the goods in his warehouse, even if the object deposited
be money in coin.

NOTARIAL LAW.

The notary, according to the above law, is the public functionary,
who must draw contracts and other extrajudicial documents.

The notary is obliged to lend his services. If he refuses without a
just reason he is held responsible.

Each judicial division constitutes a notarial district, within which
the number of notaries thought to be requisite may be named, taking
into account the number of inhabitants, the frequency of transactions,
the special circumstances of the locality, and the possibility of the
notaries earning a reasonable livelihood.

282

On appointing notaries the government must determine where they
are to reside.

The notarial deinarkations of Porto Rico are as follows:

District of San Juan : Two notaries within the citj^ proper and one
in Carolinas for the service of that town, Rio Piedras, Rio Grande,
Loiza, and Trujillo Alto (total, three).

District of Caguas: One for Caguas, Aguas Buenas, and Comerio;
one for Hato Grande and Gurabo (total, two).

District of Aguadilla : One for Aguadilla, Aguada, Moca, Isabela,
Quebradillas, and San Sebastian (one).

District of Mayaguez : Two for Mayaguez, Hormigueros, Las Marias,
Anasco, and Rincon (total, two).

District of San German: One for San German, Sabana Grande, Cabo-
Rojo, Lajas, and Maricao (one).

District of Arecibo : One for Arecibo, Camuy, and Hatillo ; one for
Manati, Barceloneta, and Morovis (total, two).

District of Utuado: One for Utuado and Ciales, one for Adjuntas,
one for Lares (total, three).

District of Ponce : Two for Ponce and Penuelas ; one for Yauco and
Guayanilla; one for Juana Diaz and Sta. Isabel; one for Coamo and
Barros (total, five).

District of Guayama : One for Guayama, Arroyo, Patillas, Maunabo,
and Salinas; one for Cayey, Aibonito, Cidra, and Barranquitas (total,
two).

District of Humacao: One for Humacao, Yabucoa, and Naguabo;
one for Fajardo, Juncos, and Piedras; one for Vieques and Culebra
(total, two).

District of Vega Baja: One for Vega Baja, Corozal, Dorado, Toa-
baja, and Vega Alta; one for Bayamon, Toa Alta, and Naranjito (total,
two).

In case of death, sickness, absence, disability, or any other preventa-
tive cause, the notary is substituted by the person who was designated
as his substitute at the time of his nomination. If any cause should
prevent this, the judge names a substitute from among the notaries
of the town or of the nearest town, until the president of the supreme
court resolves the matter.

The substitution endures while the causes originating it endure.

The notary must reside in the place designated at the time of his
nomination to the post.

The requirements for nomination as a notary are : The applicant
must be a native, of legal age, of good reputation, and must either be
a lawyer or have passed the notarial examination.

Formerly the notaries were appointed by the Spanish Government.
To-day they are appointed by the secretary of justice, with the gov-
ernor-general's approval.

Notarial posts are filled by the examination or contest between the
candidates.

Before entering on. their duties, notaries have to give bond as guar-
anty for their actions, which bond is fixed in proportion to the
importance of the district.

The bond can be in money or mortgage on real estate.

No notary can exercise any other employment in which jurisdiction
is an attribute, or which is remunerated, or which obliges him to live
away from his home.

Notaries draw up the original deeds of contract or other documents
which have to be submitted to their authorization. These have to be

283

signed by the contracting parties and two witnesses. These original
deeds are held by the notaries in their own keeping, and these, when
bound in volumes, are known as "protocol." Copies of the original
deeds are issued to the contracting parties and are certified to by the
notary only.

Every notary must use a special rubric to his signature, which can
only be altered by permission of the Government.

The supreme court keeps a book containing the signature and rubric
of each notary.

Deeds drawn by notaries can not be witnessed by their relatives,
clerks, or servants; nor bv relatives up to the fourth degree of consan-
guinity or second of affinity of the contracting or interested parties.

Notaries must state in the deeds that they personally know the con-
tracting parties, or, if not knowing them, must require the presence of
two witnesses who do.

Notaries must state in every document its date, the names, residence,
and professions of the contracting parties, and their own names and
residence. Abbreviations and signs in the expression of dates and
amounts or quantities are not allowed.

Additions, interlineations, and erasures in the original document
are invalid unless mentioned at the foot of the deed.

Deeds drawn by notaries are valid all over the island. To acquire
validity out of the island the notary's signatures must be attested by
two other notaries.

No other person but the notary in custody of the protocol can grant
valid copies thereof.

Not even judges can order the removal of the protocol from the build-
ing in which it is kept. It can not be removed therefrom.

No document can be examined by any person except those men-
tioned therein, nor can a copy be issued except by them or their heirs
except by order of a judge.

"Within the first eight days of each month notaries must remit to
the president of the supreme court, through the judge of first instance,
indices of the original documents drawn by them during the preced-
ing month, stating their classification in the protocol in the ordinal
numbers. These indices must also state the names of the contracting
parties, witnesses, date of signature, and object of contract of each
document.

The protocols are the property of the state. The notaries are their
custodians only and are responsible for them.

If any part or the whole of a protocol should be injured, the notary
must notify the judge of the district, who, in his turn, must notify
the president and attorney of the supreme court, who form an expe-
dente to replace the part destroyed and state therein the antecedents
of the case.

Judges should pay visits of inspection to the notarial offices when
they think necessary.

The notaries of the whole island constitute a notarial association
(college), with a board of directors, who are empowered to apply cor-
rectives to those members who offend against professional decorum.

Notaries can not be suspended or deprived of their functions by
gubernatorial action.

Notaries are subjected to a tariff of fees.

284

JUDICIAL ORGANIZATION.

The judicial organization of Porto Rico is governed by the royal
decree of January 5, 1891.

There is a supreme court in San Juan, composed of —

Per year.

A president, with a salary of - - §4, 500

A president of the chamber, with a salary of 4, 000

Five judges (magistrados) , with a salary each of 3, 500

An attorney (fiscal) , with a salary of _ . 4, 000

An assistant attorney (teniente fiscal) salary . 2, 750

A fiscal advocate (abogado fiscal) , salary 2, 250

A general secretary (secretario de gobierno) , salary 1, 875

Two court secretaries (secretaries de sala) , with salary of 750

Three court officers (officiates de sala) , with salary of 750

In both Ponce and Mayaguez there is a criminal court, each com-
posed of —

Per year.

A president $3,500

Two judges, each ... ._ 3,500

An attorney 3,500

An assistant attorney 2,500

A court secretary . ...... 1,700

A court officer . 750

There are, besides, twelve judges of first instance for civil cases,
called also judges of instruction when acting in criminal cases. These
judges are classified into three catagories: Entrada (initiatory), ascenso
(promotion), and termino (terminated), who draw the respective sala-
ries of $1,700, $1,875, and $2,250 annually.

The so-called escribanos (scriveners) serve as secretaries to the
judges. The}7 are not paid a salary, but receive fees, subject to a
tariff.

The judges of "termino' are five in number — two in San Juan, one
in Ponce, one in Mayaguez, and one in Arecibo.

There is only one judge of "ascenso," who is in Humacao. The
judges of "entrada" are: One in Yega Baja, one in Utuado, one in
Aguadilla, one in San German, one in Guayama, and one in Caguas.

The two judges in San Juan, called judge of the Cathedral district
and judge of the San Francisco district, and those of Caguas, Huma-
cao, and Vega Baja are dependent on the supreme court.

The judges of Ponce and Guayama depend on the criminal court of
Ponce.

The criminal court of Mayaguez has dependent on it the judges of
Mayaguez, Arecibo, Aguadilla, San German, and Utuado.

(Note. — The meaning is that the inferior courts send their cases to
the superior courts respectively named when these cases are " instruc-
cion de sumario," or cases in which the inferior courts have no final
jurisdiction, but prepare the cases for trial only.)

REFORMS IN THE CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CODES.

By Don Herminio Diaz, Secretary of Justice.

Our laws, the majority of which are codified, are not a capricious
system, but a collection of laws which, fitting one into the other and
forming as a whole a fairly complete system, lay down in their pre-
cepts the solutions which at the time of their promulgation were accepted

285

by the most radical and advanced European schools of lawyers for the
intricate problems of law which juridic experience presented.

Those laws are not so defective as affirmed by some, who, perhaps
not having studied them thoroughly and conscientiously, do not under-
stand them.

Their relative worth, however, is no argument against their neces-
sary reform at this time. These reforms are necessary not only because
said laws had as a basis the Spanish constitution, the political princi-
ples of which are diametrically opposed to the republican institutions
of the United States, but also because it is necessary to adopt certain
reforms lately made by judicial science and to modify some precepts
and abrogate others as unproductive of good results.

In making these modifications it is my opinion, and that of the most
distinguished lawyers of our courts, that our law should not be totally
lost sight of, but such precepts as have been useful and fruitful in
our social development should be retained.

Radicalism is exaggeration, and exaggeration is sometimes ulti-
mately useful ; is for the moment productive always of great disturb-
ance; and if society does not wish to witness reactions as exaggerated
as the step in advance itself, it should endeavor to attain a gradual
evolution, such as fruitful nature shows us in her evolutionary scheme.

Keeping this well in mind it is absolutely necessary that any reform
in our laws should retain the system of codification and should make
imperative the introduction into the reformed code of all laws to be
adopted by reason of the reform.

On modifying the precepts thought to be defective these modifications
should be made in the particular code affected and a new edition of
same should be prepared.

Thus, grouping the precepts which rule in each branch of our law,
their study will be facilitated and ignorance of them will not be an
excuse for their noncompliance.

Thus, also, governors and governed will be spared the tedious work
of consulting innumerable volumes in order to ascertain at a given
moment the law governing questions arising, and can choose, without
fear of error, and by simply consulting the code, the course to be fol-
lowed in resolving such questions.

Admitting the necessity of reforming our laws and determining the
scope to be given to such reform, it is important to make some obser-
vations about the process by which this work should be carried out.

Right here, and excuse the frankness which I owe to my govern-
ment and my country, I do not hesitate in stating that if our laws are
modified in accordance with the recommendations of the advisory
commissioners sent to study our needs, they will be unproductive of
good and may cause harm. That was the procedure followed by the
Spanish Government for four hundred years. The colonial ministers,
without understanding us, legislated for Cuba and Porto Rico from
their offices, which system stifled our society and prevents its growth
by reason of certain laws circumscribing its activity.

The advisory commissioners have been here but a few days. In
such a short time it is not possible to study and know this country
thoroughly. The greater part of their information has been supplied
by egotists, who wish public reforms to take certain directions to suit
their private interests. They have been able to j udge of our condi-
tions only by isolated cases presented to their rapid observation.
They have not made a previous and conscientious study of the basis
and form of our ruling laws, to be able to appreciate their true value,

286

or the contrary, for which reasons their reports must be erroneous,
deficient, and very far from the strict reality of things.

Even admitting that on submitting their reports to Washington,
they had, with marvelous intuition and absolute fidelity, pictured in
detail and as a whole the internal life of our society, you, who are a
statesman, and the Government in Washington must see that legisla-
tion drawn in Washington for Porto Rico by men of different habits
and customs from those of our country, would not fit in as it should
with our social machinery, and if history does not lie the Constitution
of the United States does not permit of it.

The laws of autocratic societies are the expression of the will of
their rulers, and these laws fall like bombs of dynamite and destroy
the most sacred rights of the masses, attempting their lives, violating
their hearths, disposing of individual property, imposing on con-
sciences, all with a view of the aggrandizement only of the ruler.

In the United States, habit, custom, traditions, mutual considera-
tion, respect for others' rights as a means of respect for one's own, all
this constitutes the being, the spirit of public and private life, and
takes shape and is reduced to law by each of the self-governing peo-
ples who are guided by them and who respect them as their own work
and recognize therein all the liberty compatible with social require-
ments.

" E pluribus imam " is the motto of the United States, and according
to this motto, which synthesizes the principles of the wise Constitu-
tion, which can not change, which has to be alike for all, it is this
fundamental principle which constitutes the nation, which gives life
to the freedom of unity without restraint, the spirit, the variety of
customs and characters, the distinct character of each State, the spe-
cial idiosyncrasy of each one of the peoples, which forms the uncon-
cpaerable union, and which palpitates in the laws and special institu-
tions that each creates for itself according to its needs.

Taking all these remarks into consideration, it appears to me that
if it is not at this moment possible to satisfy our ardent desires that
Porto Rico be declared a Territory of the Union, leaving to our
chambers, elected by the people, the work of modifying the laws as
they think proper on the basis of the Constitution, it would be well
if the governor of the department should decree such reforms as
proposed by the secretary of justice in consultation with our most
eminent lawj^ers and as called for by the unanimous voice of public
opinion.

Thinking thus, sir, I beg you to allow me to submit for your
approval the necessary general orders, introducing into each one of
our laws the reforms and modifications which I proceed to state and
which should be adopted with haste, as the island needs them urgently.

CIVIL CODE.

(1} Fix the age of majority at 21 years.

(2) Suppress all laws relating to matrimony which tend to connect
the religion of Rome with civil matters.

(3) Give civil effects only to civil marriage, leaving contracting
parties at liberty to contract religious marriage or not, as they think fit.

(4) Allow divorce for all forms of marriage, giving this disposition
retroactive effect.

( 5) Suppress the ' ' family council. "

(6) Establish liberty of legacy.

287

(7) Abolish the contradiction found in some of the precepts of this
code, and clear up others whose ambiguous and obscure wording lead
to different interpretations, bringing all within the American Consti-
tution.

(8) Shorten the term of prescription of real estate.

MORTGAGE LAW.

(1) Unification of this law and its codification, making it one legal
body only.

(2) Suppression of brief (expediente) of possessory title, shorten-
ing the period now in force for the proceedings in titles of dominion.

(3) Ordering that the substitutes of the registrars be lawyers with
title accepted in the island.

(4) All documents presented for registry to be inscribed, unless
there exists cause in the registry for not so doing; for instance, the
property to be registered already being inscribed under the name of
a different person from that figuring in the deed.

If the document be defective, the registrar to state same in writing
on inscribing it.

(5) The procedure of appeal against the only instance in which
the registrar shall have the right to deny registry to be simplified and
shortened.

(6) The attributes given by law to the minister of colonies to pass
to the secretary of justice, who will always act with previous approval
of the general commanding.

COMMERCIAL CODE.

(1) Will determine when the merchant can suspend payment before
declaring himself bankrupt, adopting measures to protect and guar-
antee the creditors who to-day are at the complete mercy of the debtor
until an arrangement is made between them.

(2) Dictating dispositions defining exactly the rights engendered by
the contract of current accounts and determining their judicial effect.

(3) Indicating the form of making contracts by telegraph, cable,
and telephone in order to establish their existence when necessary.

(4) Embodying in the code the laws here ruling respecting banks,
making the necessary modifications and explanations.

NOTARIAL LAW.

(1) Unifying this law and its codification in one legal body only.

(2) Allowing the practice of "notaries" to all at present allowed so
to practice and to all allowed to practice as lawyers in Porto Rico.

(3) Allowing these to reside and open their office in any city or town
they wish and to give their services in any part of the island without
the restrictions to-day imposed.

(4) The present notarial tariff of fees to contimie in force.

(5) Certified copies, in any number, of documents in any notary's
office to be given to parties interested or persons authorized by them
to ask therefor.

(6) Originals of notarial deeds to be filed in the supreme court and
notaries to send the volumes of originals in their possession every ten
years or before in case of death, illness, absence, disqualification, or
any other motive preventing them from practicing.

288

(7) All attributes to-day conceded by this law to the minister of
colonies of Spain and to the president of the supreme court shall pass
to the secretary of justice, who shall always act with the approval of
the Governor-General of the island.

. LAW OF CIVIL PROCEDURE.

(1) Litigants shall be allowed to conduct their own cases, and shall
be at liberty to name a representative to do so, if they please, if such
representative live in the same town where the suit is conducted.
This privilege is forbidden under the present law.

When living in another town they shall be obliged to name a repre-
sentative, and, for their own good, a lawyer also in the case.

(2) In cases heard before judges of diploma the three instances at
present necessary shall be reduced to one instance, with right of appeal
to the supreme court.

(3) Dilatory incidents and useless formalities shall be done away
with in universal suits of intestates, wills, meetings of creditors, and
bankruptcies.

OTHER CIVIL LAWS.

(1) In the law organizing the civil registry, law of mining, public
forests, patents, railroads, forcible expropriation, intellectual prop-
erty, chase and fishery, water and associations, and in instructions
for the drawing up of public documents requiring registration in the
registry of property, the necessary reforms for the simplification of
procedure which these laws exact for the realization of the acts and
acquisition, conservation, and defense of rights conceded by them
shall be made.

PENAL CODE.

(1) Referring to the application of punishment for authors, accom-
plices, or accessories of crimes or misdemeanors, the principle shall be
adopted that the sentence named by the code shall be applied, but that
judges may, in consideration of their estimation of the greater or lesser
gravity of the offense and of extenuating or aggravating circumstances,
determine the time that the punishment may last.

(2) All crimes shall be defined.

(3) Many deeds now unduly considered by our code as crimes shall
be considered as misdemeanors.

LAW OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.

(1) The absolute publicity of trial from its inception shall be ordered ;
the accused shall not be imprisoned ' ' incomunicado. "

1 2) Preventive imprisonment shall be subject to habeas corpus.

[3) Judges of instruction shall try small crimes punishable by major
arrest.

(4) Other crimes shall be tried by jury.
San Juan, P. R., April 12, 1899.

289

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM.

San Juan, P. P., November 8, 1898.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Chief Justice Don Servero Quinones:

Dr. Carroll. I would be very much obliged to you if you would
give me a clear idea of the judicial system of this island as it now
exists, together with such suggestions as you would like to make as to
changes under the new government to be established here.

Mr. Quinones. I will reply with much pleasure to the questions
which you care to put to me.

Dr. Carroll. Will you please begin by giving a statement of the
judicial system as it now exists?

Mr. Quinones. As regards procedure?

Dr. Carroll. As regards the constitution of the courts, as to what
the judicial system is, what it comprehends, the audiencia territorial,
with the scope of its powers, the courts of first instance, with the scope
of their powers, and the municipal magistrates, with the scope of their
powers.

Mr. Quinones. Our judicial system consists, first, of subaltern or
inferior judges, who are called municipal judges. These judges have
limited powers in civil cases. They can hear and give judgment in
cases where the amount involved does not exceed $200. In criminal
cases they have jurisdiction only over misdemeanors. They are besides
obliged to prepare the preliminaries in major criminal cases. Both in
civil and criminal cases their documents and sentences are appealable
to the judge of instruction and first instance. These justices are
named at the beginning of the fiscal year for two years by the presi-
dent of the audiencia. They have jurisdiction also in what are called
suits of consolation; that is to say, they try cases as arbitrators between
litigants.

In the ascending order we next come to judges of first instance and
instruction. These judges hear appeals from the municipal judges.
They also hear civil cases in which the amount involved exceeds $200,
with appeal to the audiencia territorial. They prepare criminal causes
to be passed to the audiencia of the criminal branch. There are two
criminal audiencias and one audiencia territorial, the latter being
established in San Juan," and the other two at Mayaguez and Ponce,
respectively. The audiencias in Mayaguez and Ponce only take cog-
nizance of criminal cases, and appeal lies from their sentence to the
supreme court of Madrid. The audiencia territorial has a chamber
which is called the criminal department. It has jurisdiction over
criminal causes within its territory. This is a bird's-eye view of the
judicial system in the island in which I have not taken into account
the supreme court at Madrid.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose that appeals to Madrid are now, naturally,
broken off.

Mr. Quinones. The right does not now exist.

Dr. Carroll. And at the same time appeals are not allowed to the
Supreme Court at Washington?

Mr. Quinones. No; there is no appeal to the tribunal there for
this reason: All suits on appeal are in suspension and await action
from Mr. McKinley.

Dr. Carroll. Do you understand that cases of appeal now pending
at Madrid lapse by virtue of the change in the status of the island?
1125 19

290

Mr. Quinones. That is a very grave question, which all the lawyers
here are thinking about very deepby. Before the signing of the pro-
tocol a great many cases were appealed to Madrid and were in litiga-
tion, but I suppose that the final treaty of peace at Paris will probably
dispose of the question. In other cases, where right of appeal has
been granted from the Supreme Court, the parties are awaitng deci-
sion from Washington.

Dr. Carroll. The judicial system of the United States in the States
and Territories, and in both State and Territorial courts, embraces the
system of juries. First, the grand jury, which is an inquisitive body
called together generally at the beginning of the term of a court to
inquire into criminal cases and to report indictments if they find prob-
able cause, which indictments are brought to trial in course of time by
the district attorney or prosecuting officer of the court, and these
indictments are always tried before the court with one or more judges
presiding and a jury of twelve men, and it requires the unanimous
vote of the twelve jurymen for either a sentence of guilt or acquittal.
The jury judges of the facts of the case, while the presiding judge
always lays down the law. You are, of course, familiar with all this.
I simply state it for the purpose of basing upon it a question as to
whether, in the establishment of a Territorial or other governmental
system in the island, the jury system could be adopted here to advan-
tage.

Mr. Quinones. I think not for the present, as I do not consider the
people in general sufficiently well educated to pass on questions of
that sort, and because just now political feeling runs very high.

Dr. Carroll. There might be some difficulty in adopting a system
of government and a judicial system for this island under the United
States Constitution which should leave out the jury system, particu-
larly the jury-trial system. I suppose that if the defendant in any case
were to demand trial by jury, under the Constitution of the United
States he could not be convicted unless he had such trial.

Mr. Quinones. If the adoption of the jury system is a constitutional
right of citizens of the United States, no matter what the result might
be in this country, we would be bound to accept it and would be glad
to accept it. Yet, as a lawyer and a man of conscience, I prefer judges
by prevention rather than judges by adoption. Under the system of
the audiencias as it to-day exists, all trials are conducted before three
judges at least, who are men of high standing in their profession.
These judges hear orally the accused, the witnesses, documents, and
everything relating to the case, and I am of the opinion that the
trained legal criterion of these three judges is more satisfactory than
that arrived at by a jury. In cases which might involve the passing
of capital sentence, or life imprisonment, the law requires the attend-
ance of at least five judges.

Dr. Carroll. There are not that many in the audieneia territorial,
are there?

Mr. Quinones. There are eight altogether.

Dr. Carroll. Are all of them here?

Mr. Quinones. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Are the criminal judges in Ponce and Mayaguez
considered a part of the audieneia territorial, or are they separate
from it?

Mr. Quinones. In criminal matters they exercise their functions
within their jurisdiction absolutely independently.

Dr. Carroll. Ah appeal, then, in a criminal case goes to Madrid?

291

Mr. Quinones. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. There are many in the United States who agree with
you that the judges, who are trained lawyers and who are generally
impartial men, are more likely to give a correct judgment in many crim-
inal cases than a jury; but it is the practice in all criminal courts/of the
United States for the judge to give a review of the testimony when
the case is submitted to the jury and to instruct the Jiiry upon all
the legal points, and then to lay the facts as developed by the testi-
mony so clearly before them.tkat they will b« able to consider them
and arrive at a right judgment. Are there any suggestions which you
have to make with regard to changes in the judicial system, or any
special features which you think it would be well to retain?

Mr. Quinones. Do you refer to judicial proceedings or to a judicial
constitution?

Dr. Carroll. To both.

Mr. Quinones. I think it would be advisable, for the present, to
retain our code of laws known as the Civil Code as it exists, with some
slight modification. This code has been our law in civil matters since
1890. It was formed by the codification of the old laws. It treats of
domestic relations, of contracts, and everything relating to civil
rights.

Dr. Carroll. What about the criminal code?

Mr. Quinones. I would say the same of that. There are some
slight alterations which should be made in that code.

Dr. Carroll. The Territorial system of the United States, as well
as the system of State government for the various States, includes an
attorney-general, who is the chief law officer of the State. It is his
function to advise the executive department in all cases where legal
counsel is required. It is also his function to superintend the opera-
tion of the various district or prosecuting attorneys throughout the
State or Territory. Would it be advisory to ingraft that system upon
the judicial system of this island?

Mr. Quinones. In each audiencia there is an officer called the
fiscal, whose duties are not a part of the administrative branch, but
do include that of seeing to the correct interpretation of the laws as
they exist. He has his assistants, who are all under his direction and
attend to the carrying out of his branch of service in the various dis-
tricts. These are simply his subordinates and carry out the work as
he directs them, but their principal function is chiefly exercised in
criminal cases. In civil cases they have jurisdiction only when the
law expressly grants it, as in the case of orphans, demented persons,
and persons who have no legal protection.

Dr. Carroll. Who represents the State in the prosecution of per-
sons on trial for criminal charges?

Mr. Quinones. The fiscal.

Dr. Carroll. Does the fiscal appear also in civil cases?

Mr. Quinones. Just the same as in criminal cases. It will be very
advantageous if our system of civil procedure can be considerably
simplified. Under the existing Spanish law the system is a lengthy
and a costly one.

Dr. Carroll. Can you explain in what respects the system is
intricate and costly?

Mr. Quinones. The cost has already been lessened by the abolition of
stamped paper. Formerly there were some proceedings which could
not be taken because the stamp fee was one half dollar on each page.
As to simplifying the procedure, this could be done by taking out cer-

292

tain steps in a case now required by existing law. Much of the
present circumlocution in litigation could be removed without affect-
ing the ends of justice in the least degree.

Dr. Carroll. We have a good deal of the same difficulty in civil
proceedings in the United States, where very often civil cases drag on
for years in one court or .another. Dickens wrote a book, as you
may recall, to indicate the circumlocution in the English courts.

Mr. Qtjinones. In Spain they have had lawsuits which have lasted
for a century. ' < • •

The ultimate aspirations of this country are toward statehood, but
we recognize that this can not be granted at once; but we desire to
have an autonomistic form of government as ample as the one we were
granted recently by Spain.

THE COURTS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. Will you give me a general idea of the system of
judicature here?

Mr. Francisco de P. Acuna (abogado). In the first place, we have
municipal judges, whose jurisdiction extends to cases involving up to
$200, with right of appeal to judges of first instance. The municipal
judges also have the right to try criminal cases of a petty kind.

Judges of first instance have within their jurisdiction all cases of a
civil character, with a right of appeal to the supreme court and with
a further right of cassation established by law to the court of appeal
in Madrid. This applies to civil law. As to criminal cases, the
judges of first instance, who are called judges of instruction, prepare
cases, and when prepared they are taken to the criminal audiencia, of
which there are two, one in Ponce and one at Mayaguez, which are
criminal exclusively, and the audiencia territorial, of this capital,
having both civil and criminal jurisdiction. Each audiencia has a
number of courts depending upon it.

Now, I wish to recommend to the commissioner the convenience of
altering the system of civil procedure analogous to the criminal pro-
cedure. Judges of first instance should prepare statements of dis-
cussion and evidence between the litigants, which statements or
summaries of the case should be passed on to the audiencia in one
single hearing. In this way a multitude of clela}^ on the part of per-
sons of bad faith, whose object is to draw out legal proceedings, will
be avoided.

There should be established a tribunal of cassation to take the place
of the same tribunal existing in Madrid, which has occupied itself
with supreme court questions up to this day. This is necessary in
order to have a court of review to pass on acts of the lower courts;
otherwise verdicts will depend on one court only , as to-day there is
no supreme court as there was formerly. These matters are for future
consideration only; other questions require immediate consideration
at the hands of the Government with respect to suits which have
already been referred to Madrid and as regards suits which were in
preparation for reference to Madrid. It is extremely necessary for the
Government to decide immediately whether it is obligatory to suppress
or do away with the necessity of appealing to the supreme court in

293

Madrid or not. Under the hypothecary law the right of appeal exists
against the decisions of the registrars of property to the judge; after
that to the audieneia; after that to the management of the regis-
trars of property in Madrid. This last right should be suppressed
immediately.

In mercantile law we have suits in bankruptcy, and the proceeding
is extremely long and costly, with great prejudice to creditors. These
proceedings should certainly be curtailed, substituting meetings of cred-
itors with powers to arrange all affairs in the bankruptcy proceedings.
There is also a proceeding for the suspension of payments, which pro-
duces disastrous results to commerce. The administration of his own
case by a merchant declaring himself unable to meet his engagements
should be taken from his hands. I suppose that the high powers of
the United States will feel inclined to establish the jury system here
in criminal matters. I do not consider the status of this population
sufficiently high to give this method of justice good results. It is
preferable to leave the system of criminal justice as it exists to-day.

Dr. Carroll. Does it work satisfactorily?

Mr. Acuna. . Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Without undue delay or bias?

Mr. Acuna. The administration of justice has gone on all right.
There have been cases where some judges have not been scrupulous,
but that has been owing to the judge and not to the law.

Dr. Carroll. We have juries in civil and criminal cases. In crimi-
nal Jaw we have the grand jury, which inquires into cases referred to
it by police justices or the prosecuting attorney. The grand jury is
also instructed by the court to inquire into any abuse of the law by
officers. In case they find anything against any person in any part of
the municipality they may make a presentment to the court, and in
case they believe it probable that a crime has been committed they
present an indictment to the court.

Mr. Acuna. With us the fiscal can also denunciate, as it is called,
any crime or illegal act which comes to his knowledge.

Dr. Carroll. Can he institute proceedings, on his own motion, in
civil or criminal cases?

Mr. Acuna. Yes. The court has to admit his accusation and open
proceedings to try the person accused. The jury is not necessary in
petty cases. The moment the jury system is established here it will
be necessary to change the entire system of judicature.

Dr. Carroll. In criminal cases the jury are the judge of the facts,
while the presiding judge decides all questions of law.

Mr. Acuna. Here tribunals perform the same part that juries do in
the United States.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose if anyone brought to trial here, under the
laws of the United States, were to appeal to the Supreme Court in
Washington and ask for a trial by jury, under the Constitution of the
United States he would have to be granted that trial; but if the
accused made no such appeal, the matter might pursue the usual
course here. It would be better to establish a jury system right
away.

Mr. Acuna. There is here a distinct difference between proceedings
of private parties and those in which the State is a party. We have
a separate court called the administration court, which takes under its
jurisdiction charges against high officials as regards infringement of
the law of this country, as well as against any other independent cen-
ter of government in the island. This court is composed of the presi-

294

dent of the audiencia and two judges, and to deliver sentence two
members of the provisional deputation, who must be doctors of law,
are further required. For procedure in such cases there is separate
legislation, distinct from the legislation applicable to civil procedure.
It will be better if in these cases the judges are taken from among
the judges of the audiencia without having doctors of law from the
deputation, and these are questions which, without any inconvenience,
could be submitted to Washington on appeal.

Dr. Carroll. Suits between private parties under our system
would not be carried to the Federal Supreme Court unless some
question were raised involving the construction of a provision of the
Constitution or a law of Congress.

Mr. Acuna. I consider in the matter of the registration of property
that the Spanish law is good as it stands, but the administration of it
by the employees is very corrupt and causes great prejudice to per-
sons who have to make use of these services. If a document is pre-
sented to the registrar for registration, he has authority to refuse
inscription for the document, for which he has to give his reasons.
The trouble is that the registrar is not held accountable for having
refused to inscribe a document, even when the document conforms
completely to the requirements of the law. A person who has been
refused inscription for his document has the right of appeal as in
other civil cases, but even if he gains his appeal he has no remedy
against the registrar. On review the court will issue a mandamus, i
but there is no remedy by which to recover the costs on the appeal.
The registrar has an authority which is entirely unnecessary in this,
that if the judge of first instance or the president of the audiencia
decides against his decision, he has the further right of appealing
himself, which causes immense harm to property holders.

Dr. Carroll. You would recommend an immediate change, then,
in the powers of the officials in that office?

Mr. Acuna. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Can you point to the law in which the officials of the
registrar's office have this power?

Mr. Acuna. It is found among the first paragraphs of the hypothe-
cary law. I consider that from the decisions of the registrar of prop-
erty there should be only one appeal, and that should be to the sala
gobierna audiencia. The registrar can absolutely intervene and pre-
vent the sale of property if he does not wish the sale effected, and he
sometimes takes advantage of this to say to the party interested in
securing the inscription of the document, "If you don't give me so
much money, I won't register your document. I will appeal it all the
way to the Madrid court." The present registrar of this district is a
lawyer, but he is away on leave, and he is allowed to appoint a, sub-
stitute, whose acts he is accountable for. I think that the office of
registrar of property should not be a purely mechanical one. It should
always have a seal of judicial examination to it, but the appeal from
the registrar to the sala gobierna audiencia should be immediate and
be decided within four or five days.

Dr. Carroll. How are the judges of the supreme court and the
courts of first instance appointed?

Mr. Acuna. Under the old rule judges were all named by the colo-
nial minister in Madrid, but under the autonomistic government which
has been in force since February of this year they were named by the
council and secretary and approved by the Governor-General.

Dr. Carroll. What was their term of office?

295

Mr. Acuna. There was no limit. In the autonomistic government
the Government could remove them by process in case of any laxity
in their administrations.

Dr. Carroll. What are the salaries of the judges?

Mr. Acuna. Judges of first instance have distinct salaries accord-
ing to their grade, entrado, ascenso, and termino. The first receive
about $2,000, the second $2,500, and the third $3,000. Judges of the
audiencia receive $3,000, the president of the sala gobiernaand fiscal
$5,000, and the president of the court is allowed $500 more for expenses.

Dr. Carroll. Are they allowed any fees of any kind?

Mr. Acuna. To accept a fee would be considered a crime.

Dr. Carroll. How many judges are there of first instance?

Mr. Acuna. In the capital there are two, and there are ten all
together.

Dr. Carroll. Is that the right number?

Mr. Acuna. That is two too many. In Vega Baja and ITtuado they
are unnecessary.

Dr. Carroll. Is there capital punishment here?

Mr. Acuna. Yes; by means of an iron collar, which is screwed
about the neck ; but in the few cases where it was ordered reprieves
have come from Spain. The last cases were under military rule. At
least six or seven years have passed since there was a case under
civil administration.

CRIMINAL AND CIVIL CASES.

Arecibo, P. R. , January lJf, 1899.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Alfredo Arnaldo, judge of first instance and instruction of
Arecibo :

Dr. Carroll. Does your jurisdiction extend to all criminal cases?

Judge Arnaldo. Over all criminal cases which are brought for
action here, except cases of arson, robbing in gangs, and robbing in
the country, as to which tribunals or commissions take the place which
was held by the criminal court of Mayaguez.

Dr. Carroll. Do you hold court here or at Mayaguez?

Judge Arnaldo. Here.

Dr. Carroll. I want to ask you some questions about the character
of the crimes which are most common in this part of the country.

Judge Arnaldo. These times we are now passing through are
extraordinary. Most cases brought before me are either burning of
estates or robbery directed against persons, and all bearing the char-
acter of collective crimes — that is, of conspiracy with the intention of
robbery.

Dr. Carroll. Leaving out of view these extraordinary crimes,
what are the more ordinary ones?

Judge Arnaldo. Generally small thefts from the coffee estates and
assault. But there is really a very small amount of crime here.

Dr. Carroll. Do cases of disorder come before you or before mag-
istrates, such as the breaking of the peace — the more serious of such
cases?

Judge Arnaldo. Any violation of the municipal ordinances is tried
by the municipal judge, but he has not jurisdiction over any other
matters.

296

Dr. Carroll. Are there any other magistrates in the city besides
the mayor, or person who hears eases of violation of municipal ordi-
nances'?

Judge Arnaldo. Within this district, only myself. I would sug-
gest, as a very important point, that a great many of these disorders
and robberies are committed, I think, from political bias. I think
that people who have committed these crimes have, in very many
instances, done so foolishly thinking that in that way they are helping
the American forces. Before the American invasion here there was a
great political turmoil, and to-day the result is being noticed. There
are many crimes being committed for which there is no proof, and
many persons are committed on charges for which there are false
proofs, and for that reason I think that all persons detained upon
such charges ought to be let out.

Dr. Carroll. That is, you think members of one party are attempt-
ing to have those of the other found guilty, although they may not be
guilty?

Judge Arnaldo. Those who were at the head of Spanish politics
had absolute power, and, having the monopoly of every privilege, they
are naturally odious to the people in general. Upon the American
occupation this feeling naturally broke loose and found vent in these
various disorders, and, besides, there was a theory that property was
going to belong to everybody. That was the opinion held by the
country people.

Dr. Carroll. I have seen it stated that the military officers have
reported from various points that it is impossible to have these crimi-
nals who are guilty of crimes against property brought to judgment;
that in many cases after they have been brought to trial they have
not been sentenced, although the proofs were overwhelming.

Judge Arnaldo. As regards the Mayaguez court, that is not so.
That court is too severe. The people here are very shrewd in defend-
ing themselves.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much delay in bringing criminals to trial?

Judge Arnaldo. The penal system could not be worse. To begin
with, they have to form what they call a summary, which covers from
500 to 1,000 sheets, and the work of preparing this is in the hands of
the judge of first instance and instruction. The summary is the initia-
tion of the case. Then the case passes to Mayaguez from here, and it
is six months before there is a hearing.

Dr. Carroll. Is the fault with the penal code or with the method
of procedure?

Judge Arnaldo. It is with the procedure. It requires too much
detail.

Dr. Carroll. I have understood that the penal code is a good one.

Judge Arnaldo. Yes; but the method of procedure requires simpli-
fication. We have a project for the simplification of legal procedure,
of introducing the jury system, so that cases can be terminated within
twenty days.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be, in your judgment, a wise thing so to
modify the present law as that people shall not be allowed to be put
in jail without an immediate hearing of some kind?

Judge Arnaldo. We have a law at present which requires that
within twenty-four hours they go to the prisoner and take his decla-
ration; but it means nothing.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States, when a man is arrested he is
generally taken before a justice of the peace, and he has the right to

297

ask for an immediate hearing, or his counsel may waive an immediate
hearing and await a hearing- before the grand jury; but in every case
the man has the right to demand a bearing.

Judge Arnaldo. The introduction of the jury system here is an
indispensable improvement.

Dr. Carroll. No man can be arrested in the United States unless
by an officer of the law and without a warrant from a justice of the
peace, except when taken by an officer who finds the man actually
engaged in the commission of the crime. The warrant is issued on
an affidavit of the person who makes the complaint.

Judge Arnaldo. It is actually true here that there are persons in
our prisons whose cases are being tried in Mayaguez.

Dr. Carroll. There is one other point about the system in the
United States. If anyone there swears out a warrant falsely, the
injured party can proceed for false imprisonment at civil law and
recover heavy damages.

Judge Arnaldo. The same thing exists here. When the judge
pronounces sentence exonerating the man from a crime he also accuses
the person who instigated the case of false witnessing.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that many persons are now in jail of
whom it is likely some are innocent; that some persons out of pure
motives of revenge have put charges against their names and had
them put in prison, and that it is a custom here after a person has
been in prison a month or so for the prison or court authorities to tell
him to go, and nothing more is done about the matter.

Judge Arnaldo. The situation is even stranger than that. After
putting the person at liberty, the case still goes on at Mayaguez.
When they have found out all about it they send it back here. It is
a gigantic work that counts for nothing.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me they ought to have a court here to
inquire into the serious cases — the more serious police cases. It would
be wise to have in every city a court that could deal with them at
once.

Judge Arnaldo. They should be correctioual tribunals.

Dr. Carroll. Corresponding to our police courts in New York City,
for example?

Judge Arnaldo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. It must put the municipality to great expense in
having so many prisoners confined for so long a time?

Judge Arnaldo. Yes; it is a crying evil. The number of reams of
paper consumed every month in the preparation of summaries is
amazing.

Dr. Carroll. Did you have to use stamped paper for that?

Judge Arnaldo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think a petty jury would do for the trial of
cases of arson, burglary, and murder?

Judge Arnaldo. Yes:

Dr. Carroll. It is a theory of the courts of the United States that
the people shall be represented in this case hj^. lawyer called a prose-
cuting attorney, whose business it is to prepare the case and put it in
shape for trial. Then 'the judge sits and judges between the State
and the criminal. Is that the theory here?

Judge Arnaldo. Yes; the same thing.

Dr. Carroll. Then no change is needed in that respect?

Judge Arnaldo. It is the procedure which needs correction here.

Dr. Carroll. Would there be a .place in this system for the grand

298

jury? (Here Dr. Carroll explained at length the functions and duties
of the grand jury.)

Judge Arnaldo. I think it would be preferable to leave the prefer-
ment of complaints to judges.

Dr. Carroll. One theory in connection with the grand jury is that
it will be a protection to innocent people, and prevent some cases
coming before the court which should not be brought there.

Judge Arnaldo. It is an ingenious system and has its merits.

Dr. Carroll. But would not be expedient here?

Judge Arnaldo. As regards the change of judicial system, it should
be done wholly because towns here are small and people are all friends
of each other.

Dr. Carroll. That is a difficulty we have in the United States,
and for that reason challenges of jurymen are allowed on the part of
the district attorney. For example, be may challenge a juryman
because he finds that he was a business partner or a relative of the
accused.

Judge Arnaldo. The same system is followed wherever they have
a jury.

Dr. Carroll. Some lawyers in San Juan were doubtful about the
success of the jury system here.

Judge Arnaldo. I think it would be wise, without doubt. This is a
Latin country. We have followed the old Roman system; but to-day,
as we are entering a period of more upright administration of justice,
the people should administer their own justice.

Dr. Carroll. I think the objection on the part of the lawyers of
San Juan was owing to a misapprehension of the scope of the jury,
thinking that laymen were to be brought in to decide questions of
law, which is not the case. Were there many cases in the island of
burglary or murder before these outbreaks that have occurred since
the occupation?

Judge Arnaldo. There has always been a great deal of petty thiev-
ing, but not burglary.

Dr. Carroll. What about murder?

Judge Arnaldo. Very little of that. In this country one can always
pass through any part with any amount of money and without fear of
molestation.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much in the way of offenses against property ;
is there much litigation over titles to property?

Judge Arnaldo. Since the registration of property was introduced
lawsuits have increased considerably. There are not many to-day.
We have a very fine law of registration.

Dr. Carroll. Does that law require that all parcels of property
shall be registered?

Judge Arnaldo. No. Registry is voluntary, but as inscription of
property brings advantages, naturally owners desire to have their
property inscribed.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any questions arising in the courts regard-
ing the property passing by descent, for instance, from father to son?
Is it necessary that the will shall be probated and that the son shall
be placed in possession of the title by a process of law?

Judge Arnaldo. That depends upon whether the heir is a minor
or not. If he is a minor, then they have to appoint guardians. The
will is taken to the registrar, who inscribes it and that becomes evi-
dence of ownership. If the father dies intestate, they make a docu-
ment of intestacy, and that is inscribed.

299

Dr. Carroll. Are mortgages also inscribed?

Judge Arnaldo. Everything is inscribed that has any bearing or
any effect upon real estate titles.

Dr. Carroll. When did the last capital punishment occur here?

Judge Arnaldo. In 1882.

Dr. Carroll. In the law regarding murder, do they distinguish
between murder and manslaughter of different degrees?

Judge Arnaldo. There is plain homicide; then there is homicide
with aggravating circumstances, and there are classifications. There
is a high grade of murder called infanticide, and this is always pun-
ished by capital punishment. The penalty for murder committed in
a row is fourteen years of penal servitude.

COST AND DELAY OF PROCEEDINGS.

Gobo, P. R., January 15, 1899.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner, at the residence of Mr. Leopold Strube, whose
estate lies partly in the municipality of Arecibo and partly in Utuado.]

Mr. Strube. Recently I had trouble with a man who made a per-
sonal attack upon me. The next day after the attack he tried to steal
my horse. I followed him up instantly, and caught him and the
horse and made my complaint to the commissioner of the district.
The value of the horse was only about $25. The next day I had to
make my statement before the judge at Arecibo. Every horse here
has a certain brand, and I had to show the brand of my horse. The
judge gave me my horse in deposito. The next day the same man was
here again making trouble. The case had to go from Arecibo to
Utuado, because the offense was committed in that district. Three
days later I went to Utuado to see the judge, and to inquire whether
or not I had to make another statement before him. He did not seem to
know whether it was necessary or not, but told me that probably I
would not have to make another statement. He also told me that the
case wrould be tried in Mayaguez in June or July next. At that time
I will have to go there with my witnesses. The man is now at large,
and if in the mean while, as is probable, he leaves this district — for all
that class of men are here to-day and the next day somewhere else —
they will not be able to find him. Then I will have to bear the cost
of my journey, which will be about $50, besides the loss of time. It
will be a week at least. This week is in addition to the two days
already spent at Arecibo and Utuado. I would have to get to Maya-
guez the day before the hearing, and could not well leave there until
the day after. It takes two days to go and twx> days to return.

Dr. Carroll. Why did you go to Utuado?

Mr. Strube. I went first to Arecibo. My land lies partly in Arecibo
and partly in Utuado, where the man stole the horse, but I caught
him in the Arecibo district. That fact appeared in my statement, and
when the Arecibo judge saw it he delivered him to the judge in
Utuado. The man was immediately released without bail.

Dr. Carroll. If you had a village government here, you would
have a man on the ground to hear such a case at once. It would be
a great improvement in the administration of justice to have a judge
here.

Mr. Strube. Yes; but the difficulty is in getting a justice.

300

WORK OF JUDGE OF FIRST INSTANCE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 17, 1899.
Mr. Jose L. Casalduc, ex-notary of Utuado, now procurator and
property owner:

Dr. Carroll. Are you fiscal for the municipal district or the judi-
cial district?

Mr. Casalduc. For the judicial district.

Dr. Carroll. What is the name of the judicial district in which
Utuado is situated?

Mr. Casalduc. It is the judicial district of Utuado, comprising
Utuado, Lares, Ciales, and Ad juntas.

Dr. Carroll. You have no criminal court, I believe, in this dis-
trict. You have to go to Mayaguez for that?

Mr. Casalduc. Yes; we go to Mayaguez.

Dr. Carroll. But I understand that you have a judge of first
instance here.

Mr. Casalduc. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Does he prepare cases for the criminal court?

Mr. Casalduc. Yes. It would be more convenient to have an audi-
encia of Utuado. We should be connected with that of Ponce, as we
are within easy reach of Ponce.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be better still to have a court here in
Utuado to hear and determine criminal cases, with appeal to the audi-
encia territorial?

Mr. Casalduc. Under the new rule which has been promulgated
in San Juan three judges hear the case, and when there is appeal
five judges sit.

Dr. Carroll. That is, three judges in Mayaguez, Ponce, or San
Juan?

Mr. Casalduc. In San Juan; but the three judges who tried the
case originally form part of the court of appeal.

Dr. Carroll. That is contrary to good juridic principles, is it not?

Mr. Casalduc. Where they had a voice in deciding a case originally
they would not go back on that decision.

Dr. Carroll. Then you can not get any independent judgment from
them?

Mr. Casalduc. Formerly these appeals went to Madrid, and this is
an attempt to dispose of them somehow.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose that when the civil government of Porto
Rico is established there will be an appeal to the Supreme Court of
the United States. What class of cases are determinable here in
Utuado?

Mr. Casalduc. Criminal cases are only prepared here and sent to
Mayaguez.

Dr. Carroll. What about ordinary police cases, such as petty
thefts? Must they go to Mayaguez also?

Mr. Casalduc. All have to go to Mayaguez. The people take
special pains not to give any information about robberies or about
any crime committed, because they understand that they will be
called to Mayaguez, and that means several days lost without any com-
pensation.

Dr. Carroll. Are they not paid for it?

Mr. Casalduc. There was an order directing the payment of

301

expenses, but the employees of the court got together and whenever
bills for such expenses were presented these employees said there was
no money. Eventually these employees bought up these claims and
had them cashed themselves.

Dr. Carroll. Then the only cases that are heard here and finally
determined are violations of municipal ordinances?

Mr. Casalduc. Small cases that are called in the Spanish code
faltas, which can only be punished by imprisonment for seven days
or so, are tried by the municipal judge, and appeal lies from his sen-
tence to the judge of first instance.

Dr. Carroll. Has the judge of first instance in such cases final
decision?

Mr. Casalduc. Yes; and in civil cases the judge of first Instance
gives verdict, with an appeal to the audiencia territorial.

Dr. Carroll. What suggestions would you make of reform in the
constitution of the courts and in judicial procedure?

Mr. Casalduc. Small cases, such as robberies for small amounts,
and police cases generally should be tried by juries composed of per-
sons taken from the place itself, which cases should have a prelimi-
nary hearing here, and afterwards, if necessary, be sent elsewhere.

Dr. Carroll. Do you not think the audiencia should be estab-
lished here?

Mr. Casalduc. Yes; that is what must be done. This being a cen-
trally located town, should naturally have such an institution.

Dr. Carroll. Then you would have one here, instead of compelling
people to go to Mayaguez?

Mr. Casalduc. Yes. In that way most of the small crimes would
not go unpunished. If a man to-day should rob me of my horse, I
would not make an accusation against him, because it would cost me
$50 to make the journey to Mayaguez.

Dr. Carroll. There is a jail here, I suppose?

Mr. Casalduc. There is no building here specially for that purpose.
We luwe a provisional prison, but it is in very bad condition. There
is not a single penitentiary in the island.

Dr. Carroll. Is there not one at San Juan?

Mr. Casalduc. There is a prison there, but not a penitentiary.

Dr. Carroll. By penitentiary do you mean a place for reforming
criminals?

Mr. Casalduc. Yes. Here they mix up the real criminals with
those who are not natural criminals. They do not teach the prisoners
any trade nor give them any work to do. The prisons here really are
schools for bandits, because those who go in not as criminals, but as
transgressors of the law, come out criminals.

Dr. Carroll. What do you do with juvenile offenders?

Mr. Casalduc. They put them in the prison with the rest of the
prisoners. They are very behindhand in these matters. Another
thing worth mentioning: The judiciary should be well paid, to remove
the judges from temptation. They receive small salaries, while the
secretaries of the government are paid enormous salaries. The gov-
ernment can remove judges whenever it sees fit. That was the rule
and I presume is still. Take, for instance, a judge of first instance
in Ponce, who has to take cognizance of from 4,000 to 5,000 cases a
year. He receives $187 a month only. He is naturally exposed to all
sorts of temptations.

Dr. Carroll. What do the clerks make?

Mr. Casalduc. They have no salaries at all. They have fees.

302

Dr. Carroll. I should think it would be better to give them a
fixed salary.

Mr. Casalduc. It is owing to this fee system that justice runs as
it does here. Anybody who wants to get out of prison can do so if
he has $100.

Dr. Carroll. Is there a tariff of fees for the clerks?

Mr. Casalduc. There is a tariff in civil cases. There is no tariff
in criminal cases.

Dr. Carroll. Does not the criminal pay for his defense?

Mr. Casalduc. The rich ones do; but you don't see the rich ones
up for trial, because they buy themselves off before the case comes
up for trial. A popular saying here is that "The prison was not
built for people with black coats."

Dr. Carroll. Have you any suggestion of amendments of the
penal code, or is it generally satisfactory?

Mr. Casalduc. It ought to be reformed where it relates to petty
crimes. For instance, if you have a servant in your* house who takes
$25 from you, he can be sentenced to six years; that is, for what are
called domestic crimes.

Dr. Carroll. Then they make a distinction as to domestic crimes?

Mr. Casalduc. They punish the servant the more, because in addi-
tion to the robbery, he is guilty of an abuse of confidence.

Dr. Carroll. What would be the sentence of a man found guilty
of burglary?

Mr. Casalduc. There are several subsections to that. The penalty
would depend on whether it were done during the day or at night and
whether or not there are two or more persons concerned in the bur-
glary. If it takes place in a country district, and there are more than
one, the sentence is twelve years.

Dr. Carroll. In that case is it supposed to be a conspiracy?

Mr. Casalduc. It is supposed to be in band or brigandage.

Dr. Carroll. Does the element of conspiracy enter into that?

Mr. Casald uc. They call it robbery in gangs, and everybody who
has a direct or indirect part in it is liable to imprisonment. •

Dr. Carroll. Are there many cases of petty theft?

Dr. Casalduc. It is the case that happens the most here, and if the
present procedure were changed the crimes would soon be stopped.

Dr. Carroll. Have there been any serious crimes in this munici-
pal district in the last eight or ten years, apart from such as inay have
grown up as a result of the war?

Mr. Casalduc. There were very few. The people had a terror for
the civil guard — it was not a respect for the law — and now that that
terror has disappeared with the disappearance of the civil guard, I
don't know whether there will be such cases or not.

Dr. Carroll. There have been no capital cases here?

Mr. Casalduc. A case of homicide is so unusual that a case of assas-
sination would create a great deal of excitement here.

SPECIAL TRIALS OF BANDITS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Mayaguez, P. R. , January 2Jf, 1899.
Maj. Charles L. Cooper, of the Fifth United States Cavalry, made
a statement the substance of which is as follows :
There were a great many depredations committed in this district by

303

persons who had cause for revenge against proprietors. Cases accumu-
lated before the civil courts, which seemed either to be powerless or
indifferent to the trial of them. In consequence of this slowness of
action, General Henry constituted a military commission of three per-
sons, with the secretary, and this commission tried three or four cases
of a minor character. The sentence of imprisonment was imposed in
prisons of the United States. This seemed to stimulate the civil courts
to action, as it was intended to do. Major Cooper believes that it would
be a wise thing to institute a mounted police for the rural districts,
composed of natives. He spoke of the police of the city as excellent
men, and he believed that by organizing a secret service the marauders
could in many cases be apprehended and be brought to justice. The
cases before the military commission were tried under international
law, as declared by Lieber in 1862 or 1863. Major Cooper stated that
the planters very seldom took measures for self-defense, because it
was a principle of law that they were not allowed to defend themselves,
but were held responsible before the court for any act committed in
defense of their domiciles. He said he had been told this over and
over again by Porto Rican lawyers. On examination of the penal
code it appears that defense of one's person or family or domicile is
justifiable, but it is stated that subsequent proceedings in such cases
included imprisonment of the defender and such a course of legal
responsibility as to deter people from the ordinary means of self-
defense. It is claimed that this is not due to the law itself, but to the
corruption of the courts, and that judges appointed from the Penin-
sula took this means of adding to their income, requiring persons who
were arrested for acts committed in self-defense to pay a good round
sum to regain their liberty.

PROCEDURE IN CRIMINAL CASES.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San German, P. R., January 26, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. I recognize you as one of the judges who presided at
a trial in Mayaguez which I attended a few days ago. Has the trial
been concluded?

Mr. Joaquim Servera Silva, registrar. It was finished Tuesday
morning.

Dr. Carroll. What was the result?

Mr. Silva. The sentence will be published on Monday. The court
has already arrived at its decision. I will have to go and sign the sen-
tence on Monday. They publicly put in provisional liberty three of
the prisoners, having taken that step because three of them will be
acquitted.

Dr. Carroll. I would be very glad, indeed, if you could give me
the steps that were taken in that case from the beginning to the end.
I saw a part of the case, and I would be glad to get a better idea of
the Spanish method of procedure.

Mr. Silva. There was in this case a private accuser, who is called
a "denouncer." The denouncer was the aggrieved person, Don Juan
Sein. Immediately after the denouncement the judge of instruction
took the first steps to inquire about the matter.

Dr. Carroll. Was the complaint made to him?

Mr. Silva. They first complained to the alcalde verbally, and then
a complaint was made in writing to the municipal judge of Anasco.

304

Dr. Carroll. Did the alcalde sign any document or do anything
to expedite the case?

Mr. Silva. Under the Spanish law any aggrieved person has the
right to make complaint to any government official, and this official
is obliged to refer the complaint to the competent judicial authority.

Dr. Carroll. Then it was placed in the hands of the judge of first
instance.

Mr. Silva. The judge of first instance in this case is what they call
the instructing judge, who looks into the case, attending to the claims
of the denouncer. The judge takes the necessary steps to prepare
the case. When the judge of first instance considers that he has
obtained all the necessary proofs and data within his power, he draws
up a summary and passes the case on to the audiencia.

Dr. Carroll. Does he cite witnesses?

Mr. Silva. Yes; he calls witnesses and examines them under
oath. The testimony given before a judge of first instance is not
considered as evidence, and the same witness may testify in a com-
pletely opposite way before the audiencia without rendering himself
liable to punishment for false swearing. The reason for this is that
the Spanish civil guard here used to illtreat people, and before the
judge of first instance they would give any sort of evidence to get
away from the guard. But when reforms were introduced here the
Spanish law said that the conclusive evidence was only that given
before the audiencia.

Dr. Carroll. Is that law or only practice?

Mr. Silva. It is a new law of criminal procedure. There are two
exceptions to the rule above stated. For instance, when the judge of
first instance has to take cognizance of a matter which has to be
inquired into on the spot, and which the audiencia could not examine
into, such as blood stains, which would not last until the audiencia
could meet, or the evidence of a witness who desires to leave the
country and make his formal statement before doing so.

Dr. Carroll. From the judge of first instance is the case reported
directly to the audiencia or to the fiscal?

Mr. Silva. The case is passed from the judge of first instance to
the audiencia. The audiencia examines the summary, and if it does
not consider that the case has been properly drawn — for instance, if
certain witnesses have not been examined who should have been — they
return the case to the judge of first instance, recommending what they
consider convenient in the case. Should they consider the case com-
plete in its drawing by the judge of first instance, they draw up a
document in which they put on record that the case has been properly
drawn up by the judge of first instance, and they pass it over to the
fiscal. The fiscal then studies the case and prepares a preliminary
opinion and passes the documents over to the defending counsel, who
present in writing their preliminary defense. The court then studies
the preliminary defense and appoints a day for the first hearing.

Dr. Carroll. How is the case opened by the lawyer for the prose-
cution— in an address to the court, as is the custom in the United
States, or do they proceed at once to examine witnesses?

Mr. Silva. Each party has his well-defined duties in the case. The
court is opened by the president asking each person the regulation
questions as to age, birthplace, etc. ; then he allows the fiscal to address
each of the prisoners, asking such questions as he thinks convenient.
After the fiscal is through the lawyer for the defense may also put
questions to the prisoner. The witnesses called by the fiscal are first

305

examined and then the witnesses called by the defense. Should the
court think it necessary to take evidence at the scene of the crime, it
has the power to constitute a commission from among the judges and
hold court on the spot where the crime was committed. When all the
evidence of witnesses has been taken, the evidence of documents or of
exhibits, such as clothing, chemical substances that have been analyzed,
and other inanimate testimony generally, is taken. Then the presi-
dent calls on the fiscal to substantiate or correct his original accusa-
tion, which he does. He also calls on the lawyer for the defense to
substantiate or rectif}^ his original defense, which he does by writing.
Then the court retires and within three days gives sentence.

Dr. Carroll. Is a majority sufficient to convict?

Mr. Silva. Yes; and dissenting votes are put into writing, with the
reasons therefor, together with the documents of the case, which are
sent to the supreme court.

Dr. Carroll. In case verdict of death is decided upon, what is the
next proceeding?

Mr. Silva. In all sentences the prisoner has the right of appeal,
but in such a grave sentence as that of death, whether the prisoner
appeals or not, the law implies that the prisoner appeals, and the case
proceeds as if appeal had been made.

Dr. Carroll. In the trial of a case are there rules governing the
fiscal or lawyers for the defense in raising points of law?

Mr. Silva. Yes; they can only call as witnesses those whom they
have named in their previous documents. Under the old system they
used to be able to call witnesses at will and could spread the case out
to any length by saying they had new witnesses to call.

Dr. Carroll. The method of criminal procedure in the United
States is very different from this, and I will give you a brief outline
of it. Perhaps you are already familiar with it.

Mr. Silva. No; I do not know the jury system of the United States,
but I know the jury system of Spain.

Dr. Carroll. In cases of the commission of a crime the matter is
brought to the attention of a justice of the peace. Unless the prisoner
waives a hearing, he proceeds to give a hearing at a date determined
upon. The prisoner usually has counsel from the time he is put under
arrest, and this counsel may waive all proceedings before the justice
of the peace, knowing that the case must come before the grand jury.

Mr. Silva. That is the same system as in Spain.

Dr. Carroll. In case it is a bailable offense, the offender may be
released by furnishing proper bonds to await the action of the grand
jury. In a more serious case of crime the offender is held in prison.
The grand jury is composed of from twenty to twenty-four men. The
case goes from the justice of the peace before the grand jury, being
presented to the grand jury by the fiscal, or prosecuting attorney. The
prosecuting attorney names the witnesses he has, and the grand jury
may allow him to examine them or they may proceed to examine them
themselves. After they have heard all the witnesses who are witnesses
for the accusation, as it is an entirely ex parte proceeding, they pro-
ceed, by vote of the majority, to determine whether there is probable
guilt or not. Then, if they vote that there is probable guilt, the prose-
cuting attorney proceeds to draw up a formal indictment, in which the
offense or offenses are stated in legal terms. The foreman of the
grand jury then presents this indictment to the court which instructed
it. The judge then causes the prisoner to be brought before him.
1125—20

306

The charges in the indictment are stated to the prisoner, and he is
asked to plead guilty or not guilty. He usually does so through his
counsel. Then the prosecuting attorney moves that a date be set for
the trial of the case. This may be agreed to by the counsel for the
defense or they may ask for a longer time for preparation. Before the
case comes to trial the counsel for the defense umy present a demurrer
to the indictment, alleging that it is defective and moving to quash
the indictment. On a day appointed the court hears arguments for
and against that motion, the prosecuting attorne}7 representing the
people. If the judge decides that the indictment is good, a day for
the trial is set and the commissioner of juries is notified to have a
number of persons qualified to sit as jurors present on the trial day.

From the persons present they proceed to select jurymen, putting
it to each man whether he is a relative of the accused or an enemy or
in any way interested or biased in the case. If it appears from this
or any other reasons that any person can not give a fair verdict in the
case according to the testimony, the judge tells him to step aside. In
addition to this, the law allows a certain number of absolute chal-
lenges, both by the counsel for the defense and b3r the prosecuting
attorney. The jury duly impaneled and sworn, the prosecuting
attorney proceeds to state his case, giving a history of it, and he then
proceeds to call his witnesses, whom he examines himself. Then the
witnesses are turned over to the counsel for the defense, who have
great latitude in course of cross-examination. When a witness is
asked a question which the counsel on either side considers objection-
able, the counsel tells the witness not to answer, and appeals to the
judge, giving the grounds therefor. The counsel on each side insists
that the judge shall keep in his own place, and if he asks too many
questions, the probability is thejr will ask him whether he is inclined
to try the case as well as to judge it. After the witnesses for the
prosecution have been heard, the counsel for the defense opens with
an address, in which he reviews the evidence given by the prosecution
and indicates the theory that the defense will take in the case. Then,
when all the testimony is in, the lawyers on either side address the
court in support of the testimony that has been given. Then the judge
charges the jury; that is, he instructs them in points of law, it being
understood that the province of the jury is to determine the facts
according to the evidence, while they receive their instructions in the
law from the judge. The jury then retire to a room set apart for them,
in which they are free from all public interruption, and there they pro-
ceed to consider what their verdict shall be. It requires a unanimous
verdict of guilt to establish guilt. There are many other incidental
steps in a case of this kind. For example, before the case is tried
there may be a writ of habeas corpus sued out before a law judge and
an inquiry held as to the process by which a prisoner is held. It is to
prevent imprisonment on false accusations. Does the Spanish jury
law correspond to this in any respect?

Mr. Silva. There are a great many points of similarity. In such
points as the right of challenge, the retiring of the jury, the right of
examining jurymen before they are impaneled, and in several other
points there is almost complete resemblance.

Dr. Carroll. Is it your judgment that the jury system would work
well in the trial of criminal cases in the island?

Mr. Silva. Before replying to that I should have to think quite a
good deal. The jury system is a great system, but if it is going to be
given to the people, it requires that the people who are going to dis-

307

pense justice thereby should have a considerable degree of culture and
education.

Dr. Carroll. That is not considered at all necessary in the United
States. It is simply required that a man should have his natural fac-
ulties, a fair mind, be able to weigh evidence, and be honest enough
to give his verdict on the side on which the weight of evidence inclines.
The counsel on each side give a complete analysis of the testimony so
as to instruct the jury, and the judge presiding in the case gives a
complete explication of all points of law, and tells them that they
must be governed by those instructions.

Mr. Silva. I supposed that in the United States a juryman is required
to know how to read and write. According to what you require of the
juryman will be the success of the system. They are not required to
examine documents.

DEFINITIONS OF CRIMES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Humacao, P. R. , February 1, 1899.
Mr. Salvador Fulladosa, judge of first instance and instruction:

Dr. Carroll. I wish to ask you some questions about judicial mat-
ters. What is your judicial district?

Mr. Fulladosa. My district embraces Humacao, Fajardo, Naguabo,
Vieques, Yabucoa, Juncos, and Piedras.

Dr. Carroll. Your function, I suppose, is to prepare cases for the
audiencia?

Mr. Fulladosa, As the judge of the district, I have subordinate
judges in each municipality. In civil cases matters not exceeding
$200 are settled by the municipal judge, with right of appeal to me as
district judge. In criminal matters the municipal judge or alcalde
has to prepare the case within a period of three days and send it to
me, and I have to see whether it is prepared right and that no neces-
sary parts of the case are missing. If the case is not fully prepared,
I cite witnesses before me and continue the preparation of the case
until I consider that it is fully drawn up. Then I sign it and send it
to the court in San Juan for trial. In civil cases I have jurisdiction
to any amount and give judgment here, besides my jurisdiction to
hear and determine cases on appeal from municipal judges.

Dr. Carroll. Then your functions as judge are really confined to
civil cases?

Mr. Fulladosa. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. There is no reason in the world why you should not
be judge in criminal cases also.

Mr. Fulladosa. There existed here formerly a law by which judges
throughout the island could sentence in criminal cases, but when oral
trials were introduced that power was taken away.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States a larger power is given to the
fiscals. The latter prepare the brief on the part of the people, while
the attorney for the defense prepares the brief in behalf of the pris-
oner.

Mr. Fulladosa. It is most ridiculous that a man who steals a plate
should have to be tried in San Juan. The system causes a block in
the wheels of justice. »

Dr. Carroll. It is a judicial absurdity.

308

Mr. Fulladosa. My function in criminal cases is merely that of
preparation, which is hardly the proper function of a judge. It is my
duty to classify crimes prepared by me for trial; to say whether the
case should go up for trial under one heading or another, or whether
the alleged offender should be set at liberty.

Dr. Carroll. What is the existing law with respect to arrest of a
person who, for example, is charged with being guilty of arson or rob-
bery? Can a person who sees him in the act arrest him without
process?

Mr. Fulladosa. Yes ; everybody has that right, but not the legal
obligation to do so.

Dr. Carroll. That is the law in the United States, but in all other
cases no one can be arrested except by process duly issued by a mag-
istrate.

Mr. Fulladosa. Here it is the same ; a person can not be arrested
unless a judge issues an order for his arrest.

Dr. Carroll. What justifies a judge in issuing a process of that
kind?

Mr. Fulladosa. The judge can issue an order for imprisonment on
the denuncia of any person. The person arrested is held provisionally
for twenty-four hours, during which time the judge cites the person
making the charge to determine whether there is cause to hold the
person for seventy-two hours as required by law.

Dr. Carroll. Does the law require that the order of arrest shall
recite the charge for which the person is arrested?

Mr. Fulladosa. When the arrest is made by the marshal the
order says that such and such a person must present himself to
respond to an accusation of such and such a person.

Dr. Carroll. Is that shown to the person when he is arrested ?

Mr. Fulladosa. The alleged offender is called to appear before the
judge, or is arrested under a warrant. It does not do to tell the per-
son why he is arrested, because he might prepare himself for a defense
beforehand ; he might put himself in communication with persons for
that purpose. They are very clever here.

Dr. Carroll. It is an elementaiy factor of justice in the United
States that a man should not be arrested without knowing why he is
arrested.

Mr. Fulladosa. I am speaking now of simple offenses, not of grave
crimes. We presume that a person is guilty until he has proved him-
self innocent.

Dr. Carroll. Then a person might be arrested here and not know
whether he was arrested for disorder or assault or for murder?

Mr. Fulladosa. Before he is put in prison he knows what he is
arrested for. There are exceptional cases; for instance, a quarrel in
a country district, where a comisario has to arrest all persons in the
neighborhood, who might turn out to be guilty.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any such thing here as giving bail?

Mr. Fulladosa. It is quite general. I am a great believer in bail.

Dr. Carroll. What classes of cases are bailable?

Mr. Fulladosa. Those punishable by imprisonment for three or
more years, but not generally charges of a grave character such as
robbery, homicide, and arson. Crimes and offenses are all classified.
For example, there is robbery with violence and robbery without vio-
lence, and each classification has its appropriate bail within the class
of bailable crimes. A great1 deal depends also on the judge and the
antecedents of the prisoner. The judge has a discretion in the
matter.

309

Dr. Carroll. In case a person is arrested in Vieques for theft,
does it require that the person making the charge and the thief be
brought here before you?

Mr. Fulladosa. The municipal judge in Vieques keeps the pris-
oner in jail there three days while he is preparing the brief. The
brief and the prisoner are then sent here. If he is to be liberated,
he is liberated from here, as the judge there can not release a pris-
oner after he has once put him in prison.

Dr. Carroll. Is that true of small cases?

Mr. Fulladosa. Of every case. That is the law, and it governs
even in a case where a man in Vieques is arrested for stealing a
chicken. There is only one exception to the rule, which I have stated
somewhat too broadly, namely, in the class of cases called f altas, which
are tried by the municipal judge and are punishable by imprisonment
for not more than thirty days. Where, for instance, a peon, passing
through a cane field, cuts a stalk of cane and sucks it and is caught
in the" act, that would be a falta, punishable by imprisonment up to
thirty days without sending the man here to Humacao. If, however,
the peon, after having eaten one stalk, should cut more and take it
away with him, then his offense would be larceny, and not a mere
falta, the reason for the distinction being that in the first case the man,
on the spur of the moment, and from a sense of immediate need, takes
the cane and at once eats it, whereas in the second case the element
of immediate need is not present, but the peon appropriates the prop-
erty of another for his future use.

Dr. Carroll. In case a man is brought over here from Vieques for
some petty offense, who bears the expense of the trip?

Mr. Fulladosa. All the municipalities comprising the district.
This is the head of the prison district, and its expenses are paid by
the municipalities in this judicial district, each paying a proportion.

Dr. Carroll. Do you sit sometimes in the audiencia in particular
cases?

Mr. Fulladosa. No.

Dr. Carroll. In Mayaguez they sometimes ask judges of other
courts to sit with them, and while I was there they had two of them
sitting with the regular judges to try a case of arson and robbery.

Mr. Fulladosa. I could be called, but I have not been. They can
name me a judge in commission.

AMERICAN LAWYERS AND THE COURTS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., February 10, 1899.
Mr. F. H. Dexter, an American lawyer and agent of the Cuban
and" Pan-American Express Company:

In my judgment conditions do not now exist to justify American
lawyers in their hope of practicing in the courts of Porto Rico.
According to General Orders No. 1, issued by General Brooke upon
the occupation of San Juan by the American forces, the laws then in
existence which were not inconsistent with American institutions or
which had not been abrogated by orders of the military government
remain in force, and up to the present time no order has been issued
changing the laws in Porto Rico covering the matter of judicial pro-
cedure and the regulation of practice in the courts of the island.

310

The code in force in Porto Rico is the old civil code, or Roman code,
and is written in Spanish. This code is considered different from the
practice which obtains in all the States of the American Union, with
the exception of the State of Louisiana. Very few American lawyers
have studied this code beyond their college course outside of the
State of Louisiana. It seems to be the understanding of those in
authority, justified by the necessities of the case, that the Porto Rican
laws, so far as local matters are concerned, will remain in force for
some time to come. While the American military government and
Congress will gradually promulgate orders and adopt legislation affect-
ing matters of a general concern, such as those regarding the relations
between Porto Rico and the United States and foreign countries, such
as the regulation of shipping, navigation and tariff, exchange, and
similar questions, the body of municipal law, in my judgment, will be
gradually and slowly modified or abrogated. These municipal laws,
in addition to being a feature of the government of Spanish posses-
sions and having a traditional dignity, are perhaps better adapted to
the wants and conditions of the people of this tropical country than
many of our laws which are in force in the American Union. I do
not mean by this to say that the American system of laws is not bet-
ter than the system in force here; but in the exercise of sound judg-
ment and wisdom it would appear to me that to change the system of
laws which is so intimately ingrafted into the institutions and lives of
the people here would be to create great confusion. In fact, it would
appear to be a physical impossibility.

Soon after the occupation of the capital of this island by the Amer-
ican forces a number of intelligent lawyers of good standing came
here from the United States with the idea of settling here and prac-
ticing their profession. So far as I have been able to learn, none of
these gentlemen know the Spanish laws or the code now in force here.
Some of these gentlemen desire to practice in the courts here, and
they were refused this right by the then acting minister of justice,
Senor Hernandez Lopez, on account of what I have expressed hereto-
fore, namely, that they did not know the Spanish law or language.
These gentlemen addressed a complaint to General Henry, who
referred the matter again to Mr. Lopez, minister of justice, and desired
him to state his reasons for this action. Mr. Lopez reported in due
time to General Henry, and gave the following reasons: He stated
that the laws governing Porto Rico at this time were still SjDanish laws;
that according to the judicial procedure and the said code applicants
for admission to practice in the courts of Porto Rico should pass an
examination provided by the civil code relative to attorneys, and
should have certain qualifications of residence and training, which it
appears these gentlemen did not possess. Upon the strength of this
recommendation General Henry refused to permit the American law-
yers to practice in the courts of Porto Rico unless they could pass the
required examination which was demanded of native lawyers.

Although desirous myself of enjoying the privilege of practice in
the courts of Porto Rico, I must admit the justice of this rule. A
license to practice law is not only an implied guaranty but an express
certificate on the part of the authority granting the license that the
holder of it is familiar with the practice of the court in which he is
authorized to practice and has complied with all the qualifications
and requirements demanded of those who practice in these courts.
If an American lawyer, not conversant with its practice or the code
should try to practice, injustice might be done.

311

REFORMS DEMANDED.

[Hearing before the United. States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., March 10, 1899.

Alfredo M. Aguayo (formerly judge of first instance in Ponce). It
is my opinion that the Spanish law relating to criminal cases ought to
be reformed. It is contrary, in my opinion, to the Constitution of the
United States in that the Constitution guarantees to every man a fair
and impartial trial before a jury of his own countrymen.

Dr. Carroll. I should be pleased to have you state the proceed-
ings in detail which are had in a criminal case.

Judge Aguayo. As soon as the judge has information that a crime
has been committed he sends for the accused and has him arrested
and takes his declaration in court secretly. Then he puts him imme-
diately into a room where he is without communication with anyone.
The judge then sends for all the witnesses who can give him infor-
mation in the matter. He receives them secretly, one by one, and
takes their declarations and cross-questions them. Meanwhile the
defendant does not know what is being done against him and can take
no steps whatever. He is absolutely in the dark. He does not know
at all what is going on. Within two or three days he is allowed to
communicate, but not until after the summary of the case against
him is completed is he allowed this privilege or given any hint as to
what has been done. He can name his lawyer, but the lawj^er is not
allowed to present to the judge in this stage of the proceedings any
proof which the judge does not care to accept. This sumario (sum-
mary) usually occupies in its preparation from a month to a month
and a half. The reason of this delay is that everything is being done
in writing, and society and the world at large, which is also interested
in the case, knows nothing at all about it, and is naturally unwilling
that this state of things should continue. Should the newspapers
publish a proof which has been adduced before the judge, its editor
would be punished immediately. When all the proofs have been
gotten together, the judge of first instance declares the summary con-
cluded, and all the papers are passed on to the audiencia, where the
oral proceedings are begun.

The reasons why all the steps of the summary should be published
from its inception, in my opinion, are many. First, because the pub-
licity would insure the cooperation of everybody, and all persons hav-
ing proofs would bring them forward ; secondly, it would enable the
defendant to produce all the proof on his side; third, it would consti-
tute a guaranty against the venality of judges, as the public would be
immediately informed of all mistakes and infirmities committed by
the judge; fourth, the secrecy of the summary produces in the public
conscience a sort of terror, and all witnesses, as a rule, have to be made
to testify by force, whereas if the hearings were public from the begin-
ning a sort of civic dignity would induce persons to testify on their
own volition, and witnesses would see that what they testified to was
accepted as evidence and that their words had value. I think that
before any other steps are taken in the matter of changing the laws a
general order should be issued directing that all judicial proceedings
from their inception be public and that the defendant be allowed to
name his lawyer and make use of his lawyer before the declaration is
made.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States secrecy is only observed when

312

the case is before the grand jury and it is proceeding to inquire
whether an indictment may be had.

Judge Agtjayo. The difference between the American and the
Spanish, sj^stems is that the American is an accusatory system and
the Spanish an inquisitorial system. Under the American system
there can be no trial until after there is a specific charge made, but
under the Spanish system there is a trial before the charge.

Dr. Carroll. The Spanish idea is that when a man is charged
with a crime he is guilty unless proved innocent, is it not?

Judge Agtjayo. No; not exactly. Their principle is that the judge
is charged to discover the crime and that he need not consult any-
body. His business is to ferret out the crime. I think the attorney
should be present at all the trials from their start to their finish.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that the judge of first instance should
be a judge of oyer and terminer to hear and determine cases, not
only on the civil side but also on the criminal side.

Judge Agtjayo. I think that the jury system ought to be established
here soon, and that the trial shoidd be oral and not in writing, as now.
Cases can be concluded in one day by oral proceedings instead of
from eight days to a month and a half by written process. This is a
very important matter.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that the judge of first instance might
be clothed with the power to hear and determine cases with an appeal
from him direct to the superior court, and that the audiencia territo-
rial of Ponce and Mayaguez might be abolished to simplify proceedings.

Judge Agtjayo. That is the way it used to be here before. It was
the system here ten years ago.

Dr. Carroll. Some of the cases could be prepared before the
municipal judge if necessary and sent up to the judge of first
instance for trial.

Judge Agtjayo. That is the way they are prepared now. All
municipal judges should have greater amplitude in their powers.

Dr. Carroll. I think so, too.

Judge Agtjayo. The principal thing is that all trials should be public
and should be oral instead of in writing, as a means of insuring speedy
and fair trials, and so that the whole country may know what is going
on in their courts of justice.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that the judge in the audiencia has
too large powers with reference to the trial of a case; that the func-
tion of the man who sits upon the bench ought to be to hear and
determine, and not in any way to question the witnesses with the
idea of bringing out testimony to fit his own theory of the case.

Judge Agtjayo. Yes; he has a great deal of power.

Dr. Carroll. And he exercises his power arbitrarily sometimes to
shut off questions asked by the defendant's counsel. I noticed in the
proceedings in a case at May aguez that the court was very arbitrary
in refusing to permit a defendant to ask questions, which, in my
judgment, he had a perfect right to ask. As I understand it, a judge
of first instance is a judge in civil matters, but is not a judge in crim-
inal matters, but rather a district attorney, in that he prepares the
case against the defendant.

Judge Agtjayo. In civil cases I have the right to give judgment,
but not in criminal cases. In criminal cases I can only prepare the
summary and pass it on to the audiencia.

Dr. Carroll. Is that the system in Spain?

Judge Agtjayo. No; the criminal procedure here and in Spain are

313

alike up to and including the preparation of the summary ; but after
finishing the summary the case goes to the jury in Spain and the
jury gives verdict.

Dr. Carroll. How many jurymen do they have?

Judge Aguayo. Twelve.

Dr. Carroll. Does it require unanimity to give verdict?

Judge Aguayo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. The judges of the audiencia here make up the sen-
tences among themselves, do they not?

Judge Aguayo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Secretly?

Judge Aguayo. Yes; and this secrecy is not only a bad thing, but
a useless thing. I have been accused of revealing the secrets of the

summary in this case against . In every criminal case, as every

witness goes out of the court and tells his friends what he has been
testifying about, there is no such thing really as secrecy.

Dr. Carroll. The congress that met here in San Juan in October
drew up a scheme of reforms, and in it they demanded the "public
votation of sentences." What did they mean by that?

Judge Aguayo. They simply meant that instead of the judges retir-
ing to consider their sentence secretly they should consider it publicly.

Dr. Carroll. It does not seem tome that that is a necessary reform,
because the jury always retires for that purpose.

Judge Aguayo. No; it does not seem to me necessary, either.

Dr. Carroll. I don't see why the judges should not retire to con-
sider what their verdict shall be. Do you distinguish in the Spanish
law between a verdict and a sentence?

Judge Aguayo. No. In our law the judge is a judge of fact and
law, and makes the verdict and sentence in one. He judges about the
facts and applies the law.

Dr. Carroll. I think those functions ought to be made distinct.
Under our system the jury makes up the verdict on the facts and the
law is given by the judge. Then the judge, on the basis of the ver-
dict, pronounces the sentence.

VARIOUS REFORMS.
STATEMENT OF ANTONIO SANCHEZ RUIZ.

Aguada, P. R., November 12, 1898.
In my opinion the most important of existing laws is the Civil Code,
which is a codification of all the laws of the class. On the other
hand, the laws of civil and criminal procedure and the Penal Code
appear somewhat deficient, judging by the questions which daily are
brought before the tribunals, to which said laws are not adaptable.
Not feeling myself competent to consider in detail each and every
one of them, I will point out only article 42 of the Civil Code, which,
while recognizing two forms of matrimonj^ the civil and canonical,
makes it appear that the first form can be employed only by persons
not professing the Catholic religion. The mere reading of this article
shows that it trespasses on 'the liberty of worship. There is in force
a circular from the audiencia to the justices ordering them not to
perform the civil ceremony between contracting parties of the Catholic
faith. This circular should be declared void and article 42 amended
as follows:

Two forms of matrimony are recognized, civil and canonical; contracting parties,
whether Catholics or non- Catholics, are free to choose either form.

314

In the law of civil procedure it is very necessary to shorten the
period to the strictly necessary number of days for the notification
of decisions, which decisions should be considered in force the day
after notification. There should also be a prudent reduction in the
appointed number of days allowed for appeal, and also in the pro-
ceedings of judicial sales by auction, in orcler to put a stop to delays
prejudicial to litigants.

The extension of the jurisdiction of municipal judges to cover the
hearing and decision of cases of eviction of tenants, even in cases of
precarious property, also giving them the right to sit on cases not
exceeding $500 in dispute, is desirable.

In criminal procedure there should be a shortening of the time of
detention from seventy-two to twenty-four hours, and of provisional
imprisonment, to the least possible time. The charge should be pre-
pared promptly, so as not to deprive an innocent person of liberty for
any length of time.

The amount of bond should be regulated in proportion to the crime,
not leaving it to the caprice of judges, as this often causes great
prejudice to the accused parties.

Let trial by jury be instituted as in other countries, and put an end
to the ' ' audiencias de lo criminal. "

In the Penal Code, proceed to abolish the death penalty, and also
that of perpetual imprisonment, as being incompatible with the Ameri-
can spirit of democracy.

SALARIES INSTEAD OF FEES.
STATEMENT OF JOSE M. ORTIZ.

Manuabo, P. R., February 2£, 1899.

(1) Make committals to prison difficult; favor other classes of pun-
ishment in place thereof.

(2) Any person suing, or entering suit, to give bonds previously
and in sufficient amount to enable him to be held responsible for the
consequences of the suit in case it result adversely to him.

(3) Suppress or modify the present system of governmental pro-
ceedings, by which it frequently happens that only the testimony of
persons wishing to injure the accused party is taken. The defense
allowed the accused under this system is very rudimentary.

(4) Clear and widely published tariff of fees allowed to lawyers,
notaries, doctors, engineers, registrars of real estate, etc., and the
application of serious and quick correctives for those who charge
more than legal rates.

(5) Suppression in San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez of oral trials for
misdemeanors. These are very troublesome and prejudicial to per-
sons of small means and annoying to persons of social standing, who
are obliged to appear in public court to prosecute or defend, for
which reason they prefer to leave unpunished many crimes and delin-
quencies, to the encouragement of thieves and bullies.

(6) The payment of a salary to municipal judges and their secre-
taries; their failure to receive any is the cause of the existing immo-
rality, which is covered up.

(7) Lessening of the cost of citations, subpoenas, and judicial let-
ters, and, above all, of the estimates for embargoes (attachments), so
terribly ruinous for debtors. Many small debtors owe their ruin to
this scandalous judicial procedure.

315

(8) Imprisonment for those who can not produce means to cover
their due debts, unless they can show justifiable circumstances in
excuse.

(9) Cheapen and simplify the costs and steps of mortgaging.

(10) Establishment of the right of divorce, with the right of remar-
riage, although both parties be living.

(11) Modification of the commercial code with respect to maritime
traffic. In this particular shipowners and freighters are unduly
favored, and importers are afforded but small protection.

REVISION OF METHODS OF PROCEDURE.

Utttado, January 17, 1899.
Mr. Felix Santoni (lawyer). We think that the subject of laws
should also have careful attention. We desire especially that the
Penal Code should be revised. The Civil Code also requires some cor-
rections; but as the Civil Code has been more or less an outcome of
the wish of the people, we think that to a certain extent it should be
respected. What is needed is a thorough revision of the methods of
procedure, which under the 'Spanish Government were very badly
applied. Good laws on the statute books are not alone sufficient.
We need to have a good administration of them. Italy, which in my
judgment has the finest set of laws of any nation, suffers more from
bad administration in the legal sense than any other country, as the
laws are not administered as they are written.

AS TO CORONERS.
STATEMENT OF DR. C. LOPEZ, OF FAJAKDO.

It is very necessary to recognize the importance of the employment
of doctors for coroners who can give their whole time to their official
duties without having to spend any of it on other matters. In Porto
Rico coroners are appointed only in San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez.
In other points of the island doctors in private practice have to per-
form the important duties of coroner. Those named by the munici-
palities have no time to attend to such work as chemical analysis,
expert testimony, etc., and it is anomalous for them to pretend that
they are able to attend to other duties; but these doctors are fre-
quently obliged to attend on the audiencias to give expert testimony,
calling for journeys of 5 leagues to 15 leagues over bad roads, crossing
swollen rivers, etc., so as not to fail of compliance with the official
call under pain of being fined. The expenses of these journeys are
not paid, nor are they indemnified in any way, and many times judg-
ment is deferred for want of several witnesses, or for other causes,
and the doctor has to return to his town to await a new citation. The
fees set aside to compensate witnesses and doctors are $4 for the first
and $16 for the second. These amounts are seldom paid, sometimes
because they have not been claimed in time and frequently because
the witnesses do not put in a claim, owing to the delay occasioned.
In this latter instance there are always speculators who will buy up
these claims for one-half of their value.

316

I myself have traveled from this city to the capital three times to give
expert testimony, and I have not been able to collect a cent. The
doctor has to hand in information and make the autopsy of deaths
occurring in quarrels, by wounds, suicides, sudden deaths by light-
ning, poisoning, etc. This is very tedious work. In these cases the
State pays $17.50 for each post mortem, which sum it sometimes takes
three or more years to collect. The last autopsies conducted in the
island, for which about $20,000 are owing, will never be paid, because
the Spanish Government surrendered sovereignty, and all attempts to
collect these amounts before they left the island were fruitless.

In cases of wounds and other matters calling for judicial attention the
law requires two titular doctors to participate in the inquiry, and in the
towns where there is only one he must call the nearest doctor. The
fees received were only the actual out-of-pocket expenses of the jour-
ney at the rate of $4 a league; that is to say, $2 for the journey and
$2 for the return, and it was frequently necessary to wait six or more
months if the municipality did not have the funds with which to make
payments. This is the naked truth about what takes place with
regard to titular doctors.

TRIAL OF SANTIAGO IGLESIA AND RAMON RIVERA ROSA.

The commissioner deems it advisable to present the court records
of the trial of these two men, who are artisans and were engaged in
helping on a strike when they were placed under arrest. The case
is important as showing the Spanish method of trial and the Spanish
policy toward labor, though it occurred under military rule.

Note. — This trial, in common with others coming within the prov-
ince of the Penal Code, passed through two stages: The first (instruc-
cion), preliminary investigating proceedings before the judge of instruc-
tion in San Juan, and the second (juicio oral), oral trial before the
higher criminal court of the same city (audiencia), with a bench of
three judges. As an insult to a Government official was, and still is,
an offense under the Spanish law, which has not been repealed, it
was only necessary to prove the authorship of the articles and that
the judges should consider them insulting in order that the prose-
cuting attorney should win his case. Therefore the oral suit was not
a court trial in our sense of the word. No witnesses were examined,
and the attorneys presented their cases to the court in writing. As
no shorthand notes are taken of court proceedings in Porto Rico, the
" expedientes " filed as records of the trial contain only the official
steps taken, attorneys' pleadings (reduced to five arguments and five
rebuttals), and the verdict; that is to say, once the fact of the author-
ship and publication being brought home to the accused, the question
was merely whether the bench thought that the law in question was
applicable to the offense and whether the deed constituted such
offense.

The "expediente" of the preliminary proceedings is a collection of
papers numbering 48 pages, most of which are printed official forms
filled in.

Title page: Names of both the accused, accusation, date, district,
judge, etc.

Then follows the first page of El Porvenir Social, the paper of which
Rosa was editor, and the matter of which constituted the offense. A
brief summary of the matter is given herewith.

317

THE PERSECUTION OF SANTIAGO IGLESIAS CONTINUES.

As soon as I was informed, that Tony intimate companion, S. Iglesias, had been
sent for by the secretary of government, 1 went in haste to ascertain the cause of
the call, and finding him in his house, qiiestioned him, and here give the result in
the form of an interview. At 4 o'clock Iglesias was in his house with several
workmen friends, when a policeman arrived and informed him that Munoz Rivera
wished to see him. He went to the office of the secretary.

INTERVIEW.

Munoz Rivera. Tell me, is there a workman's club in Sol street, 62?

Santiago Iglesias. The workmen have rented a house there with the object of
forming an association.

M. R. I understand that your meetings are with the object of inciting the peo-
ple to illegal acts.

S. I. That is untrue. They meet to defend labor and uphold the Government
which came to Porto Rico to end despotism and robbery. Therefore, at our meet-
ings we only attack the rogues who, under the Spanish Government, exploited us
workmen.

M. R. Where is this club; and under what authority have you formed it; and
do you hold meetings?

S. I. It is at 62 Sol street, and we meet under the guaranty of the great Republic,
which allows liberty of association and protects the lawful, rich and poor alike.

M. R. You are a foreigner and have no right to mix in politics or the defense of
any class. Under the Spaniards you were imprisoned and, owing to me, obtained
your liberty, and I thought

S.I. (To himself.) That is false. It was you who had me imprisoned, where you
held me for seven months. You made General Marin believe that 1 was an anarch-
ist and propagandist of assassination of the Spaniards, and you did the same with
General Brooke.

M. R. — that on being released you would have other ideas. I counsel you to
leave the country. I speak in the name of the military government, and if you
don"t you will have a bad time.

S. I. (Rising indignantly.) In order to defend the working classes I will swear
allegiance to the United States, and will continue my labor as before. I shall not
leave.

Then follow editorial comments occupying the whole page, in which
both Iglesias and Rosa revile the Spanish Government, and accuse
Munoz, who was secretary at the time of the invasion, of continuing
the old practices. Strong language is used, in which the words ' ' thief '7
and similar terms occur.

Note from secretary of justice to judge of first instance saying that
he had received the foregoing from Muiloz Rivera and asking that
action be taken if it lie.

Note from judge citing the accused to appear.

Document establishing the authenticity of the newspaper and
authorship of articles.

Written copy of articles and editorial comments.

Note from police informing of seizure of the edition and returning-
order authorizing same.

Document committing accused to imprisonment pending investiga-
tion, and printed documents of notification, seizure, receipt for pris-
oners, and usual prison formalities.

Subpoenas of witnesses (persons testifying that paper was edited by
Rosa and published, etc.).

Note asking for penal antecedents of accused.

Reply that Rosa had been prosecuted for "disorderly conduct."

Document from judge stating that accused have no penal history
bearing on the present case.

Document requisitioning baptismal certificates of accused for identi-
fication purposes.

318

Document from accused naming Manuel Rossy as their lawyer.
Index of documents and indorsement transmitting this summary to
the audiencia for trial.

This ends the "sumario" before the judge of instruction.

AUDIENCIA.

Title page: Name of accused, date, names of judges, accusation,
district, etc.

Letter from judge of instruction passing the case to the audiencia.

Order of the secretary of the court to bring the case to trial in con-
formity with the law of criminal procedure.

Order to pass the summary to prosecuting attorney for the period of
five days.

Document setting day for trial.

Document from prosecuting attorney stating his case as follows:

1. That the articles published constitute an offense.

2. That S. Iglesias and R. Rivera Rosa are responsible for the
articles.

3. That their publication constitutes an aggravation of the offense.

4. That each should be imprisoned for the term of four months and
one day.

5. That the accused do not incur an}- civil responsibility, [i. e.,
damages can not be claimed by complainant.]

PROOFS OFFERED.

Confession of accused.

Documentary evidence: Copy of the paper produced; identification
of accused by documents produced.

Document giving the lawyer for the defense five days in which to
prepare rebuttal of above.

Document of Manuel Rossy, lawyer for the defense, in rebuttal.

1. Accepts the relation of facts as stated.

2. Denies that the articles constitute an offense.

3. Does not accept the pleading that his clients are responsible
either civilly or criminally.

4. Denies that publication constituted an aggravation.

5. Accused should be acquitted without costs.

Sentence (16 written pages) in substance: It having been proved
that the accused were the authors of the articles (written in full) and
that they published them, and that in view of the prosecuting attor-
ney's charge not having been refuted in court to the satisfaction of
the bench, an offense against the secretary of government was com-
mitted according to article 265 of the code, and that the publication
constituted an aggravation thereof, as tending to publicly discredit a
government official, we condemn the accused to imprisonment for the
term of four months and one day, suspension from the right of hold-
ing public office and loss of civil rights during that period, and the
paj^ment of half the costs. Imprisonment already suffered to be
deducted from the term of the sentence. (Signed) : Jose C. Hernan-
dez, Rafael A. Meto y Abeille, Angel Acosta.

Indorsement of attorney stating that in view of the decree of
amnesty of May 15, 1899, action is to be stopped in this matter.

319

THE MORTGAGE, NOTARIAL, AND REGISTRATION SYSTEMS.

DUTIES AND POWERS OF NOTARIES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 26, 1899.

Dr. Cakroll. What are the duties and powers of a notary?

Mr. Mauricio Guerra (notary and lawyer). The formation of public
documents between private parties, attending to legal interests, mak-
ing all wills, and all extrajudicial business. The duties of a notary
are to comply fully with his duties; to give bond for the faithful per-
formance of those duties, so that should any discrepancies occur
through carelessness or ignorance he can be held responsible.

Dr. Carroll. How is a notary qualified for his work and how
appointed?

Mr. Guerra. By competitive examination, before competent per-
sons— judges of the high court.

Dr. Carroll. Do they give a diploma?

Mr. Guerra. Notaries receive a diploma direct from the King of
Spain. The college of examiners, which consists of all doctors of
law, gives notice that an examination is to be held. All persons hav-
ing university titles can apply for examination. One person is
examined at a time before the board of examiners. They have 100
ballots, and they divide the subjects up into 10 and examine the
candidates on the 10 subjects. If they pass in one subject they receive
10. At the end of the examination the candidate who has the greatest
number of votes comes out ahead. A report of the examination is
sent to Madrid, and the King issues a royal order conferring the title
of notary on the person who has gained it. In order to be notary a
person must first possess the title of abogado (lawyer). The abogado
is a defending lawyer.

There are no distinct titles for civil and criminal lawyers. The
duties of the notary lawyers include the searching of titles, drawing
up of deeds, etc. Thej7 draw up, in fact, all kinds of documents;
every kind of protest where it must be made formally and in writing,
such as a protest on a bill of exchange. The number of notaries
admitted to practice in each of the principal towns of the island is two.
These were granted their title after undergoing a competitive exam-
ination, but were only admitted to practice on payment of a large fee
to the Spanish Government, which fee gave them the right to practice
for life, and excluded other notaries from practicing until a vacancy
occurred in the ranks. My right to practice cost me 117,000, and
should the monopoly be abolished by the American Government this
amount will be a total loss to me. The sum paid for this right consti-
tutes an investment just as in the States when a man buys a seat in
the stock exchange, which is transferable property. The notary here
was allowed to offer a substitute for acceptance by the Government,
and was paid by this substitute usually the sum which he had himself
expended or a greater one, according to the value of his practice.

Dr. Carroll. Does the function of a notary include the taking of
affidavits?

Mr. Guerra. If you wish to take an original affidavit you can do so
before the notary ; but for affidavits connected with legal work you
have to take it before the audieneia.

Dr. Carroll. Are there fees established by law for the various
kinds of work for the notary?

320

Mr. Guerra. Yes. On deeds drawn which can be valued it is so
much per cent of the value of the deed. It is 80 cents for every $1,000
up to $10,000. In deeds that can not be valued it is $3 per sheet of
document. It is the same in the case of contracts. If the notary must
leave his house and go outside the limits of the capital, he receives 14
a sheet additional.

Dr. Carroll. Are deeds recorded in full in the registers?

Mr. Gi-UERRA. The original of the deed remains in the power and
possession of the notary. It is the copy which is registered.

Dr. Carroll. Is it simply filed or is it written out in the book.

Mr. Guerra. Only the extract is copied into the book, including
the name of the persons authorizing the document, the amount in
question, the name of the notary who drew up the document, and
other essential points. In case the copy is lost a further copy can be
given at any time from the original in the notary's possession. This
only applies in the case of immovable property, such as real estate.
The copies are made on stamped paper and are called testimonies.

Dr. Carroll. From what causes do titles to real estate become
clouded?

Mr. Guerra. When once the title is registered, it can become
defective by using fraud.

Dr. Carroll. What about the use of stamped paper for documents?

Mr. Guerra. They have to be made on stamped paper. Since
stamped paper and royal taxes were established here transactions
involving notarial work have diminished greatly, as people do not
want to incur heavy expenses. These royal taxes are dues paid to
the Crown on transfers of property by one party to another.

NOTARIAL REFORMS.

STATEMENT OF VENTURA EIVAS.

So as to better the public service of notarial matters, it is necessary
to establish at least two notarial offices in the head towns of districts,
such as Utuado, Arecibo, Humacao, and others of the island of impor-
tance, as at present exist in Ponce, Mayaguez, and the capital. The
number of inhabitants of each of these districts makes this necessary,
and the public would be saved two sources of injury — one, the delay
in the drawing of deeds, especially when the only practicing notary is
absent and the supplementary notary, who usually lives at a distance
and has to leave his own office and the affairs of his clients in sus-
pense, must be waited for; and, secondly, to correct the monopoly
caused by having one notary only, who is thus wont to charge higher
fees than permitted by the tariff, high enough already in some of its
items. The change would assure to the public dispatch in the serv-
ice and moderation in the fees.

It is necessary, therefore, for the welfare of the public, and espe-
cially the owners of property, the persons who mostly pay notaries'
fees, that notarial freedom be extended and that new posts be filled
by persons showing the proper diplomas and having more than ten
years' practice as protocolists, giving preference to those who have
practiced with notarial lawyers, as to-day in the island more than half
of the notaries have no other title than of the old-time escriba'nos,
with the experience they have since gained, and being confirmed in
their positions when the notarial college of Porto Rico was created.

321

These reforms would facilitate the entering into contracts, somewhat
restricted formerly also by the high price of stamped paper and royal
dues and notarial and registrars' dues, now abolished.

It should also be noted that Utuado, having been transferred to the
judicial district of Lares, Adjuntas, and Ciales, a new notarial district
including these places has sprung into existence according to law, and
therefore this city should be provided with a registry of property.
This concession was granted by the insular cabinet during the last
days of Spanish domination, it being incongruous that notarial deeds
drawn in Utuado, Adjuntas, Ciales, and Lares should continue being
registered in the registries of Arecibo, Ponce, and Aguadilla, which
are situated in different judicial districts. With regard to Arecibo,
it is hereby stated that in virtue of steps taken by the notary of that
place before the Spanish Government the notariats of Camuy and
Hatillo have been included in his office, while a separate office should
exist in each place.

It is confideutly expected that the Government in Washington will
be pleased to favor the general interests of the country by instituting
the reforms named, as, although the notaries now established may suf-
fer somewhat pecuniarily, the general welfare is above the good of
a few.

Utuado, P. R., January 16, 1899.

REGISTRATION OF PROPERTY.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San German, P. R., January 26, 1899.
Joaquim Servera Silva, registrar and abogado:

Dr. Carroll. Now, I would like to ask you a few questions with
regard to registration. I would like, if you please, an outline of the
system of registration.

Mr. Silva. It is the way to acquire a legal right against a third
party. If a man should sell property to one person and the day after-
wards sell it again to a second person, if the first sale should not be
registered and the second sale should be, the second sale would hold
good, but without prejudice against the first person to proceed against
the seller civilly and criminally. The character of the register is two-
fold. It is public and special. It is public in the sense that it is
open to everybody. Anybody who wants to find the condition of
another man's property can examine the register. It is special in the
sense that a man who wishes to lend money to another man on prop-
erty which the borrower says he has no sort of mortgage or lien, by
means of the register he can find out whether mortgages have been
filed on that property at any previous date. It is special in the sense
that whereas old mortgages were granted generally on a man's whole
property without specifying what property it referred to, now mort-
gages have to cite specially what house or what field or what portion
of a man's property they affect. The act of registration in Porto
Rico is a very important one, for when once the registrar has given
inscription to a document brought to him for registration it is not
contestable except by a court of law.

Dr. Carroll. Then does the registrar regard it as a part of his
duty to see that a mortgage which has been inscribed is the sole mort-
gage or is not interfered with by any other mortgage?
1125 21

322

Mr. Silva. He is responsible for the legality of the title that he
inscribes. He can take three steps — refuse inscription, put it off until
further examination has warranted it, or inscribe it as it is. He is
held responsible for it after inscription is made.

Dr. Carroll. That is very different from the American system.
Mortgages and deeds may be inscribed at the county clerk's office
which may prove afterwards to have no value in law. It is for the
purchaser there to ascertain, through an examiner, whether the prop-
erty he is purchasing he gets by a good and valid title. Does this
provision as to the law of registration requiring you to satisfy yourself
that the document offered is a valid document not often give rise to
great delay in transfers of title from one person to another?

Mr. Silva. The hypothecary law requires the registrar to say within
fifteen days whether lie will or will not inscribe the property.

Dr. Carroll. It has been stated to this commission that sometimes
when a document is offered for registration the registrar raises ques-
tions as to defects in the instrument and says that they must be cor-
rected, but that he will undertake to correct them on payment of a
fee, it being an abuse of the law.

Mr. Silva. That grows out of the fact that the hypothecary law
gives the registrar the right to practice as a lawyer also, and he takes
advantage of his position as a lawyer to settle such questions.

Dr. Carroll. Is that not regarded as an abuse of the law of regis-
tration?

Mr. Silva. That has its pros and cons. In a great many instances
registrars have invented defects so as to be able to remedy them in
their own way.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that in registering a document, as a
deed or a will or a mortgage or a lien, you don't spread the document
in full upon the pages of your records, but only a part of it.

Mr. Silva. They don't make a transcription, but an inscription.
They only attend to certain points which the hypothecary law has
made necessary.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States they spread the whole docu-
ment, whatever it rnay be, upon the records in full. Therefore in
case a deed is lost a record of it will be at the county clerk's office.

Mr. Silva. That is the notary's business. The notary who draws
up the deed, and is present at the signing of it, has to keep the origi-
nal. The document going to the party interested is therefore only a
copy.

Dr. Carroll. What fees are allowed to be charged by law for
registry?

Mr. Silva. There is a legal tariff for the mere inscription, not for
the judging as to the validity of the inscription. The law also allows
charges for searching the documents in the registrar's office.

Dr. Carroll. Has most of the property in the district of San Ger-
man been registered?

Mr. Silva. I have not been here a long time, but I think there is
much of it still unregistered.

Dr. Carroll. What is the theory of the law regarding property
rights where the property is unregistered? Is it that the man in pos-
session has a right to be in possession unless proof from records is
given to the contrary?

Mr. Silva. When a person in possession of property which has not
been inscribed or to which he has no documentary title wishes to
inscribe it he applies to the judge for what is called a document of

323

possession. The judge gets all the evidence on the question that he
can, witnesses are examined, and on this testimony a document is
issued, and the person declared in the document to he the owner can
then apply for inscription.

Dr. Carroll. A person in possession of property can not be ousted,
I suppose, unless proof from records is given that he is not the real
owner?

Mr. Silva. You can not remove anybody unless the person seeking
to oust the one in possession has a better title. The person in posses-
sion is presumed to be the owner.

Dr. Carroll. How is public property held? This building, belong-
ing to the municipality of San German — is it inscribed in the register?

Mr. Acosta. I think this particular house has been.

Dr. Carroll. Is that true also of the cemeteries?

Mr. Silva. No; they are not inscribed.

Dr. Carroll. Are church titles usually inscribed also?

Mr. Silva. No ; I know of no case where it is.

Dr. Carroll. It is understood that the church building is the prop-
erty of the church, is it not, or the property of the municipality?

Mr. Silva. It is understood that the churches belong to the parish
as a religious body.

Dr. Carroll. The ground was contributed, I suppose, by the city;
the furniture by private persons.

Mr. Acosta. We have a hospital here which was built and given by
the people. And the church has property; it has its own property.

Dr. Carroll. Is it a matter of record that the hospital belongs to
the municipality?

Mr. Acosta. The archives will be found to contain evidence that
the donations were given with that view by the people of the town.
Mr. Quinones's family made large presents to San German.

A Gentleman present. Under the old administration, the clergy
had the right of administering all charities, and they are trying to
establish their right now to such administration, but not to the prop-
erty as property. No doubt the hospital belongs to the poor people,
as it was given to them; but the church, which tries to invade all
rights, has tried to invade the right of administering the hospital.

FEES FOR REGISTRATION OF PROPERTY.

Summary by Senor Joaquin Servera, Silva, registrar of San German.

Pesos.

1. For the examination, recording presentation, marginal notes, or footnotes

of any title of five estates or less, whose inscription, annotation, or mar-
ginal note may be solicited, excepting cancellations, and considering as
one title the document or documents which may call for a record of pre-
sentation 0.75

2. If more than five properties are referred to, the following scale will be

observed:

From 6 to 10.. 1.00

From 11 to 20 1.50

From 21 to 30 2.00

From 31 to 50 2.50

When this number is exceeded, the first 50 shall be charged as per above
scale; for all above 50 estates worth 300 pesos or more, 5 cents each; those
worth less, 2 cents each.

3. When the title to be examined by the registrar exceeds 50 folios, each

folio in excess - .02

4. When the value of the property or rights referred to in the title do not

amount to 300 pesos, no matter what number of folios, properties, or
rights referred to... 25

324

CANCELLATIONS.

Pesos

5. For all operations of any class presented for cancellation or redemption

of mortgages, censos, or royal dues, including the entry of presenta-
tion, and marginal notes for each estate:

If the estate or equity be of less value than 300 pesos 2. 00

From 300 to 1,000 2.50

From 1,000 up 3.75

If the cancellation be refused or suspended, the previous numbers of the
tariff shall be charged.

SPECIAL NOTES, INSCRIPTION, AND ANNOTATION.

6. When the presentation does not call for inscription or annotation, but for

marginal notes in the old or new registry, for each one .50

For each note comprehended in article 24 of the respective laws, the same
sum.

*******

MANIFESTATIONS OF ENTRY, CERTIFICATIONS, AND SEARCHING TITLES.

8. For manifestation of registry, for each property of whatever value .50

9. For the first page of literal certification (inscription), without reference

to the value of the property or equities referred to _ . . 1 . 00

10. For successive pages, one-half of the last fee.

11. For each entry of which a certified copy is granted:

Estates of less than 300 pesos value _.. .75

Estates value of 300 pesos or more ..' 1.00

For the relation in one certificate, although more than one property be
referred to, only one charge shall be made.

12. When certificates contain statements or references that no entry of a
determined class of estates or royal dues exist:

Each estate or right of less than 300 pesos .35

Each estate 300 pesos or more ._ .50

* * * * * * *

14. For search in the old or new registry for personages, without reference
to estates or rights for each person or year .10

GENERAL RULES.

(1) In order to determine the fees, the value of estates is considered to be the
amount they are transferred lor plus the amount of the mortgage when this latter
subsists.

(2) The value of censos, pensions, or other liens of perpetual, temporary, or
redeemable nature shall not be added to the price of transfer.

(3) When this is effected under lucrative title it is understood that the value
of the estate be diminished by the amount of the liens of any nature which may
bear on it.

(4) With respect to the right of usufruct, use, and habitation, the value is con-
sidered as one-fourth of the estate, and with respect to new proprietorship, three-
fourths of same.

( 5 ) The collection of fees for contracts of renting shall be based on the amount
to be paid for the whole period of the contract. If no period is mentioned, twelve
yearly payments shall be taken as a basis.

(6) For the guidance of fees for inscription or annotation or marginal notes of
service (slave), 5 per cent of the price denominated.

(7) So that the registrar may graduate his fees to conform to this tariff he must
charge according to these headings, but may take advantage of the rights con-
ceded him under article 461 of the Hypothecary Law and Rules of Cuba, and 440
of Porto Rico, not collecting when the title's liens are mentioned, which are exempt
from fees. When the title does not mention the value of an estate, the registrar
shall require the party presenting it to name the value on a slip of unstamped
paper, which shall be filed in the office. Should he refuse to do so, the registrar
may collect under the maximum scale, or any he chooses.

(8) When for the purpose of fixing the value of any estate or equity or royal
due to be transferred it may be necessary to compute any lien affecting it or any
other property whose special responsibility therefor be not determined, a note on

325

unstamped paper must be presented, detailing all the properties subject to the
lien and the value of each one of them, so that the registrar may compute what
amount of the lien corresponds to each, so that the one wishing inscription may
bear his pro rata share.

(9) Registrars should receive no fees whatsoever, unless the person paying be
given a receipt in detail, corresponding to the stub to be kept in the office, which
must be signed by said party. If unable to write, a witness may sign for him at
his request.

LAW OF FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 17, 1899.
Mr. Felix Santoni:

Dr. Carroll. I shall be glad to have from you a full explanation
of the law respecting the foreclosure of mortgages, how it is clone,
how long it takes, and the whole method of procedure.

Mr. Santoni. There are two ways of foreclosing a mortgage, namely,
the proceeding which is called the executive proceeding and another
special proceeding which is governed by the hypothecary law. Nearly
everyone who brings an action prefers to proceed under the latter.
The proceedings consist of presenting the application to the judge
according to forms prescribed by the law, accompanied by a copy of
the mortgage as it exists in the civil registry. The judge thereupon
issues an order to the debtor directing that he must pay the amount
of the mortgage debt within thirty days, or in default that his prop-
erty will be subjected to sale by public auction.

If the debtor does not pay the estate is put up at public auction,
pursuant to the direction of the judge, and the sale takes place with
a view to realizing from it the amount of the debt. If at the first
auction sale an offer is made for two-thirds of the set price that is
advertised in the Official Gazette, the estate is adjudged to the person
making the bid.

Dr. Carroll. Then the amount of the debt is not the minimum
amount of the sale?

Mr. Santoni. The knockdown price is determined by a represen-
tative of the debtor and a representative of the creditor; but if in the
first auction sale there are no bidders, another sale is had, and the
price is lowered until they get some one to bid. They take off 25 per
cent of the amount agreed upon by these representatives of the debtor
and the creditor after each order for a resale. That is, if when the
property is put up at auction there is no bid to the amount of two-
thirds of the agreed figure, they take off 25 per cent from the amount,
and put it up again at that price. Upon the payment of the mortgage,
the debtor has to see that the debt is canceled in the civil registry.
If he fails to do this an action still lies against him, and he is liable
to have the estate put up at auction, although he could bring, in such
a case, a criminal action against the creditor.

Dr. Carroll. When the estate is sold for less than the debt, and
the amount is turned over to the creditor, is that considered a satis-
faction of the debt, so that the creditor can not proceed against other
property?

Mr. Santoni. The debtor still has the right of action for the balance,
under the law of mortgage.

Dr. Carroll. Have creditors been in the habit here of worrying
debtors by the power they possess?

326

Mr. Santoni. Yes. There are now a great many processes on foot.

Dr. Carroll. Merchants and bankers claim that they have lost a
great deal by lending monej^ to agriculturists.

Mr. Santoni. Commerce here has always had its own way, and if
they have lost anything they are to blame. The agriculturist sends
his crops to the merchant, who will not fix the price at ouce if he thinks
prices are going to fall. Otherwise he fixes the price at once.

Dr. Carroll. Is there an office here for the registration of titles?

Mr. Santoni. The island is divided into different districts for regis-
tration purposes. This town registers in Arecibo. There are other
towns in this judicial district which have their place for registration.
Adjuntas, for instance, registers in Ponce.

Dr. Carroll. Is it convenient to have those offices distributed in
that way? Would it not be convenient to have one here? "

Mr. Santoni. If it were possible to realize what we were talking of
last night, municipal autonomy, it would be possible to have one in
every municipality.

Dr. Carroll. Is it costly to register property?

Mr. Santoni. The present rate is sufficiently high. The registrars
receive no salary, but collect fees for registration.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be better to allow a salary instead of
fees, to prevent the abuse of the law?

Mr. Santoni. It would be much better.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have much litigation over titles?

Mr. Santoni. No; very little. The civil courts here are mostly
taken up with commercial questions.

Dr. Carroll. What is the proceeding in will cases here, where a
man leaves a will for the distribution of his property?

Mr. Santoni. If there is a simple will in which a father constitutes
his wife or sons owner of the property, all that is necessary to do is to
register that will in the civil register, and that constitutes them own-
ers of the property. If there is any difficulty over a will, the question
usually becomes a source of long litigation.

Dr. Carroll. How is a will proved to be the last will and testament
of the deceased?

Mr. Santoni. The registrar requires that the documents proving the
birth and death of the person shall accompany the will.

Dr. Carroll. Are there witnesses to the signature to the will?

Mr. Santoni. I have been speaking on the supposition that the will
is made by a notary. The will is proved by the notarial stamp.

FORECLOSING ON RURAL ESTATES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. P., January 17, 1899.

Mr. Francisco Pla y Tort. I am a coffee planter and a Spaniard.
My estate is at Santa Isabel.

Dr. Carroll. How large a plantation is it?

Mr. Pla. Four hundred acres, with a production of 300 quintals of
coffee. I owe between sixteen and eighteen thousand dollars. My
estate is worth from thirty to fifty thousand dollars. I pay 12 per
cent per annum interest. A portion of this debt falls due this year
and the rest next year.

327

Dr. Carroll. Is it all in one mortgage?

Mr. Pla. I owe two different people. One part of the money is dne
already". One of my creditors has already begun proceedings against
me and has put an attachment on the property, including some which
is not my own.

Dr. Carroll. For what reason?

Mr. Pla. Because he fears that, owing to the critical times through
which we are passing, I will not be able to pay the money I owe.

Dr. Carroll. Does he propose to sell your crop at once?

Mr. Pla. His idea is to put it up at auction.

Dr. Carroll. At once?

Mr. Pla. He will have to go through certain legal forms first. The
attachment is the first step.

Dr. Carroll. Do your creditors propose to liquidate and get out of
the country?

Mr. Pla. I am not in a position to tell you that with certainty.

The Alcalde. That is the general opinion here.

Dr. Carroll. Have you kept the interest paid?

Mr. Pla. I have paid my interest regularly every year. I have
almost killed myself trying to meet my debts.

Dr. Carroll. Do you pay once a year?

Mr. Pla. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Have you appealed to the creditor to give you accom-
modation until you shall have an opportunity to get the money else-
where or to pay it off?

Mr. Pla.' Yes; but he will not listen to me.

(Mr. Pla produced a letter from another creditor telling him that if
he did not pay at once he would foreclose one of the mortgages, as
their own debts (those of the creditor firm) have to be attended to,
and they could sell his estate to one of their neighbors.)

Dr. Carroll. How can they proceed, when the mortgage is not
yet due?

Mr. Pla. One of the payments has fallen due, but not the whole of
it. I have written to them telling them that I am trying to get
together 20 or 25 quintals of coffee to pay off a part of the debt.

Dr. Carroll. How much time do you need in order to' be able to
save yourself from foreclosure?

Mr. Pla. To pay off my debts I want at least six years.

The Alcalde. A year ought to enable you to look around to find a
banker to take up these obligations.

Dr. Carroll. If an order were issued postponing the bringing of
these actions, it would be an extraordinary remedy, and the question
is for what time it would be necessary to postpone these mortgage
proceedings.

The Alcalde. What we have to do is this : We will have to get our
estates valued by experts, and then send to the United States to inter-
est the capitalists in our property. We have more than sufficient
property to guarantee the money covered by these debts. I think it
would be necessary to postpone proceedings a year.

Dr. Carroll. It is a serious question whether the cessation of
foreclosure proceedings for the term of one year should be ordered.

A Gentleman present. Then grant it for six months. The Spanish
Government itself had granted a year just before the war, recognizing
the gravity of the situation.

Dr. Carroll. In these same cases or in others?

A Gentleman present. As soon as war was declared the Spanish

328

Government gave that period, but when the Americans came in the
order was recalled.

Dr. Carroll. Was that order recalled at the time of the American
occupation or just before?

A Gentleman present. The Spanish Government before with-
drawing its forces annulled the decree and let the creditors loose,
because they are their own people.

The Alcalde. I will give you my own case. I am a merchant and
an agriculturist and owe $16,000. My- debtors owe me more than
$25,000. The same crisis which attacks everybody has prevented
these debtors from paying me. I have not cared to take advantage
of my right to foreclose on the mortgages I hold, as I might do under
the law, because I know the people are not in a position to pay. I
have a property of 300 acres which at a very low valuation is worth
$30,000. To-day I am in a serious position for want of $5,000 which
has fallen due, a part of the debt. Therefore, I, who have property
worth more than $60,000, may find myself in a ruined position for
want of $5,000. If I had brought my debtors to the courts I could
have collected from them by a forced sale of their properties, but I
should have ruined them in so doing, and I would not do that.

Dr. Carroll. What rate of interest do you pay?

The Alcalde. Twelve per cent per annum. I pay the bank 9 per
cent. The 12 per cent I am paying to merchants here.

Dr. Carroll. What is the crisis of which you speak that has caused
this difficulty?

The Alcalde. The war has brought about the crisis. The larger
merchants have closed our credits completely. The wholesale mer-
chants are desiring to liquidate with a view of leaving the countiy.

Dr. Carroll. Have you had just as good crops as usual?

The Alcalde. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. And they bring the same price?

The Alcalde. ISTo; prices are only half as high.

Dr. Carroll. Is this same state of affairs true among the sugar
planters?

The Alcalde. The same thing.

Dr. Carroll. They said nothing about it at Arecibo. I ask the
question because I want to know how general this condition may be.

The Alcalde. Arecibo is the town that is pressing Utuado. It is
the center of capital for this region. The house of Rosas, which owes
everything it has to the district of Utuado, has sent around notices
stating that it is liquidating, and demanding payment of all outstand-
ing debts.

Mr. Bartholome Mayol. They are actually putting under the ham-
mer an estate worth $107,000 for a debt amounting to $27,000. I have
600 acres of land. This estate owes $27,000 onby on mortgage. Besides
this, they are selling other property of mine — my mercantile house on
which they hold a second mortgage, and which will probably be sold
for a very small part of its value. These proceedings have already
had the effect of stopping my credit with other mercantile houses
with which I have been doing business. I am in the same position as
the alcalde. I am owed more than $60,000. All my debtors wish to
pay me in land, but my creditors won't accept payment in that form,
so that it would be no object for me to force my debtors. I think that
with the year of extension of time for which we ask I should be able
to find some financial institution that would help me out, because I
have a large margin of guaranty to give for any loan they might make.

329

Dr. Carroll. Is this condition general among the plantations of
this district?

Mr. Mayol. The condition is quite general. Four or five years ago
this district was very far behindhand, hut great impulse has been
given in the years since then, and property has been made on bor-
rowed money. I know of an estate here worth 190,000 that is being-
sold for a debt of sixteen or eighteen thousand dollars.

Mr. Sostenio Catalon. I have an estate which is worth $60,000,
and for which I was offered that amount a few years ago in cash. It
consists of 180 acres all planted in coffee, and produces from 500 to
600 quintals. There are improvements on it in the shape of build-
ings, etc., of the value of $16,000. They have put an attachment on
my property for $1,000 which I owe.

Dr. Carroll. Is that all you owe?

Mr. Catalon. I owe about $8,000, but I should have got enough
from my estate this year to pay all my debts, covering everything.
If things continue normally as they are now, I could collect every-
thing in a short time.

Dr. Carroll. Would your creditor not accept coffee in payment?

Mr. Catalon. He would not accept anything. He has commenced
attachment proceedings, and it is the kind which is called without
contemplation — that is, they won't contem plate any other course. The
creditor is Juan Piza, at San Juan.

Dr. Carroll. Have you anything further to say?

Mr. Catalon. I wish to have the judicial proceedings held over a
while so as to give me a little time in which to turn around.

Dr. Carroll. Have you been threatened before within a year with
these proceedings?

Mr. Catalon. I have never before had to be asked for the payment
of my debts. I have paid everything with the greatest faithfulness,
and this has come to me with great suddenness. During the eighteen
or twenty years I have been in this district I have never had niy name
in the judge's office for any sort of delay in payment, or, in fact, for
any cause whatever.

The Alcalde. A representative of the house of Eduardo Rosa has
come down here to-day from Arecibo and said to three of his debtors :
"I understand you are working for the suspension of judicial pro-
ceedings. I have a proposition to make. I will give you an extension
of time if yoa will agree to pay me all in legal coin, in the money cur-
rent at the time of payment, dollar for dollar. If you do not, I will
institute proceedings against you, and as your obligations to me fall
due before any steps can be taken by the American Government, you
see I am master of the situation." He also said, " My conscience
does not prick me at all in proffering this arrangement for the pay-
ment in money current at the time the extended obligation would
accrue, because I have been to the priest and consulted him, and he
has told me that I would be acting entirely within my rights in mak-
ing the proposition."

Mr. Felix Siejo (vice-mayor and coffee planter). I wish that you
would appeal to President McKinley to allow the cessation of judicial
proceedings on mortgages for, say, one year, in order to enable the
country to get out of the crisis into which recent events have thrown
it. It frequently happens, for instance, that an agriculturist with an

330

estate worth $16,000 owes, say, $2,000, and for want of ability to find
that amount of money he is in danger of losing his estate. We have
no doubt that foreign capital will soon come in and advance us money
which will enable us to get a fresh start. The money would be safely
invested, for, aside from the security which the lender would have in
the estates here, no Porto Riean desires to keep anything which does
not belong to him. The only thing that the country asks for just now
is that it be granted a small measure of protection, and with some
consideration, too, shown toward it. We ask nothing else. This is
a rich country and has immense wealth, and if given an opportunity
we will be sure to win prosperity.

Mr. Antonio Quinones, of Rio Bajo, municipal district of TJtuado.
I am a coffee planter and have an estate which is worth from forty to
forty-five thousand dollars. I owe about $5,000. My creditors are
trying to get my estate from me. This has obliged me to present a
petition to the judge askiug for time. In my district there are a great
many who are in the same position as myself. Therefore I beg, if it
is possible, that we may be assisted by a grant of time, as we all wish
to pay our debts, but do not wish to have our estates wrested from us
by our creditors.

Dr. Carroll. What time do you think would be necessary? Would
a year be sufficient?

Mr. Quinones. We want more if we can get it, because this year
has been a particularly bad one, and we have not been able to attend
to our estates for want of credit. We have to pay cash for everything
we get now, and we don't expect to realize very much from the crops.

Dr. Carroll. How much interest do you have to pay for the money
you have borrowed?

Mr. Quinones. Eighteen per cent. That has caused the ruin of the
country. Provisions are high, coffee is low, we have no credit, and
the agriculturists are therefore in a hole.

Dr. Carroll. This gentleman who has just testified says he has
applied to the court for leave to suspend foreclosure proceedings, and
I wish to inquire if there is a law that gives a judge the power to
suspend?

Mr. Felix Santoni. Yes; but the judge only enters into the mat-
ter in this sense : This man has called a meeting of his creditors, and
if three-fourths of the creditors, representing four-fifths of his debt,
consent to give him an extension, the others are obliged by the law to
enter into the arrangement also, and then it is drawn up before the
notary and becomes a debt of extension.

Dr. Carroll. But that affords but a small margin of escape?

Mr. Santoni. If he can not dispose of the big amount of the debt,
there is no use calling together the creditors.

Dr. Carroll. I want to ask also if there is any right to redeem
property which has been sold under mortgage provided the debtor is
ready to pay the money in cash?

Mr. Santoni. No; when once the public auction has been held and
the creditor has obtained the property, his title is a clear one and he
can sell it to anyone he wants. If the holders of mortgages should
take part in the proceedings before the judge in a meeting of the
creditors of the kind which you have referred to, they become parties
of the proceedings, but they do not have to attend the meeting in the
first instance. There is no law to compel them to do so.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any means of prolonging the action?

331

Mr. Santoni. The debtor has no hearing at all in the proceedings.
As yon may recall, I told yon there were two ways of collecting, one
by judicial proceeding and the other under the hypothecary law. If
they proceed by the judicial or executive method, there are several
delays which can be taken advantage of, but not of the other method
of procedure.

Dr. Carroll. Who has the option? I presume the creditor.

Mr. Santoni. Yes ; the creditor has the option.

Mr. Casalduc. Commerce here is altogether in the hands of the
Spaniards, and they are attacking agricultural interests, as they are
closing up their accounts to retire their capital in the country. They
are attacking the agricultural interests, and from now on are charging
agriculturists 18 per cent on what they are carrying; that is, they
close up their accounts, and in cases where there is a balance they
are charging 18 per cent on the balance. Most agriculturists have
paid their debt over and over again in interest, but as the interest
continues running they never get free. There are only two ways of
saving the country. One is the immediate institution of banking cor-
porations and the other an order giving the right to suspend payments
on mortgages for a time.

Dr. Carroll. How much time do you regard as necessary?

Mr. Casalduc. I don't owe any money. The agriculturists want
four or five years to get clear.

Dr. Carroll. I don't think you understand me. I refer to the
length of the time for suspending foreclosure of mortgages.

Mr. Casalduc. I think a couple of years would be required. The
reason I say two years is because I don't think a definite civil govern-
ment for the island will be settled on before that time, nor that banks
will be here before the civil government is established.

Mr. Lucas Amadeo. The law of Porto Rico as to mortgages is bad,
owing to the want of knowledge on the part of the persons who framed
it. We have assimilated laws from other countries which, though
good in those countries, were not adapted to conditions existing here.
Those laws could be implanted in crystallized countries, where prop-
erty has a fixed and known value, which it has not here. In Germany,
for instance, or France, property has a fixed vakie, and always has a
purchaser for a price slightly less than its value. But such is not the
case here. Such a condition assists the commercial life of a country,
because it quickens transactions and enlarges credit and increases the
amount of capital, for a man knowing that he can realize immediately
on his property will buy more. In Brazil they have stretched the
matter so far that it is almost impossible to enforce the collection of a
mortgage, and that is what has given stability to the wealth of Brazil.

Dr. Carroll. But I should think they would have to pay more
interest on their money in such cases.

Mr. Amadeo. That is not so, because when a country has money
the rate is forced down by the competition bet/ween the money lenders.

Dr. Carroll. Yes; but if a man can not collect his money it
increases the risk in lending it.

Mr. Amadeo. I have seen an estate situated about ten minutes'
walk from Ponce, worth a million dollars, change hands in a crisis for
lack of 20,000 pesos. This is a frequent occurrence.

Mr. Seijo. I will cite an instance of how the present crisis is affect-
ing values here. A few months ago we had an offer for an estate for
$50,000 cash. To-day the owner can not get $30,000 for it on terms.

332

Mr. Amadeo. That is not a condition peculiar to this country. It
has occurred in every country where there has been a want of ready
money. For that reason to-day in all new colonizing schemes the
banker always accompanies the frontiersmen. Instead of the chap-
lain, which the old colonizing parties took with them, they take now
the banker. They may not leave the chaplain behind, but they do
not regard him as so important.

SELLING OUT PLANTERS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aguadilla, P. R. , January 21, 1899.

Mr. Adrian Del Valle. As regards agriculture, the creation of
agricultural banks is very necessary. Agriculturists have no money
to attend to the cultivation of their crops. They have to come to the
merchants for that money, and then it is given at high rates of inter-
est. They have to bind themselves to sell at less than the market
value, even to obtain money on these unfavorable terms.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much distress among the agriculturists?

Mr. Del Valle. Quite a great deal. They have nowhere to go to
obtain money to continue sowing their crops, and in this district espe-
cially, where large sugar crops used to be raised, they have had to
abandon raising cane for want of funds.

Dr. Carroll. Are any of the planters suffering from proceedings
in the foreclosure of mortgages?

Mr. Del Valle. We, as merchants, besides other merchants in this
part of the island, have really had to abstain from advancing money
to agriculturists because we were losing money. We saw that the
thing could not continue. I mean that the credit system has been
discontinued.

Dr. Carroll. So there is no credit now extended to the agriculturist?

Mr. Del Valle. Little by little the people have been losing their
estates. They have not been able to pay their taxes this year. They
have had a small portion of their property sold off. Next jrear they
will have another part sold ; and so their estates will disappear, as
some have already, and the merchants, seeing the bad condition of.
things, have had to stop their credits. Quite a common thing here is
the system of bossism. The boss would get together with the mayor,
and they would arrange to sell a man out whose estate was worth $200
an acre for something like $8 an acre, and the boss, who was always a
Spaniard, would divide up with the mayor.

Dr. Carroll. Are any foreclosure proceedings now on foot owing
to merchants going out of business?

Mr. Del Valle. I have heard, especially in Arecibo, that some
houses there wish to increase the misery of the situation and are mak-
ing use of these proceedings. There are some Spaniards who, with the
knowledge of their former bad conduct, knowing that they have made
their capital by illegal methods, are frightened, and they are making
efforts to obtain their money and get out of the country.

333

INTEREST ON MORTGAGES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aguadilla, P. R., January 21, 1899.
Dr. Casselduc, mayor of Aguadilla:

Dr. Carroll. Is there much distress here among plantation owners
from foreclosure proceedings?

Dr. Casselduc. Yes, a great deal, because they can not get money.
Anybody who would come here with money, I think, could double it
in four or six years. In the States you can get money at 3 per cent
annually, and here you can get as high sometimes as 20 and 25 per
cent.

Dr. Carroll. I don't see how they can pay so high an interest here
and thrive. I believe the bank rate is about 9 per cent.

Dr. Casselduc. Yes, with security, and they can not get all they
want from the bank at that; but the low price of coffee is going to ruin
the island. Instead of selling for 25 and 30 pesos a quintal, they get.
only about 14 or 15 pesos. In Paris you have to pay as much for
Porto Rican coffee as for Mocha. Our second-class coffee used to go
to Cuba, but we have lost that market. Our better grades go to
Europe, principally to Italy. We have great wealth here in this island,
represented by bananas, pineapples, oranges. They grow wild. ,

" SUSPENSION OF THE LAW OF FORECLOSURE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., March 10, 1899.

Mr. Guzman Benitez. We have seen in the Gazette an order pro-
hibiting the sale of real estate to prevent the defaulting of creditors.
This is the consequence of another order issued, formerly suspending
the right of judicial proceedings for the foreclosure of mortgages. I
want to suggest, respectfully, that the first order was issued in an
unpremeditated way, but the second order, which is intended to remedy
it, is a worse evil. This order impedes contracts of every description.
The right of property holders is blocked by the order and nobody
cares to buy. Merchants can not make any transactions, lawyers
have no work, and the order puts an end to real-estate business in
general.

Dr. Carroll. What objection have you against the order for the
suspension of the foreclosure of mortgages'?

Mr. Benitez. I have a great objection, namely, that agriculture in
the island has been killed by means of supplies and loans from mer-
chants. Merchants have given credit to agriculturists under the only
guaranty which they can obtain in the island, that of mortgage. Mer-
chants on their part have liabilities to attend to the payment of their
bills in the United States and Europe, bills which never exceed ninety
days in point of time. If a merchant can not collect his debt before
the year from the agriculturist, he must necessarily fail.

Dr. Carroll. But this order does not apply to contracts or ordinary
transactions of a commercial character, but to the lending of money
on mortgage.

Mr. Benitez. Yes; but every mercantile transaction to-day in

334

which credit forms a part has necessarily to be guaranteed by
mortgage.

Dr. Carroll. Advantage was being taken of the summary method
of foreclosure by merchants and bankers who were liquidating their
business in Porto Rico in order to withdraw and enjoy the proceeds
in foreign lands, and a great many estates were threatened with being
taken away from their owners at a very small part of their value.
Of course a forced sale now is a sacrifice, because there are few per-
sons here in a position to buy, and if you ruin the agricultural inter-
ests you ruin the prosperity of the island.

Mr. Benitez. Yes; I think the order was conceived in a spirit of
justice. It is founded on eminently political and just social bases,
but I think the mistake has been to leave in the hands of the debtors
the crop of last year and the crop of the coming year, whereas this
crop should have been turned over to the creditors.

Dr. Carroll. If they don't pay their interest you can foreclose the
mortgage.

Mr. Benitez. The order only says you can embargo or put a lien
on the property.

Dr. Carroll. No. The law suspending proceedings only applies
where interest is kept paid up. After the original was issued there
was a supplementary order also.

Mr. Benitez. As everybody does not get the Gazette, some of us
have been badly informed. But be that as it may, the new order is a
bad one.

Dr. Carroll. What is the practical effect, as you understand it, of
the new order?

Mr. Benitez. You can get two or three persons to testify falsely
that you owe them money, and if you have sold your estate the sale
is held to be worthless and the estate is returned to you.

Dr. Carroll. How can that be done?

Mr. Benitez. By documents signed by the debtor to two or three
persons.

Dr. Carroll. What would be the purpose of it? Why should a
man want his property returned after he has sold it?

Mr. Benitez. There are three cases. Suppose I buy an estate
from Mr. Solomon in good faith and pay him $20,000 for it. I then,
wishing to do him an injury, proceed in the following way: I plan
with two or three persons to give them notes in my signature bearing
dates prior to the date of sale. After I have put the $20,000 in a good
safe place, these men with whom I have made the arrangement go
before the judge and complain that I have deprived them of their
rights, under the order in question, by selling m}T estate while I was
under obligations to them.

Dr. Carroll. Do you mean to say that you have people in Porto
Rico as villainous as that?

Mr. Benitez. Unfortunately, bad faith has been the general rule
in the business of the island.

Dr. Carroll. Then I don't see how you can reach it by law, be-
cause it is easy to violate in that way any law. All law, to be effect-
ive, must be based upon the good faith of the people, and if the people
as a whole are without good faith, the law is useless.

Mr. Benitez. As a general principle I am with you, but in this
special instance 1 am not. Our law of mortgage is so stringent that
a person doing business with an agriculturist and registering the

335

operation in the register, under the law of mortgage, is so protected
that no human power can cheat him out of his due.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me the creditor is entirely protected.
He is protected at the risk of the debtor.

Mr. Benitez. But the debtor when he makes the contract knows
exactly the contract he is making.

Dr. Carroll. That is true, and yet it gives the creditor undue ad-
vantage, so that the creditor may institute proceedings for foreclosure
at the worst time of the year, and within thirty days may sell out the
debtor's estate and deprive him of all his equity in it.

Mr. Benitez. I was referring only to the substance of the law of
mortgage and not to the procedure. The law of mortgage is the only
means by which good faith can be enforced.

Dr. Carroll. It is important that those who lend money on mort-
gage should be protected, and it is also important to those who wish
to borrow, because otherwise men would not lend. While we provide
for the security of mortgage holders in the United States, the interests
of the debtor are also looked after, so that it requires very often from
six months to a year, or even more, to foreclose a mortgage and sell an
estate in order to realize the amount of the debt. That gives the
debtor an opportunity, if he is an honest man, to obtain the money
elsewhere ; and if he is not an honest man, the law steps in, brings
about a sale, and satisfies the debt.

Mr. Benitez. But if they wanted to lend money for a short time,
what would be the effect of a contract there?

Dr. Carroll. Usually they lend it on a promissory note with col-
lateral security.

Mr. Benitez. Here, as a note has really no value, and a man who
has property to-day can sell it to-morrow, it has been customary to
secure all loans of any size with a mortgage contract.

Dr. Carroll. Even for short terms, such as a month or two?

Mr. Benitez. I, as registrar of Ponce, have registered contracts
covering loans of a month and a half.

Dr. Carroll. Have you such a thing as a chattel mortgage — a
mortgage on household goods or upon crops or cattle?

Mr. Benitez. No; movable goods are not subject to mortgage; but
there is an abuse of a kind which I will explain. Many money lenders,
not thinking themselves fully protected by mortgage, exact from the
borrower a deed of sale of all their effects, and in case the money is
not paid at maturity by just registering that deed they become the
owners of the property.

Dr. Carroll. We have the same thing, which is called a bill of
sale. Are planters who borrow money generally men of bad faith?
Do they require a stringent law in order to protect the creditor?

Mr. Benitez. I would not like to say they are people of bad faith;
but I think the human heart is easily moved by circumstances when
it is not thoroughly educated in moral principles. Owing to the cir-
cumstances which the country is passing through, the economic crisis,
there are persons who, though honest of heart, find it necessary to
save their interests. I am quite certain that all of these men who have
apparently sold their estates, if there had been sufficient banking insti-
tutions here, jvould have obtained loans and paid their debts; but they
have been acting under force.

Dr. Carroll. Of course this law for the suspension of foreclosure
was an extraordinary measure. and grew out of the fact that an extra-
ordinary situation existed in the island. It is not a measure without

336

precedent, however, for I understand that a year ago, under the last
Governor-General, a similar order was prepared and authorized to be
published, and was only withheld because of the breaking out of the
war, and such suspension has also a precedent in other countries. For
instance, in the United States at the close of the civil war the law of
the foreclosure of mortage was suspended for two years in the south-
ern part of the Union, which had been devastated by the war.

Mr. Benitez. I protest against the period of two months allowed
the debtors for the payment of interest.

Dr. Carroll. That is, two months for the payment of interest in
arrears?

Mr. Benitez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. That was not the form of the order. There was a
mistake in the order as first published. It was made to extend to all
debts of every character as well as mortgage debts. That was never
intended in the original, but got in somehow by mistake and was
afterwards corrected by the supplementary order.

Mr. Benitez. As soon as the debtor receives notice that he must
pay his interest within two months he can sell his crops. He can not
be held to be a legal depository of them because no suit was pending.
He has two months, however. The time mortgages usually take into
account more the value of the crops than of the estate, and the terms
in relation to the payment of interest are made with reference to the
time when the crop will be gathered. Merchants here do not wish to
collect their debts by taking over the estates; they want the crops.

Dr. Carroll. A good many of them wanted the estates. I had a
great many instances presented to me where that was the case, and
then they used the lever which they had in this proceeding to force
the debtor to make some other arrangements — that is, to make a con-
tract to pay principal and interest in gold, although the money had
been loaned in pesos, and in other cases to advance the rate of interest
to 18 and 20 per cent.

EMBARGOES ON ESTATES.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cabo Rojo, P. R., January 27, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What has caused the failure of industries in Cabo
Rojo?

Mr. Ortiz (vice-alcalde). The fall in price of sugar has caused the
abandonment of many estates; inability to load our salt without
heavy charges has caused almost the abandonment of that industry,
and owing to heavy taxation generally. The Spanish Government
put such heavy taxes on everything that we could not go on. And
the merchants of Mayaguez are the owners of nearly all the property
here. Estates that have been worth from forty to fifty thousand dol-
lars have been given to satisfy debts of $10,000. I could give you
some specific cases if you wish — Abram Rodriguez, Federico Ronda,
and Federico Davila.

Dr. Carroll. What were the values of the estates respectively
and the amounts of the debts due on them?

Mr. Ortiz. In one case, that of Bellas, the amount of the debt was
$38,000. The machinery alone on the property is worth that amount,
and the estate is worth at least $80,000. Mr. Santos held the mortgage.

337

Dr. Carroll. Was it put up at public auction?

Mr. Ortiz. No; he had a mortgage and afterwards lie gave a small
sum of money. The matter was adjusted by an agreement, but the
agreement was really forced on the debtor.

Dr. Carroll. Can you give* particulars in the other cases?

Mr. Ortiz. The other foreclosures were made in Mayaguez and not
here, and I am not sure of the amounts.

A Gentleman present. In the case of Abram Rodriguez the
amount of the debt was $16,000, which was increased to $25,000 by
adding unpaid interest. The estate is worth about $50,000. In the
case of Federico Ronda the debt was $11,000, with accrued interest,
amounting, in all, to $20,000. The value of the estate is about $40,000.

Dr. Carroll. Who held the mortgages in these two cases?

Mr. Ortiz. A man by the name of Schultze. The mortgage on the
estate of Federico Davila is also held by Schultze. I don't know what
the amount of the debt was, but the estate consists of fine valley lands
with fine machinery. The final steps of these foreclosure proceedings
have not been taken yet.

Dr. Carroll. Do you know of the order of General Henry suspend-
ing proceedings?

Mr. Ortiz. Yes. Mr. Ronda went yesterday to prevent the creditors
from cutting his cane. The justice has just now taken off the embargo
from the estate.

Dr. Carroll. Has this order operated to prevent the collection of
ordinary debts?

Mr. Ortiz. They have understood it in that way. It is well that
something should be published on the subject. Some people do not
want to pay their municipal taxes because they understood the law to
apply to them also.

Dr. Carroll. Is the order well received here?

Mr. Ortiz. Very well. It has been like winning the first prize in
the lottery for Mr. Ronda.

Dr. Carroll. The order was not intended to include anything but
mortgages. It was not intended to include ordinary debts.

Mr. Ortiz. Are they under the obligation of paying the interest
also?

Dr. Carroll. Yes.

Mr. Ortiz. If they owe interest at the rate of one, one and one-half
or more per month, will that accumulate?

Dr. Carroll. I suppose whatever rate of interest was contracted
for in the past would be due, but hereafter no more than 12 per cent
could be charged; but that is a matter for the judges to decide. Have
the planters usuall}7 paid their interest?

Mr. Ortiz. As a rule, no. Their crops have not even given them
enough to pay interest. They have had to turn their crops over to
the creditors, who have usually credited them at much less than their
market value.

Dr. Carroll. In order to take advantage of this order the}'' must
pay up interest. What are the highest rates of interest paid here by
planters?

Mr. Ortiz. Four per cent a month.

Dr. Carroll. During a year?

Mr. Ortiz. The general rule is 1^ per cent a month.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that, but I want to get at the highest
rate of interest paid a year.

Mr. Ortiz. Thej^ charge compound interest. The highest rate is 18
per cent.

1125 22

338

EXTENSION OF TIME FOR PAYMENT OF MORTGAGES.
MEMORIAL OF EMILIO CABRERA.

I believe that the only way to save the properties of agriculturists,
commercial, and industrial business men in this country is to make
more expansive the order of Gen. Guy V. Henry.

I honestty believe that this order should be general for all debts in
the island for the agriculturists, merchants, and industrialists, with
an extension to three years, dividing the credits into three equal
parts, so to be paid annually with interest at 6 per cent annually, and
forbidding the sale for that period of time of property without being
advertised to the public in the official gazette for one month.

This would save everybody and the agricultural and commercial
development will be helped.

I humbly believe that the planters in the short period named in the
present order will not be able to cover their debts, and at the end of
the year the merchants will take possession of many properties and a
great number of families will be ruined.

Las Marias, P. R. , January 25, 1899.

HOW ONE MORTGAGE WAS FORECLOSED.
MEMORIAL TO THE SPECIAL COMMISSIONER.

I beg to inclose the adjoined note giving you the full details by
which you can see how I was traitorousby and fraudulently deprived
of an estate, which I had honestly acquired by legal methods, by the
house of Fernandez & Co. for an insignificant sum of money.

I beg you to study this document, so that you can resolve thereupon
that which justice exacts.

At the end of 1897 George Agostini bought of Cerefino Agostini an
estate under coffee in the barrio of Naranjales, of the jurisdiction of
Mayaguez, valued at $10,000, of which he paid cash $6,500, the estate
remaining mortgaged for the remaining $3,500 plus $138 for interest.
This mortgage was owned as to $2,625 by Antonio Blanco and as to
$875 by Fernandez & Co., both merchants of Mayaguez, and the
terms of payments of the said mortgage were as follows, with interest:

Princi- ;
pal.

Interest.

On December 31.1896. , $300 S96

On December 31, 1897.. 800 j 192

On December 31. 189S 800 288

On December 31. 1899 800 384

On December 31. 1900... ; 800 420

3.500

The first installment, with interest, was punctually paid.

The second payment of $800, in the abnormal situation of the coun-
try which began to make itself felt owing to the change from the
Spanish to the American Government, could not be met.

The firm of Fernandez & Co., taking advantage of this situation,
and unknown to George Agostini, lawful owner of the estate, entered
action against the old owner, Cerefino Agostini. You must know

339

that when this execution of mortgage was asked for, Cerefi.no Agostini
was already defunct.

What was the surprise of George Agostini when the sheriff, armed
with an order of the judge, dated September 13, 1898, presented him-
self— the American forces being then in possession of this city —
demanding the immediate delivery of the estate to Fernandez & Co.,
said estate having been sold at auction for $875 without the knowledge
of its owner, this being the sole amount the estate owed to that firm !
Plainly speaking, Fernandez & Co. got possession of an estate worth
$10,000, and for which $6,500 cash has been paid, for $875, which act
must be considered as fraudulent, though protected by the corrupt
Spanish courts. All complaints of George Agostini and all steps on
his part have been useless. No court would listen to his appeal. He
was ordered to relinquish the property under pain of being proceeded
against criminally. It is worth noting that the mortgage contained
the clause "that if one installment was not paid when due, all remain-
ing installments, with interest, should be considered as having fallen
due."

Jose George Agostini.

Mayaguez, January 27, 1899.

THE CIVIL DIVISIONS.

ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENTS.
SAN JUAN.

First department. — San Juan, Bayamon, Carolina, Rio Piedras,
Vega Baja, Corozal, Loiza, Toa Alta, Naranjito, Rio Grande, Vega
Alta, Trujillo Alto, Dorado, Toa Baja.

Second department. — Arecibo, Barceloneta, Ciales, Camuy, Hatillo,
Manati, Morovis, Quebradillas, Utuado.

AGUADILLA.

Third department. — Aguadilla, Aguada, Isabela, Moca, Rincon, San
Sebastian.

PONCE.

Fourth department. — Ponce, Aibonito, Adjuntas, Barros, Barran-
quitas, Co'amo, Guayanilla, Yauco, Juana Diaz, Penuelas, Santa
Isabel.

MAYAGUEZ.

Fifth department. — Mayaguez, Aiiasco, Cabo Rojo, Las Marias,
Lajas, San German, Sabana Grande, Maricao.

GUAYAMA.

Sixth department. — Guayama, Arroyo, Aguas Buenas, Caguas,
Cayey, Comerio, Cidra, Gurabo, San Lorenzo, Juncos, Salinas.

HUMACAO.

Seventh department. — Humacao, Fajardo, Yabucoa, Maunabo,
Naguabo, Patillas, Piedras.
Eighth department. — Vieques, Culebra.

340

JUDICIAL DISTRICTS.

AUDIENCIA TERRITORIAL, CRIMINAL BRANCH, SAN JUAN DEPARTMENT.

District.

Municipalities.

District.

Municipalities.

San Juan San Juan.

Carolina.

Loiza.

Rio Grande.

Rio Piedras.

Trujillo Alto.
Caguas Caguas.

Aguas Buenas.

G-urabo.

San Lorenzo.

Comerio.
Humacao. ..- — '. Humacao.

Fajardo.

Humacao

Vega Baja .

Juncos.

Naguabo.

Piedras.

Vieques.

Yabucoa.

Vega Baja.

Bayamou.

Corozal.

Dorado.

Naranjito.

Toa Alta.

Toa Baja.

Vega Alta.

AUDIENCIA CRIMINAL OF PONCE, PONCE DEPARTMENT.

Barros.

Aibonito.

Coamo.

Arroyo.

Guayanilla.

Cidra.

Juana Diaz.

Cayey.

Penuelas.

Baranquitas.

Santa Isabel.

Maunabo.

Yauco.

Patillas.
Salinas.

AUDIENCIA CRIMINAL MAYAGUEZ, MAYAGUEZ DEPARTMENT.

Mayaguez

Arecibo .

Aguadilla

Mayaguez.

Anasco.

Las Marias.

Rincon.

Arecibo.

Barceloneta.

Camuy.

Hatillo.

Manati.

Morovis.

Aguadilla.

Aguada.

Moca.

Aguadilla ..
San German

Utuado

Quebradillas.

San Sebastian.

Isabela.

San German.

Cabo Rojo.

Lajas.

Maricao.

Sabana Grande.

Utuado.

Adjuntas.

Ciales.

Lares.

POLITICAL PARTIES.

LIBERALS AND AUTONOMISTS.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1898.

Dr. Jose C. Barbosa. When I came back from the United States
in 1880 we had here no liberty, no freedom, except on paper. We
at once set to work to acquire from Spain some degree of liberty for
this country and formed a party called the Liberal party, also called
the Reform party. Our object was to reform the laws of the island,
and most of the native Porto Ricans belonged to this party.

Dr. Carroll. Was the Liberal party here in sympathy with the
Liberal party of Sagasta?

Dr. Barbosa. No; no Spaniard supported us. The Spaniards sup-
ported the Conservative party, to which also belonged some of the
natives; but the natives who were identified with the Conservative
party were of that class of people who always like to be associated

341

with the party in power, irrespective of the principles for which the
party stands. Both Sagasta and Canovas were opposed to us and in
favor of the Spanish party in the island. We had a great struggle
here until 1887, when we asked for autonomy. In that year, seeing
that the Spaniards here, no matter what shade of government might
be introduced in the peninsula, would always adhere to Spain, in a
public assembly we declared ourselves autonomists, our purpose being
to force the Spanish party in the island to declare themselves assimi-
lists. Previous to the assembly we had asked for the same laws here
that were granted to the Spaniards in Spain. This was refused.
Then, when we declared ourselves autonomists, the Spaniards here
immediately became assimilists and said, "Give them what they asked
for first" — that is, the laws in force in Spain, and that result was what
we had sought and expected by our declaration in favor of autonomy.

Our demand for autonomy, however, was met by the fearful perse-
cutions of the year 1887, and the tortures which were inflicted caused
many to cease calling themselves autonomists. Only a few had the
courage to continue to do so. But a few of us continued to work on
the same lines in spite of the arguments of many of our former adher-
ents that we were pursuing a policy which could never meet with any
success. Finally our party was reduced to about forty or fifty, and
this small number continued working, assisted by Senor Labra, the
Spanish statesman. We continued calling meetings in the different
towns of the island, trying to raise the spirits of the people who, dis-
couraged by the failure of the form of government granted by Spain,
came gradually over to our way of thinking.

At this period we took advantage of the Cuban revolution to send
a committee to Spain to ask the home Government for autonomy on
the ground that the government it had granted was having only bad
results and that unless autonomy were granted we feared we would
not be able much longer to restrain the revolutionary spirit of the
people.

We sent this committee to Spain under orders to accept nothing but
autonomy. This committee had a conference with Sagasta, not yet
in power, who promised them that when he did come into power he
would grant Porto Rico autonomy in the proper acceptation of the
word, but with the condition that the Autonomist party of the island
was to form a part of Sagasta's Liberal party in Spain and be subject
to his orders. The first part of this promise was good, but the condi-
tion was bad. Our committee, was composed of five members, three
of whom were of republican and two of monarchical sympathies. Our
object in placing the three republicans on the committee was that they
might override the monarchical tendency of the other two members,
but for some reason unknown to us one of the republicans went over
to the monarchicals, with the result that the committee accepted the
offer of Sagasta with its condition.

When the committee came back and reported to the assembly, only
three or four accepted their report. The forty or fifty of us who had
been struggling so long to obtain our ends protested against the accept-
ance of Sagasta's proposition. From that dates the split of the party.
The reason we opposed Sagasta's plan was that we knew it was not
possible for an autonomist party, having for its object local self-
government for the people, to be attached to a monarchical party which
would have control over it and be in a position to forestall its action.
It was clear enough that the purpose of Sagasta was only to destroy
our party here. We, the larger number, who had refused to accept

342

the Sagasta proposition, returned to our homes, hopeless but protest-
ing, and the three or four who had accepted the offer directed their
attention to the matter of forming a new party, called the Liberal-
Fusionist party.

Shortly afterwards Sagasta came into power and began favoring the
leader of the new party, Munoz Rivera, giving him all the posts of the
island and giving him power over the ballots; that is, he gave him
such power in elections that he could practically control them. Mr.
Rivera began by offering official appointments to men who had never
thought of appointments before, and in that way created a large party
of men who were more interested in having a good position than in
standing for a principle. Those who were opposed to the party of Mr.
Rivera said: "We have steadily opposed the Spaniards in that kind
of misgovernment, and we will not submit to it from natives."

We began to pay special attention to international politics, and that
gave us hope, because we thought that if Mr. Woodford would ask for
the freedom of Cuba, there was some reason to believe he might do the
same thing for us. So we began to struggle harder than ever and
endeavored to let it be known in the United States that it was not
true, as Sagasta was trying to represent, that the people of Porto Rico
were all contented with our government here. We never thought of
war, but we thought the end we desired might be brought about by
diplomacy. We thought that Spain would have to grant to Porto Rico
what she granted to Cuba. To a certain extent we achieved what we
wanted, because the Government, on account of the representations
being made by the United States and taking note of the fact that affairs
were moving along anything but smoothly in Porto Rico, called the
leaders of our party together in a conference with them to unite us
with the Liberal-Fusionist party and form a mixed government.
This fusion, which we thought was prompted by sincere motives, was
effected, and, as a consequence, the united party took the name of the
Union- Autonomist party.

On the 12th of February of this year (1898) there was formed the first
insular council, composed of three autonomists and three fusionists,
which lasted until the 17th of March, by which time we understood
that we had been chosen only as figureheads to enable Spain to do
what she wanted with us. We therefore resigned, to take effect at
once. The two parties then separated again. The Governor-General
would not accept their resignations, because in the time of elections
the law does not allow of their acceptance, and this was of itself
another trick, because after we held official positions we were by law
prohibited from taking part in the elections, and the government, in
the absence of our efforts in opposition, got in the persons it wanted.
The secretary of the government here has charge of the post-office,
telegraph service, police, and other municipal matters, and he took
advantage of his position at the time of the elections to prevent letters
and telegrams from passing from San Juan to the other cities of the
island, and stationed the civil guards at the election places. We were
not permitted even to talk with people about the issues of the elec-
tion, and the result was that out of 32 elected 27 were the men whom
the government desired in office. They allowed 5 of our party to be
elected, but these 5, because of the manner in which the election was
conducted, said it was beneath their dignity to accept the offices to
which they were elected, and refused to accept them. The}7 wanted
to be elected by the favor of the people, not by the favor of the gov-
ernment.

343

The legislature was convened on the 17th day of July, the purpose
of convening it at that late day being merely a pretense on the part of
Spain that affairs in the island were proceeding in a normal manner
in spite of the war. The 27 members who accepted the offices to
which they had been nominally elected took their seats without oppo-
sition from the other 5 and proceeded to elect the present members
of the government, who are to-day in power, their official positions
having been confirmed by the military government.

Dr. Carroll. What is the state of affairs to-day; are the political
parties united?

Dr. Barbosa. No; the feeling is very bitter. The secretary of the
government recommended 14 of our party for appointment as city
councilors in San Juan, including myself, but we refused to accept
the positions under the present insular government. We can not
consent to serve under officials who came into office in the manner
they did.

Dr. Carroll. Will the meeting to be held Sunday represent your
party?

Dr. Barbosa. Not my party only, but every party in the island.
There is a party here which calls itself Partido Incondicionalmente
Espanol (Unconditionally Spaniards), and the natives who have hith-
erto adhered to that party will be present.

Dr. Carroll. Is it your opinion that it would be good policy to
make English the official language of Porto Rico?

Dr. Barbosa. Yes; but not immediately. There should be teach-
ers here for a couple of years to instruct the people in English first.
I should like very much to have schools for the teaching of English
here — such schools as you have in America. With such schools here
we could in ten years bring up a generation of English-speaking peo-
ple. I think, too, that a few kindergartens would be a great thing
for the island.

CABINET DIVISIONS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 4, 1898.

Mr. Julian Y. Blanco (secretary of the treasury). I have been
anxious to give you some information regarding the government and
the laws of the country.

Dr. Carroll. I shall be glad to hear anything you may have the
kindness to present. My mission in the island is to get information.

Mr. Blanco. What I desire to call your attention to specially is
the lack of harmony which exists to-day between the secretaries of
the insular government. The laws existing in this country when the
American occupation commenced were those given to the country on
the 25th of last November. By virtue of those laws the insular gov-
ernment was constituted. In inaugurating that government different
parties in the island were given representation in the government. It
was a sort of mixed government. I had belonged until then to one of
the political parties known as the Orthodox party, and was placed as
such secretary to Mr. Quinones, the president. I soon saw that I
could do nothing in that position, as none of the officials were in agree-
ment with him. They did not occupy themselves in the public inter-
ests, but gave themselves up to matters of personal politics. Conse-
quently I separated from both parties, the two parties being the Ortho-
dox and the Sagasta or Fusionist party.

344

Dr. Carroll. By the Orthodox party do you moan the Conservative?

Mr. Blanco. When the Liberal party split, two parties were formed,
one of these being the Orthodox, the really genuine Liberal party, and
the other merged with the party in Spain and called the Fusionists.
I remained subsecretary, but without being able to accomplish any-
thing. After the elections there was a change in the government.
These elections were full of fraud. They took place in February last
and were won by the Sagasta or Liberal party. Both parties did some
things that were wrong.

Dr. Carroll. Please give me some idea what those abuses were
and how they were carried out.

Mr. Blanco. Before the elections took place the leader of the
Fusionist party got possession of all tho municipalities of the island,
changing all the mayors to men of his own party, and I want to say
here that the mayors of these towns should be named, according to
law, by vote of their common councils, instead of by appointment
from the central government. Most of the mayors, before the change
was made by the leader of the Fusionist party, were members of the
Conservative party, but those offices were all filled with men who
would support the Sagasta faction. Also, in making up the census of
those entitled to vote they took great care to see that all the different
election boards were composed of men of the Sagasta party, so as to
have everything in their hands, and when the time for election came
everything connected with it was under the management and control
of this party. The elections came, and as the Liberal party won the
government called the leader of the Liberal party and asked him to
form a cabinet. He then called me in turn and told me he was anx-
ious that I should be one of the cabinet and hold the office of secre-
tary of the treasury, because he believed me to be the most competent
person to hold that post. I told him that T was willing in every way
to lend assistance in the establishment of the autonomistic govern-
ment, but that I would not join his party; that I would assist as an
independent man.

All that I wanted was that the law should be complied with and
impartially, and I said that I would assist if I were allowed to follow
that course. The leader of the Liberal party said, yes, that was what
he wanted; that all party feelings had ended. Already there were
symptoms of war, but he set about to form the government of the
island on the new basis. War was finally declared, and everything
was interrupted. The country after that went along without much
further change, so far as the application of the autonomistic law of
• the municipalities of the island was concerned. After the American
occupation the common council sent a memorial to General Brooke,
asking him to concede to the common council of Ponce the right to
which they are entitled by law, the law providing that in purely local
affairs the common council shall have the right to name all its em-
ployees necessary for the management of the city government, and
to attend to the various necessities of the municipal district. Article
52 of the autonomistic constitution says that all municipalities legally
constituted or empowered to legislate regarding public instruction,
roads, maritime matters, sanitation, the assessment of taxes, shall
have the power to name their employees.

Article 55 says that municipalities as well as the province can
establish means of income with which to meet their expenses without
any more limitations than is sufficient to make them conform to the
tributary system of the island.

345

Article 50 says that the mayors and vice mayors shall be elected by
the vote of the common council.

Article 61 says that the municipal law in force in Porto Rico will
continue to be enforced as far as it will not interfere with the present
decree, and that the modification established by the electoral law so
long as the colonial parliament does not legislate about these matters,
but article 62 says that no colonial law can deprive the municipalities
of the rights and privileges granted by the former articles. That
is to say, the power was granted to the insular assembly to modify
municipal laws, but without being able to alter the rights and privi-
leges of municipalities specified in the preceding articles. For
example, it could never deny to the common council the right of
naming mayors and vice mayors or making appointments to the other
posts which they are specially authorized to fill. This law has never
been complied with. The mayors continue to be named, as before, by
the governor-general. They do not observe the law at all, but are
denying a right which the island sought for many years in behalf of
municipal government.

Dr. Carroll. According to the American system, mayors of towns
and cities are always elected by the people, who also elect the common
councils. Would it be well to have that system established in Porto
Rico?

Mr. Blanco. That is just what the country has wanted always, but
has never been able to get. When we obtain that right everything
else will come, for it is the foundation of local self-government. The
memorial which has come from Ponce asks only for compliance with
the law, by the grant of those rights to which they are entitled. Gen-
eral Brooke called the council of secretaries and read the memorial
to them and asked them their opinion. The president of the council,
Mr. Rivera, and Mr. Lopez gave their opinions against granting the
right demanded by the memorial, protesting at the same time that
they had liberal ideas and were in sympathy with what the petition
from Ponce asked, but that it was not compatible with military occu-
pation to grant the petition, and that no attempt should be made to
establish municipal autonomy until after Congress met and legislated
in the matter. When it came my turn to speak I stated that I was
not in conformity with Mr. Rivera and Mr. Lopez. These gentlemen
pretended to show that the common council of Ponce was asking for
an amendment of the law, but I stated that they did not ask for an
amendment, but were asking for compliance with the law. We had
quite a heated discussion in Spanish, but General Brooke was not able
to appreciate the arguments advanced on both sides, as he is not
acquainted with the Spanish language, but he understood perfectly
that the secretaries were not in agreement. He advised us to recon-
sider the matter and arrange it among ourselves and he would then
call us again together. We had a meeting for that purpose the same
evening and were unable to agree.

They have tried to make General Brooke believe two great errors.
First, that the common council of Ponce was asking for a reformation
of the law, which they said was incompatible with the military estab-
lishment, and, second, that those articles which I have referred to
could not be carried out until the provisional assembly should meet,
and as it had not got together, and very likely will not meet, they
would have to wait until Congress resolves the matter. That is not
the truth. The articles I have referred to are a part of the estab-
lished law of Porto Rico and should be carried out, and that law

346

expressly provides that the assembly shall not have power to change
those articles; so what difference conld it make whether the assembly
meets or not so far as these provisions are concerned. The rights of
the council to elect their mayor and proceed under the articles
referred to can not be abridged by the assembly. After this meet-
ing, seeing that we could not agree, we decided that either Mr. Rivera
or Mr. Lop^z should make a proposal in writing, with a view to seeing
whether or not we could patch up some sort of agreement. Last
Saturday quite late I was notified that a meeting of the council would
be held at 8 o'clock Sunday morning.

Dr. Carroll. Who composed the council?

Mr. Blanco. Luis Munoz Rivera, secretary of government; Her-
nandez Lopez, secretary of justice; Dr. Carbonell, secretary of
fomento, and myself. I did not assist at that meeting because I had
to go to Bayamon, but said in the afternoon I would be able to par-
ticipate in a meeting. I went to the country, and they never communi-
cated to me anything of this meeting. The following day, in the
afternoon, I had to go to Mr. Rivera about other business, and then
he told me that the whole thing had been resolved; that General
Brooke urged the matter so strongly that they were obliged to get
together and give him a decision. A few days ago another meeting
was called by General Brooke, and an answer to the Ponce petition
was submitted by General Brooke, in which he made it appear that
the whole matter had been settled on his own initiation, and not that
he had listened to this council. In this letter of General Brooke he
stated that the people of Ponce were asking for a reformation of the
law, which, as I have said, was not the case. At that same meeting
there was another document of which General Brooke has taken
notice. Dr. Carbonell indicated that he wished to name certain
school-teachers for the different villages and towns. This brought on
a heated discussion as to the authority of Dr. Carbonell to name
school-teachers. I maintained that he had no such authority; that
the only case in which the central government can intervene is where
a district, in violation of the law, appoints a school-teacher who has
not the proper title. General Brooke again advised the secretaries
to make an effort to get together.

I have given you all this account of the trouble in the ministry,
which is perhaps out of the line of what I came to talk to you about,
so that you may understand the great difficulties in the way of good
government. I consider the matter of applying the autonomistic law
as very important to the interests of the island, and I am disposed to
tell my colleagues at the meeting of the council at 4 o'clock this after-
noon that if an agreement can not be reached I will resign. I can not
continue, because for over fifty years I have supported certain princi-
ples, and I can not go back to them now. I believe that our mission
is to smooth over the present regimen and prepare to better ourselves,
and not to sow discord. I don't believe that the military force in the
island requires to be strengthened. I am sure that it will displease
the people of Ponce when they receive the decision of General Brooke.
If they complied with the law, they would allow each municipality to
select its own teachers and to carry out the autonomistic plan in all
its features.

Dr. Carroll. Is that in accord with the autonomistic law and also
the provincial law?

Mr. Blanco. Before the government did what it pleased.

347

Dr. Carroll. But was it not the law before that teachers, for
instance, should be appointed by the central government?

Mr. Blanco. Yes; but there were certain limitations.

Dr. Carroll. I have been given to understand that the autono-
mistic regime was never fully established here and that it is not now
in operation, and I understand from Mr. Rivera that the autonomistic
system has never been more than a dead letter.

Mr. Blanco. That is so, and the law has been violated — has never
been complied with. The law is imperfect; nevertheless, if they car-
ried it out it would have given very good results, bub they never
carried it out.

Dr. Carroll. I understand the military policy is to continue things
in status quo, not to make any changes, but to continue the govern-
ment just as the Americans found it until Congress, on the recommen-
dation of the President, adopts a new system.

Mr. Blanco. I understood that the policy of the United States would
be to carry out the law of the countiy in so far as it affects the settle-
ment of private rights of persons and property and as to the punish-
ment of crime, and that the general provisions of law of the country
would be in force. In that view of the case I don't understand why
the measures referred to in the articles of the autonomistic constitu-
tion are not carried into effect. So long as the municipalities are not
given the rights accorded to them by that law there will be com-
plaints and any system of government that may be established will
be unsettled.

PARTIES THE SAME IN FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 17, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to have you discuss, unless you have
some good reason for not doing so, the form of government which
should be established here. There are those who think a colonial form
of government is preferable, and there are some in the United States
who are in favor of a Territorial government for the island. I should
like to have the opinion of citizens here respecting the question.

Mr. Lucas Amadeo. My opinion is in favor of the Territorial form,
with a view to arriving, later on, to statehood, with the full enjoyment
of all that implies. I think that the military power should be as brief
as possible, because it is an abnormal condition of government, and
while the Territorial form of government remains to be settled I think
there are certain questions of importance that should be treated of.
Among others is that of immigration, and this is an important ques-
tion, because this country is marching onward to the complete predom-
inance of the white race. Should a heterogeneous emigration come
here, we should arrive at a state of confusion in politics, because
mixed races precede mixed relations in politics.

In the present period through which we are passing there are oppor-
tunities for cheapening the form of government — that is, of removing
a great many useless employees who are now being retained. Later,
the Territorial form will provide for that; but I speak of the interim
period. To-day the country is divided into two parties which for-
merly were united to claim advantages for the country. This differ-
ence of opinion was not brought about by a difference of principles,
but was brought about by the desire on the part of certain persons to

348

arrive at position and power. The party which is at present in power
got into office for the sake of power. Pursuant to a contract which
their leader made with the Spanish Government, we were given a
so-called autonomy, and under that system, with the assistance of
Spain, the present people in office were elected. They are acting, and
have done so since coming into power, as others did under the former
regime, and that state is what has caused the strained relation exist-
ing between the parties to-day. The country is not satisfied with the
men who are in power, and is restless under tliem. I think it would
be a good thing if the various elements of the different parties would
come together under the military government, and later under the
Territorial government, and work in the interests of the people of
Porto Rico. This could be done if those in power to-day were generous
enough to step down and out of office.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any difference between the parties in their
fundamental ideas?

Mr. Amadeo. No. Both have made the same platform, but there
are differences between their methods. Both made the same affirma-
tions with regard to autonom}^ in the time of the Spanish Government.
Both accepted the reforms which Spain at first offered. Later, when
the division was brought about, the historical party asked for some-
thing else, but that was simply a proposition on which to base a plat-
form.

I don't belong to any party. I think they are limited companies
organized to exploit the people for their own benefit. I would never
suffocate my conscience under a political party. Where I see a
good idea, whoever gives birth to it, I accept it, and whoever gives
birth to a bad idea, I exert my efforts against it. The country does
not possess directive abilities. The people have been brought up on
personal politics and do not know anything about the direction of the
country's affairs. Politics to-day is a science, and when unscientific-
ally carried out its evil effects are very far reaching.

SUMMARY OF PLATFORM OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF PORTO
RICO, ORGANIZED IN MARCH, 1899, BY RADICALS.

Preamble: Commends the able, patriotic, and manly spirit mani-
fested by the President in releasing Porto Rico from misrule of Spain,
and pledges faithfulness in adherence to the new principles of our new
country.

I. The name of the organization shall be the Republican party of
Porto Rico.

II. Declares sincere loyalty to the American flag and American
ideas.

III. Hails with pride the fact of annexation to the United States.

IV. Believes that the people of Porto Rico may be trusted with
civil government of the island, but awaits the action of Congress on
that subject, meantime asking that all civil offices shall be filled by
efficient and honest men of unquestioned loyalty to the Government
of the United States.

V. Promises devotion to the national Constitution and the rights
and liberties of all citizens to cast their ballots, and asks for effective
legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections.

VI. Opposes the introduction of foreign contract labor.

349

VII. Declares for liberty of thought, speech, and the press.

VIII. Favors the establishment of free, public, and unsectarian
schools sufficient to afford every child the opportunity of a good
common-school education, and recommends that the English language
he introduced.

IX. Declares that the system of taxation is unequally applied and
should be regulated on American principles of justice.

X. Commerce should be free between Porto Rico and the United
States.

XI. Provincial money should be exchanged for the money of the
United States on a gold basis, and every dollar should be made as
good as every other dollar.

XII. The burden of taxation falls too heavily under the present
sjTstem upon agriculture.

XIII. The American system of courts should be established and
speedy trial granted to all.

XIV. Expresses gratification that Porto Ricans are now under the
American flag, and pledges loyalty to American institutions, and
gives honor to the names of Washington, Lincoln, and McKinley,
which are household words.

PLATFORM OF THE FEDERAL PARTY.

[Translation.]

1 . The men who formed the Liberal Puertorriqueno believe that their
organization, with a name which should embody their ideas and with
a platform which defines and concretes them as a political force,
should not be delayed.

2. The Federal party declares that it accepts and applauds the act
of annexation consummated after the war, believing that Porto Rico
will be a prosperous and happy country under the shadow of the
American flag and the shelter of American institutions.

3. The propositions of the Federal party are condensed in this
formula: Direct and efficient influence in the development of local
interests by an administration intelligent and honorable; a firm and
resolute tendency toward absolute identity with the United States in
its laws and governmental methods.

4. The Federal party asks that Porto Rico may be shortly a Terri-
tory of the United States, with all the rights of a State except that of
sending Senators and Representatives to the Congress, in which it
shall have, in common with the other Territories, a Delegate with a
voice, but without a vote.

5. The Federal party aspires that Porto Rico may in the future
become a State without any restrictions, as the others of the Federa-
tion.

6. The Federal party supports the complete autonomy of the munici-
palities in such manner as that the ayuntamientos may resolve their
local affairs, as quotas, budgets, instruction, police, sanitation, char-
ity, public works, etc., without intervention from the central power.

7. The Federal party will maintain all private rights with pro-
found respect and with enthusiastic devotion, and will favor the
greatest amplitude of the suffrage without opposing the limitations
which the United States may esteem prudent, but making clear that
it desires the right to vote for all citizens resident in the island.

350

8. The Federal party understands that it is indispensable and
just to abolish the customs tariff and to establish free commerce be-
tween Porto Rico and the rest of the Union, unifying at the proper
time the money and converting our circulating silver into American
dollars with the least possible loss to the holders of the metal.

9. It understands likewise that the development of the production
urgently requires that the greatest freedom be decreed for the bank-
ing institutions, that the insular industries be protected in a positive
manner, that public works be constructed without delay, and that
direct imposts for the general expenses of the Territory be suppressed.

10. The Federal party concerns itself for the welfare of the labor-
ing classes and the peasants; it contemplates with interest their
advances in the public life and assists in every proposition of har-
mony between the resistance of capital and the requirements of labor,
and will persist in its desire to place in the elective bodies virtuous
and intelligent men, without respect to their occupation or race.

11. The Federal party will leave to the functions of the munici-
palities the creation, provisioning, and sustaining of their schools,
committing as a consequence primary instruction to the representa-
tives of the people, although conforming to the plan which the legis-
lature of the Territory may devise.

12. In respect to superior instruction, university and professional,
it will propose the restoration of all the necessary centers in order to
arrive at a high plane in the arts and sciences, preferably those of
practical application, and striving without rest to procure the estab-
lishment of a university.

13. The Federal party will do away with everything routine and
will found colleges in which women may receive serious and copious
instruction, which may facilitate her in the exercise of the different
professions to which already she has consecrated her ingenuity and
ability in the most advanced communities.

14. In general we believe that our legislation ought to tend to
identity in methods between the Porto Rican and American schools,
bringing this about by a gradual and scientific adaptation.

15. In respect to the organization of the tribunals, the Federal party
believes that it is convenient to elect the functionaries by suffrage, to
designate them by the vote of the legislature, or to nominate them by
competition according to the nature of the offices, removing all polit-
ical interest and placing the judges under conditions of salutary
independence.

16. The Federal party inscribes among its cardinal principles the
establishment of trial by jury.

17. The Federal party proposes the reform of our civil legislation,
penal and administrative, with profound regard to the moral and
material interests of the society in which it operates, but in a sense
predominatingly democratic.

18. The Federal party finally affirms its faith in the traditions and
in the character of the American people, and in the confidence as
well as in the effort of the insular people to make of Porto Rico an
emporium of wealth and of culture, over which the banner of the
United States may float forever.

San Juan, October 1, 1899.

351

POLITICS OF THE ISLAND.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce P. R., March 7, 1899.
Mr. Felici and a merchant from Ponce :

Dr. Carroll. A great many representations have gone to the
United States about the bitter political feelings in the island. Now,
what should I say about that?

A Merchant 6f Ponce. I think that politics here, as well as in
other countries, is in the hands of what we should call freebooters —
gentlemen who have nothing. Their cries really mean that they want
positions, and the healthy, right-thinking part of the population look
upon them with disdain. If you will look closely into the matter, you
will find that the number of respectable persons behind these politi-
cians is few. I am not speaking of one party, but of both. That is
the case, at least, here.

Dr. Carroll. Well, the leader of one of your parties will go to the
United States with pretty respectable support?

The Same Merchant. I don't know, perhaps, what he calls respect-
able support.

Dr. Carroll. I noticed in the Correspondencia two or three pages
of letters very highly appreciatory. I noticed in the paper here
to-night a column or two of names, and I should say, from a short
residence here, that he is by far the most popular man in the island,
if not the idol of the people.

The Same Merchant. I should not say that was quite correct. He
is a politician. I don't mean to say he is a bad man, but I don't
know to what extent you can rely on those behind him. He would
have some friends, of course, but not so many as there appear to be.

Dr. Carroll. He is a very able man and, with the support he has
here in the island, he is likely to make a strong impression on the
minds of the American people, and the question I would like to ask
is, Is he a representative man? Will he represent the feelings and
opinions of the Porto Ricans?

The Same Merchant. In what respect do you mean?

Dr. Carroll. In respect to the things of the island and the charac-
ter of the people, and the future government of the island, and all
those matters. Will he speak for you?

The Same Merchant. No; I don't think he will.

Mr. Felici. I am neither a Porto Rican nor a Spaniard. I don't
think the majority of the country is right. Although there are a
great many signatures in the list printed in the paper here, I think
two-thirds of the signers are persons who aspire to some position in
the public service.

Dr. Carroll. Now, my own feeling about the party and party feel-
ing here is that it is not at all a bad sign. I would a great deal rather
see fierce contention between two parties than to see no parties at
all — than to see a state of indifference; but what I would like to see
better than strife would be to have each of the parties take a position
with reference to the needs of the island or its development and
future government, and indicate in platforms what they stand for.
If your parties would divide on present questions and not over the
history of the past, it seems to me it would be an important thing to
have parties. I believe in parties, and in countries where there is

352

not stagnation of opinion there will be parties, but I think that men
should divide on principles and not on offices.

Mr. Felici. As the great majority of the people here are annexa-
tionists, the man who declares frankly for annexation to the United
States will cany the people with him. If Muiioz comes out frankly
before an y other parties do for annexation, he will doubtless carry the
people with him, but it will have to be without any reservations. It
will be the strong plank in the platform of an y party.

Dr. Carroll. I think it important that the parties which are to
bid for public support here and which are to exercise influence with
the United States to obtain what is needful for the island should
declare their principles, if they have any. Suppose I am asked in the
United States what is the difference between the Radicals and
Liberals?

Mr. Felici. It is only personal.

Dr. Carroll. All that I can say is that one is called the Liberal
and the other the Radical party.

Mr. Felici. Tiiose distinctions were formed in the old da\"s, but
there is no reason for them to-day.

Dr. Carroll. If I am asked whether one is annexationist and the
other opposed to it, I shall be forced to say that on not a single ques-
tion affecting the future of the island do I know the position of either
of your parties.

Mr. Felici. And nobody here could tell you.

SUFFRAGE AND THE SYSTEM OF AUTONOMY.

THE ELECTORAL LAW OF 1890.

The provision of this law, as applied to Porto Rico, defining the
right of suffrage was as follows:

Article I.

The electors of councilors and provincial deputies in Porto Rico shall be all the
residents whoarejheads of families, over 25 years of age, who have resided at least
two years in the municipal district and who have paid on their own property the
amount of 25 pesetas or more as a tax on real estate, cultivation of the soil, and
on cattle, or as industrial or commercial subsidy, for one year before the making
up of the electoral lists, or if they prove that they are civil employees of the State,
province, or municipality in active service, or suspended with pay on account of
their category, and suspended with pay or retired from the army or navy.

The quota to which the preceding paragraph refers shall be calculated by adding
up that paid by the taxpayers within and without the town by reason of direct
taxes of the State and for municipal surtaxes. Besides, the amountpaidfor taxes
imposed by the provincial deputation, by virtue of the new powers which are
granted to it by the provincial law, modified by the decree of this date, shall be
computed for all electoral purposes as if they were levied by the State. Persons
who are over 25 years of age and have resided for two years at least in the municipal
district and who justify their professional or academic qualifications by means of
an official diploma shall also be electors.

In towns with a population of less than 100 inhabitants all of them shall be
electors without further exceptions than the general ones established by article 5
of this law.

Article 2.

In order to compute the taxes to be paid by the electors the following shall be
considered their own property:

(1) With regard to the husbands, all the property belonging to their wives dur-
ing the continuation of the conjugal partnership.

353

(2) With regard to parents, that belonging to their children of which they are
the legal administrators.

(3) With regard to children, their own property of which for any reason what-
soever their mothers have the use.

Article 5.

The following can not be electors:

(1) Those who on account of final sentence are deprived of the exercise of polit-
ical rights.

(2) Those who at the time of the elections are criminally indicted, if they have
been remanded to prison and have not instead furnished bail in the cases in which
it is admissible according to law.

(3) Those sentenced to corporeal or correctional punishments while they have
not fulfilled their sentences nor secured their rehabilitation in cases in which it is
proper.

(4) Those who, lacking means of subsistence, receive the latter in charitable
institutions, and those who are recorded as mendicants and authorized by the
municipalities to beg public charity.

When the autonomistic system was projected, the electoral law was
modified so as to remove all restrictions and establish universal suf-
frage, as the law of 1890 had provided for Spain itself. Article 1
follows :

Article 1.

All .male Spaniards over 25 years of age who are in the full enjoyment of their
civil rights and are residents of a municipality in which they have resided at least
two years are electors in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico.

Noncommissioned officers and privates of the navy or army can not cast votes
while they are serving in the ranks.

The same suspension is established with regard to those who are in similar cir-
cumstances in other corps or armed institutions under the orders of the State,
province, or municipality.

THE LAW OF SUFFRAGE.
By M. Zeno Gandia, M. D., Commissioner from Porto Rico to Washington.

The Spanish law of sufragio universal (universal suffrage) had no
limitation whatever. It was sufficient to be 25 years of age, which
constitutes majority. After the year 1890 Porto Bicans and Cubans
lost, under protest, the extension of that law to Cuba and Porto Rico,
the Spanish Government applying it to those islands with the limita-
tion of the right to vote to those citizens who wTere 25 years of age and
besides who paid a contribution of at least $5 in Cuba and 110 in Porto
Rico. That law produced indignation in the Antilles, especially in
Porto Rico, whose citizens Spain regarded as inferior to the sons of
Spain and inferior before the law to the citizens of Cuba. That was
one of the immediate causes of the Cuban war and produced in Porto
Rico a discontent so great that even the few who had faith in Spain
lost it. In the law other prescriptions were ordered which rendered
it impossible that the people of the islands should ever triumph in the
elections. One consisted in what was called " socios de ocasion,"
(members of occasion). It was ordered that all who were members of
societies which paid taxes should have the right to vote, and in order
that such members should acquire the right to vote it was only
demanded that the principal member should manifest that those who
solicited that right were its members, and this without demanding any
documentary proof from them. This was a burlesque.

The societies were almost all Spanish firms, or servants paid by
them, and from that prescription it resulted that the clerks, the rela-
tives, and even the servants of the principal member acquired the
1125 23

354

right to vote, while many Porto Rieans did not possess it because they
did not pay $10 tax. In the case of many Porto Rieans who paid
taxes of 15, 12, or 11 pesos, they diminished those quotas in the
municipalities, collecting from them only 9.90 pesos or 9 pesos, and in
that way left them without the right to vote. That was an infamy,
and the Radical party withdrew itself; that is, abandoned the false
right which they gave it and did not vote.

Afterwards, under the pressure of American diplomacy, the Spanish
Government resolved to implant autonomy, and then the Spanish law
of universal suffrage was extended to Porto Rico without any restric-
tion, except that the person should be 25 years of age. When the
Americans occupied the island, that was the law of suffrage which
ruled.

When the President asked us, Dr. Henna and myself, in April last,
the class of suffrage which seemed to us convenient for Porto Rico,
we answered "universal suffrage;" that people exercised that right
with order and advantage in 1873 when the Spanish Republic con-
ceded it.

The Bourbon reaction of Alfonso XII took it away. Spain again
conceded it on account of the demand of the American Government,
which obliged it to bring tyranny in the islands to an end if it desired
to preserve them. That was a tardy measure. The war came,' and
Porto Rico was ceded. To-day it is not possible to understand from
any standpoint why, after the concession to Porto Rico of universal
suffrage by the action of the American Government, it should be
taken away by that same Government from a country which has
always defended it in its programme of liberties.

Thus, then, in 1890, the law of suffrage demanding 25 years of age
and $10 tax and giving a vote to the socios de ocasion; after 1896
(during the Cuban war) the Spanish law of suffrage without restriction.

New York, September 11, 1899.

THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 18, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. If you exclude from the suffrage all who can not
read, you will have a small number of voters at first, as I understand
that the number of literates in the island is only about 12 per cent.

Mr. Amadeo. Yes; but we have a great many who pay taxes. In
the year 1870 we had that form of voting here when the electoral sys-
tem was introduced, and the result was satisfactory. It produced a
very respectable and representative body of voters.

Dr. Carroll. Would that not exclude the entire class of peons?

Mr. Amadeo. I think they would be excluded, but I think they
should be, because they have not a real knowledge of the subjects
about which they are voting. It is better that they should not vote.

Mr. Seijo. They would not really vote, because they would be con-
trolled by their employers.

Dr. Carroll. Then you can not have villages and townships as
we have them in the United States.

Mr. Amadeo. If these people have not the first elements of educa-
tion, it will be impossible for them to administer their own affairs.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States it is thought that our township
and village government not only educates men, but dignifies men and

355

gives them a desire to obtain a larger education for their children,
because they desire them to have a power of which they realize their
own lack. ,

Mr. Amadeo. To-day universal suffrage is the most powerful weapon
possessed by professional politicians, who want to have it introduced
everywhere as affording them wider scope for their operations.

Dr. Carroll. You mean they can lead the ignorant masses. It is
proposed in giving the Hawaiian Islands a form of government to
restrict the suffrage somewhat. There is a property qualification
proposed.

Mr. Amadeo. I would allow suffrage to anybody who pays taxes,
municipal or insular.

Dr. Carroll. In a majority of the States there is no limitation on
account of property. There was a property qualification in the older
States, but that has been abolished.

Mr. Amadeo. All this voting machinery is made very much easier
when you have wise men at the head of your Government, which you
generally have. The United States was fortunate when it set out on
its journey to have at its head a man of very great attainments, who
started it right. In countries where they have not had the good for-
tune to possess these guiding heads universal suffrage turns out to
be a curse rather than a blessing. In France, for instance, it has
given rise to great disturbances.

Dr. Carroll. But in England under the Gladstone regime it was
extended, and while the first result was the defeat, of the Liberal
party, still I think it is generally recognized that that extension
which added something like a million voters to those who had the suf-
frage has been on the whole decidedly beneficial.

Mr. Amadeo. England has been 1,000 years educating its people;
that is evolution. Universal suffrage is the arm of the Socialist, who
thinks he can by its use make everybody happy. The Socialist
preaches to the masses about the great boon of giving all a voice in the
management of their own affairs. That is purely illusionary.

Dr. Carroll. It is an illusion of a great many people that you can
get everything you want by a system of legislation, whereas such
things depend largely upon the operation of natural laws.

Mr. Amadeo. That is a mistake of the Socialists. They don't
understand that natural laws have to develop themselves, and that
people must submit to that development, and can not legislate them-
selves out of it. This situation has given rise to so-called reformers —
men who present a platform and offer to ameliorate every unhappy
condition. These men have been the cause of great disturbances in
all countries for a long time. I have been averse to universal suf-
frage. Restricted suffrage, moreover, acts as a stimulation. A man
who desires to take part in the administration of the government
must either save money or educate himself.

Dr. Carroll. The native congress that met in San Juan submitted
a plan of reform to me. Among other things they proposed that there
should be manhood suffrage for all above the age of 21 years, and that
at the expiration of two years all who could not prove that they could
read and write should lose that suffrage. I would like to ask whether
or not all should be allowed the right of suffrage at the beginning,
and say at the end of ten years that right should be restricted to per-
sons paying taxes or persons able to read and write?

Mr. Amadeo. It would not be a bad thing to do what you say, but
you must take into consideration the fact that the dissemination of

356

the population makes general education a hard thing to attend to in
this country, and makes the inspection of education still more diffi-
cult; but I think the idea is a good one.

Dr. Carroll. Those who have the suffrage naturally would wish
to retain it; they would be more anxious not to lose it, perhaps, than
to gain it. Two years would be entirely too short a time to allow
men to qualify themselves.

Mr. Amedeo. I do not consider that the elementary education which
is received in most countries of the world fits a man to take part in
the government of his country. I believe that sound traditions among
people who can not read and write does more in some countries to fit
them for suffrage. As in Porto Rico concubinage is one of the curses
of the country, family traditions do not exist.

[This was changed somewhat by special decree for Porto Rico.]
AUTONOMIC CONSTITUTION.

Title L*

GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL ADMINISTRATION IN THE ISLANDS OF CUBA

AND PORTO RICO.

Article 1. The system of government and civil administration in
the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico shall hereafter be carried on in
conformity with the following provisions:

Art. 2. Each island shall be governed by an insular parliament, con-
sisting of two chambers, and by the governor-general, representing
the mother country, who shall exercise supreme authority.

Title II.

THE insular chambers.

Art. 3. The legislative power as to colonial matters in the shape
and manner prescribed by law shall be vested in the insular chambers
conjointly with the Governor-General.

* Explanatory Note. — To facilitate the understanding of this decree and to
avoid confusion as to the legal value of the terms employed therein, the following
definitions are to be observed:

Central executive power .The King, with his council of ministers.

The Spanish Parliament The Cortes, with the King.

The Spanish Chambers The Congress and the Senate.

The central government ...-..- The council of ministers of the Kingdom.

The Colonial Parliament The. two chambers, with the Governor-
General.

The colonial chambers The council of administration and the

chamber of representatives.

Colonial legislative assemblies The council of administration and the

chamber of representatives.

Governor-General in council The Governor- General, with the secre-
taries of his cabinet.

Instructions of the Govern or- General ...Those which he may have received when

named for his office.

Statute Colonial measure of a legislative char-
acter.

Colonial statutes Colonial legislation.

Legislation or general laws .Legislation or laws of the Kingdom.

357

Art. 4. Insular representation shall consist of two bodies of equal
powers, which shall be known as chamber of representatives and
council of administration.

Title III.

COUNCIL OF ADMINISTRATION.

Art. 5. The council shall be composed of thirty-five members, of
whom eighteen shall be elected in the manner directed by the electoral
law and seventeen shall be appointed by the Governor-General acting
for the Crown, from among such persons as have the qualifications
specified in the following articles :

Art. 6. To be entitled to sit in the council of administration it is
necessary to be a Spanish subject; to have attained the age of thirty-
five years; to have been born in the island, or to have had four years'
constant residence therein; not to be subject to any pending criminal
prosecution; to be in the full enjoyment of his political rights; to have
his property free from attachment; to have had for two or more years
previous an annual income of four thousand dollars ; to have no inter-
est in any contract Avith either the insular or the home Government.

The shareholders of a stock company shall not be considered as
Government contractors, even if the company has a contract with
the Government.

Art. 7. Persons are also qualified to serve as councilors who,
besides the above-stated requirements, have any of the following
qualifications:

1. To be or to have been a senator of the Kingdom, or to possess
the requirements for being a senator, in conformity with Article III of
the constitution.

2. To have held for a period of two years any of the following
offices : President, or prosecuting attorney of the pretorian court of
Havana; rector of the University of Havana; councilor of adminis-
tration in the council formerly thus designated; president of the
Havana Chamber of Commerce; president of the Economic Society
of Friends of the Country ; president of the Sugar Planters' Associa-
tion; president of the Tobacco Manufacturers' Union; president of the
Merchants, Tradesmens, and Agriculturalists' League; dean of the
bar of Havana; mayor of Havana; president of the provincial assem-
bly of Havana during two terms or of any provincial assembly during
three terms; dean of either of the chapters of the two cathedrals.

3. Likewise may be elected or appointed as councilor any property
owner from among the fifty taxpayers paying the highest taxes, either
on real estate or on industries, commerce, arts, and the professions.

Art. 8. The councilors appointed by the Crown shall be appointed
by special decrees, stating the qualification entitling the appointee to
serve as councilor.

Councilors thus appointed shall hold office for life.

One-half the number of elective councilors shall be elected every
five years, and the whole number shall be elected whenever the coun-
cil of administration shall be dissolved by the Governor-General.

Art. 9. The qualifications required in order to be appointed or
elected councilor of administration may be changed by a national
law, at the request or upon the proposition of the insular chambers.

Art. 10. No councilor shall, during the session of the council,
accept any civil office, promotion (unless it be strictly by seniority)

358

title, or decoration; but any councilor may be appointed by either
the local or the home government to anj^ commission within his own
profession or category, whenever the public service shall require it.

The secretaries of the insular government shall be excepted from
the foregoing rule.

Title IV.

THE CHAMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Art. 11. The chamber of representatives shall be composed of
members named by the electoral boards in the manner prescribed by
law and in the proportion of one for every twenty-five thousand
inhabitants.

Art. 12. To be elected as representative the candidate must have
the following requirements: To be a Spanish citizen, to be a layman,
to have attained his majority, to be in full enjoyment of civil rights,
to have been born in the island or to have had four years' constant
residence therein, and not to be subject to any pending criminal
prosecution.

Art. 13. Representatives shall be elected every five years, and any
representative may be reelected any number of times.

The insular chamber shall determine what classes of offices are incom-
patible with the office of representative, as well as the cases governing
reelection.

Art. 14. Any representative upon whom either the local or home
government shall confer a pension, or any employment, promotion
(unless it be by strict seniority), paid commission, title, or decoration
shall cease to be such without necessity of any declaration to that
effect, unless he shall within fifteen days of his appointment notify the
chamber of his having declined the favor.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall not include the
representatives who shall be appointed members of the cabinet.

Title V.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSULAR CHAMBERS AND THEIR RELATIONS

TO EACH OTHER.

Art. 15. The chambers will meet every year. The King, the Gov-
ernor-General acting in his name, shall convene, suspend, and adjourn
the sessions and dissolve the chamber of representatives and the
council of administration, either separately or simultaneously, under
the obligation to call them together again or renew them within three
months.

Art. 16. Each of the two legislative bodies shall determine the
rules of their proceedings and shall be the judges of the qualifications
of their respective members and the legality of their election.

Until the chamber and the council shall pass their own rules, they
shall be governed by the rules of the national house of representa-
tives and of the senate, respectively.

Art. 17. Each chamber shall choose its president, vice-president,
and secretaries.

Art. 18. Neither chamber shall sit unless the other be sitting also,
except when the council exercises judicial functions.

Art. 19. The two insular chambers shall not deliberate together
nor in the presence of the Governor-General.

359

The sessions shall be public, but either chamber may hold secret
sessions whenever business of a private nature shall require it.

Art. 20. To the Governor- General, through his secretaries, as well
as to either of the two chambers, belongs the power to initiate and
propose colonial statutes.

Art. 21. All colonial statutes in regard to taxes and the public
credit shall originate in the chamber of representatives.

Art. 22. Resolutions may be passed by either chamber by a plu-
rality of votes ; but in order to pass a measure of a legislative char-
acter a majority of all the members constituting the body must be
present. Nevertheless, one-third of the members shall constitute a
quorum for deliberation.

Art. 23. No resolution or law shall be considered passed by the
insular parliament unless it has had the concurrence of the chamber
of representatives and the council of administration.

Art. 24. Every colonial statute, as soon as it has been approved in
the form prescribed in the preceding article, shall be presented to the
Governor-General by the officers of both chambers for his sanction and
proclamation of the same.

Art. 25. Members of the council and the chamber of representa-
tives shall have immunity for any speech or vote in either chamber.

Art. 26. No councilor of administration shall be indicted or arrested
without a previous resolution of the council, unless he shall be found
in fragranti or the council shall not be in session ; but in every ease
notice shall be given to that body as soon as possible, that it may deter-
mine what should be done. Nor shall the representatives be indicted
or arrested during the sessions without the permission of the chamber
unless they are found in fragranti; but in this last case, or in case of
indictment or arrest when the chamber is not sitting, notice shall be
given as soon as possible to the chamber of representatives for its
information and action. All proceedings against councilors and repre-
sentatives shall be brought before the pretorian court at Havana in
the cases and manner that shall be prescribed by colonial statutes.

Art. 27. The guaranties established in the foregoing section shall
not apply to a councilor or representative who shall himself admit that
he is the author of any article, book, pamphlet, or printed matter
wherein military sedition is incited or invoked, or the Govern or- General
is insulted and maligned, or national sovereignty is assailed.

Art. 28. The relations between the two chambers shall be governed,
until otherwise provided, by the act of July 19, 1837, regulating the
relations between the two legislative houses of the Cortes.

Art. 29. Besides the power of enacting laws for the colony, the insu-
lar chambers shall have power —

1. To receive the oath of the Governor- General to preserve the con-
stitution and the laws which guarantee the autonomy of the colony.

2. To enforce the responsibility of the secretaries of the executive,
who shall be tried by the council, whenever impeached by the chamber
of representatives.

3. To address the home Government through the Governor- General,
proposing the abrogation or modification of existing laws of the King-
dom; to invite the home Government to present bills as to particular
matters, or to ask a decision of an executive character on matters
which interest the colony.

Art. 30. The Governor-General shall communicate to the home
Government, before presenting to the insular parliament any bill
originating in the executive government of the island, whenever, in

360

his judgment, said bill may affect national interests. Should any
such bill originate in the insular parliament, the government of the
island shall ask for a postponement of the debate until the home
Government shall have given its opinion.

In either case the correspondence passing between the two govern-
ments shall be laid before the chambers and published in the official
Gazette.

Art. 31. All differences of jurisdiction between the several munici-
pal, provincial, and insular assemblies, or between any of them and
the executive, which by their nature may not be referred to the home
Government, shall be submitted to the courts of justice in accordance
with the rules herein prescribed.

Title VI.

POWERS VESTED IN THE INSULAR PARLIAMENT.

Art. 32. The insular chambers shall have power to pass upon all
matters not specially and expressly reserved to the Cortes of the King-
dom or to the central Government as herein provided, or as may be
provided hereafter, in accordance with the prescription set forth in
additional article 2.

In this manner, and without implying that the following enumera-
tion presupposes any limitation of their power to legislate on other
subjects, they shall have power to legislate on all matters and sub-
jects concerning the departments of justice, interior, treasury, public
works, education, and agriculture.

They shall likewise have exclusive cognizauce of all matters of a
purely local nature which may principally affect the colonial territory;
and to this end they shall have power to legislate on civil administra-
tion; on provincial, municipal, or judicial apportionment; on public
health, by land or sea, and on public credit, banks, and the monetary
system.

This power, however, shall not impair the powers vested in the
colonial executive according to the laws in connection with the mat-
ters above mentioned.

Art. 33. It shall be incumbent upon the colonial parliament to
make regulations under such national laws as may be passed by the
Cortes and expressly intrusted to it. Especially among such meas-
ures, parliament shall, legislate, and may do so at the first sitting, for
the purpose of regulating the elections, the taking of the electoral
census, qualifying electors, and exercising the right of suffrage ; but
in no event shall these dispositions affect the rights of the citizens
as established by the electoral laws.

Art. 34. Notwithstanding that the laws governing the judiciary
and the administration of justice are of a national character, and
therefore obligatory for the colony, the insular parliament may,
within the provisions of said laws, make rules or propose to the home
Government such measures as shall render easier the admission, con-
tinuance, or promotion in the local courts of lawyers, natives of the
island, or practicing therein.

The Governor-General in council shall have, as far as the island of
Cuba is concerned, the same power that has been vested heretofore in
the minister for the colonies for the appointment of the functionaries
and subordinate and auxiliary officers of the judicial order and as to
the other matters connected with the administration of justice.

361

Art. 35. The insular parliament shall have exclusive power to
frame the local budget of expenditures and revenues, including the
revenue corresponding to the island as her quota of the national
budget.

To this end the Governor-General shall present to the chambers
every year before the month of January the budget for the next fiscal
year, divided in two parts, as follows : The first part shall state the
revenues needed to defray the expenses of sovereignty, and the sec-
ond part shall state the revenues and expenditures estimated for the
maintenance of the colonial administration.

Neither chamber shall take up the budget of the colonial govern-
ment without having finally voted the part for the maintenance of
sovereignty.

Art. 36. The Cortes of the Kingdom shall determine what expendi-
tures are to be considered by reason of their nature as obligatory
expenses inherent to sovereignty, and shall fix the amount every three
years and the revenue needed to defray the same, the Cortes reserving
the right to alter this rule.

Art. 37. All treaties of commerce affecting the island of Cuba, be
they suggested by the insular or by the home Government, shall be
made by the latter with the cooperation of special delegates duly
authorized by the colonial government, whose concurrence shall be
acknowledged upon submitting the treaties to the Cortes.

Said treaties, when approved by the Cortes, shall be proclaimed as
laws of the Kingdom and as such shall obtain in the colony.

Art. 38. Notice shall be given to the insular government of any
commercial treaties made without its participation as soon as said
treaties shall become laws, to the end that, within a period of three
months, it may declare its acceptance or nonacceptance of their stipu-
lations. In case of acceptance the Governor-General shall cause the
treaty to be published in the Gazette as a colonial statute.

Art. 39. The insular parliament shall also haAre power to frame the
tariff and fix the duties to be paid on merchandise as well for its
importation into the territory of the island as for the exportation
thereof.

Art. 40. As a transition from the old regime to the new constitution,,
and until the home and insular governments may otherwise conjointly
determine hereafter, the commercial relations between the island and
the metropolis shall be governed by the following rules:

1. No differential duty, whether fiscal or otherwise, either on imports
or exports, shall be imposed to the detriment of either insular or pen-
insular production.

2. The two governments shall make a schedule of articles of direct
national origin to which shall be allowed by common consent prefer-
ential duty over similar foreign products.

In another schedule, made in like manner, shall be determined such
articles of direct insular production as shall be entitled to privileged
treatment on their importation into the Peninsula and the amount of
preferential duties thereon.

In neither case shall the preferential duty exceed 35 per cent.

Should the home and the colonial government agree upon the sched-
ules and the preferential duties, they shall be considered final and
shall be enforced at once. In case of disagreement the point in dis-
pute shall be submitted to a committee of representatives of the
Cortes, consisting of an equal number of Cubans and Peninsulars.
The committee shall appoint its chairman, and in case of disagree-

362

merit the eldest member shall preside. The chairman shall have the
casting vote.

3. The valuation tables concerning the articles in the schedules
above mentioned shall be fixed by mutual agreement and shall be
revised, after discussion, every two years. The modifications which
may thereupon become necessary in the tariff duties shall be carried
out at once by the respective governments.

Title VII.

THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

Art. 41. The supreme authority of the colony shall be vested in a
Governor-General appointed by the King on the nomination of the
council of ministers. In his capacity he shall have as viceroyal patron
the power inherent in the patronate of the Indies; he shall have com-
mand of all military and naval forces in the island ; he shall act as dele-
gate of the departments of state, war, navy, and the colonies ; all other
authorities in the island shall be subordinate to his, and he shall be
responsible for the preservation of order and the safety of the colony.

The Governor-General shall, before taking possession of his office,
take an oath in the presence of the King to discharge his duties faith-
fully and loyally.

Art. 42. The Governor-General, representing the nation, will dis-
charge by himself and with the aid of his secretaries all the functions
indicated in the preceding articles and such others as may devolve
upon him as direct delegate of the King in matters of a national
character.

It shall be incumbent upon the Governor-General, as representing the
home Government:

1. To appoint without restriction the secretaries of his cabinet.

2. To proclaim, execute, and cause to be executed in the island all
laws, decrees, treaties, international covenants, and all other acts
emanating from the legislative branch of the Government, as well as
all decrees, royal commands, and other measures emanating from the
executive which shall be communicated to him by the departments of
which he acts as delegate.

Whenever in his judgment and in that of his secretaries he con-
siders the resolutions of the home government as liable to injure the
general interests of the nation or the special interests of the island he
shall have power to suspend the publication and execution thereof,
and shall so notify the respective department, stating the reasons for
his action.

3. To grant pardons in the name of the King, within the limitations
specially prescribed to him in his instructions from the Government,
and to stay the execution of a death sentence whenever the gravity of
the circumstances shall so demand or the urgency of the case shall
allow of no time to solicit and obtain His Majesty's pardon; but in
either case he shall hear the counsel of his secretaries.

4. To suspend the guarantees set forth in articles 3, 5, 6, and 9, and
in the first, second, and third paragraphs of article 13 of the consti-
tution; to enforce legislation in regard to public order, and to take
all measures which he may deem necessary to preserve the peace
within and the safety without for the territory entrusted to him after
hearing the counsel of his cabinet.

5. To take care that in the colony justice be promptly and fully

363

administered, and that it shall always be administered in the name of
the King.

6. To hold direct communication on foreign affairs with the ministers,
diplomatic agents, and consuls of Spain throughout America.

A full copy of such correspondence shall be simultaneously forwarded
to the home Department of State.

Art. 43. It behooves the Governor-General, as the superior authority
in the colony and head of its administration :

1. To take care that the rights, powers, and privileges now vested
or that may henceforth be vested in the colonial administration be
respected and protected.

2. To sanction and proclaim the acts of the insular parliament, which
shall be submitted to him by the president and secretaries of the
respective chambers.

Whenever, in the judgment of the Governor-General, an act of the
insular parliament goes beyond its powers or impairs the rights of the
citizens as set forth in Article I of the constitution, or curtails the guar-
antees prescribed by law for the exercise of said rights, or jeopards the
interest of the colony or of the nation, he shall forward the act to the
council of ministers of the Kingdom, which, within a period that shall
not exceed two months, shall either assent to it or return it to the
Governor-General with the objections to its sanction and proclamation.
The insular parliament may, in view of the objections, reconsider or
modify the act if it deems fit without a special proposition.

If two months shall elapse without the central government giving
any opinion as to a measure agreed upon by the chambers which has
been transmitted to it by the Governor-General, the latter shall sanc-
tion and proclaim the same.

3. To appoint, suspend, and discharge the employees of the colonial
administration, upon the suggestion of the secretaries of the depart-
ments and in accordance with the laws.

4. To appoint and remove, without restriction, the secretaries of his
cabinet.

Art. 44. No executive order of the Governor-General, acting as
representative and chief of the colony, shall take effect unless counter-
signed by a secretary of the cabinet, who by this act alone shall make
himself responsible for the same.

Art. 45. There shall be five secretaries of department, to wit:

Grace and justice and interior; finance; public education, public
works and posts and telegraphs; agriculture, industry, and commerce.

The Governor- General shall appoint the president of the cabinet
from among the secretaries, and shall also have power to appoint a
president without a secretaryship.

The power to increase or diminish the number of secretaries com-
posing the colonial cabinet, and to determine the scope of each depart-
ment, is vested in the insular parliament.

Art. 46. The secretaries of the cabinet may be members of either
the chamber of representatives or the council of administration and
take part in the debates of either chamber, but a secretary shall only
vote in the chamber of which he is a member.

Art. 47. The secretaries of the cabinet shall be responsible to the
insular parliament.

Art. 48. The Governor-General shall not modify or abrogate his own
orders after they are assented to by the home government, or when
they shall declare some rights, or when a sentence by a judicial court

364

or administrative tribunal shall have been based upon said orders, or
when they shall deal with his own competency.

Art. 49. The Governor- General shall not turn over his office when
leaving the island except by special command from the home govern-
ment. In case of absence from the seat of government which prevents
his discharging the duties of his office or of disability to perform such
duties, he can appoint one or more persons to take his place, provided
the home government has not previously done so or the method of
substitution shall not be stated in his instructions.

Art. 50. The supreme court shall have the sole power to try the
Governor- General when impeached for his responsibilities as defined
by the Penal Code.

The council of ministers shall take cognizance of his other responsi-
bilities.

Art. 51 . The Governor-General shall have the power, in spite of the
provisions of the different articles of this decree, to act upon his own
responsibility, without consulting his secretaries, in the following-
cases :

1. When forwarding to the home Government a bill passed by the
insular parliament, especially when, in his opinion, it shall abridge the
rights set forth in article 1 of the constitution of the monarchy or the
guaranties for the exercise thereof vouchsafed by the laws.

2. When it shall be necessary to enforce the law or public order,
especially if there be no time or possibility to consult the home Gov-
ernment.

3. When enforcing the national laws that shall have been approved
by the Crown and made applicable to all of the Spanish or to the
colony under his government.

The proceedings and means of action which the Governor-General
shall employ in the above cases shall be determined by a special law.

Title VIII.

MUNICIPAL AND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.

Art. 52. Municipal organization shall be compulsory for every group
of population of more than one thousand inhabitants.

Groups of less number of inhabitants may organize the service of
their community by special covenants.

Every legally constituted municipality shall have power to frame its
own laws regarding public education; highways by land, river, and
sea; public health; municipal finances; as well as to freely appoint
and remove its own employees.

Art. 53. At the head of each province there shall be an assembly,
which shall be elected in the manner provided for by the colonial
statutes, and shall be composed of a number of members in proportion
to the population.

Art. 54. The provincial assembly shall be autonomous as regards
the creation and maintenance of public schools and colleges; charitable
institutions and provincial roads and ways by land, river, or sea; also
as regards their own budgets and the appointment and removal of
their respective employees.

Art. 55. The municipalities, as well as the provincial assemblies,
shall have power to freely raise the necessary revenue to cover their
expenditures, with no other limitation than to make the means adopted

365

compatible with the general system of taxation which shall obtain in
the island.

The resources for provincial appropriations shall be independent of
municipal resources.

Art. 56. The mayors and presidents of boards of aldermen shall be
chosen by their respective boards from among their members.

Art. 57. The mayors shall discharge without limitation the active
duties of the municipal administration, as executors of the resolutions
of the board of aldermen or their representatives.

Art. 58. The aldermen and the provincial assemblymen shall be civ-
illy responsible for the damages caused by their acts.

Their responsibility shall be exacted before the ordinary courts of
justice.

Art. 59. The provincial assemblies shall freely choose their respec-
tive presidents.

Art. 60. The elections of aldermen and assemblymen shall be con-
ducted in such manner as to allow for a legitimate representation of
the minorities.

Art. 61. The provincial and municipal laws now obtaining in the
island shall continue in vogue, wherever not in conflict with the provi-
sions of this decree, until the insular parliament shall legislate upon
the matter.

Art. 62. No colonial statute shall abridge the powers vested by the
preceding articles in the municipalities and the provincial assemblies.

Title IX.

AS TO THE GUARANTIES FOR THE FULFILLMENT OF THE COLONIAL

CONSTITUTION.

Art. 63. Whenever a citizen shall consider that his rights have been
violated or his interests injured by the action of a municipality or a
provincial assembly he shall have the right to apply to the courts of
justice for redress.

The department of justice shall, if so required by the agents of the
executive government of the colony, prosecute before the courts the
boards of aldermen or provincial assemblies charged with breaking
the laws or abusing their power.

Art. 64. In the cases referred to in the preceding article the follow-
ing courts shall have jurisdiction : The territorial audiencia shall try
all claims against municipalities, and the pretorian court of Havana
shall try all claims against provincial assemblies.

Said courts, when the charges against any of the above-mentioned
corporations shall be for abuse of power, shall render their decisions
by a full bench. From the decision of the territorial audiencia an
appeal shall be allowed to the pretorian court of Havana, and from the
decisions of the latter an appeal shall be allowed to the supreme court
of the Kingdom.

Art. 65. The redress of grievances which article 62 grants to any
citizen can also be had collectively by means of public action, by
appointing an attorney or representative claimant.

Art. 66. Without in any way impairing the powers vested in the
Governor-General by Title V of the present decree, he may, whenever
he deems fit, appear before the pretorian court of Havana in his capacity
as chief of the executive government of the colony, to the end that said
court shall finally decide any conflict of jurisdiction between the execu-
tive power and the legislative chambers of the colony.

366

Art. 67. Should any question of jurisdiction be raised between the
insular parliament and the Governor-General in his capacity as repre-
sentative of the home Government, which shall not have been sub-
mitted to the council of ministers of the Kingdom by petition of the
insular parliament, either party shall have power to bring the matter
before the supreme court of the Kingdom, which shall render its deci-
sion by a full bench and in the first instance.

Art. QS. The decisions rendered in all cases provided for in the pre-
ceding articles shall be published in the collection of colonial statutes
and shall form part of the insular legislation.

Art. G9. Every municipal measure for the purpose of contracting a
loan or a municipal debt shall be without effect, unless it be assented
to by a majority of the townspeople whenever one-third of the number
of aldermen shall so demand.

The amount of the loan or debt which, according to the number of
inhabitants of a township, shall make the referendum proceeding nec-
essary shall be determined by special statute.

Art. 70. All legislative acts originating in the insular parliament
or the Cortes shall be compiled under the title of colonial statutes in a
legislative collection, the formation and publication of which shall be
intrusted to the Governor- General as chief of the colonial executive.

THE SYSTEM OP TAXATION.

THE CONSUMPTION TAX.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October SI, 1898.

Mr. Crosas. I have been engaged in business here for twenty years,
dealing mostly in produce. Planters consign to me and I sell on orders
from the United States.

Dr. Cajrroll. Can you give me some information in regard to the
consumption tax?

Mr. Crosas. That is a tax levied on all goods, according to the Spanish
law, to eat, to drink, or to burn; not on dry goods, not on trinkets or
jewelry — only on the most necessary articles of consumption, such as
wines, maize, rice, lard, sugar, flour, milk, charcoal which is used
for cooking purposes, and other articles. When this law was passed
it would seem that there must have been among the representatives
at Madrid a majority who were dry goods merchants, because it favors
the dry goods men as against the provision merchants.

Eventually this tax has produced a serious effect upon the stomachs
of the poor people. We have been selling sugar at $3 a hundred
pounds, Spanish — the Spanish pound being a little heavier than the
pound of the United States. Added to that was the consumption tax
of 2 cents a pound, and then the grocer wanted to get a profit out of
it and he had the expense of clerk hire, etc., so that the sugar which
might have sold for 4 cents a pound was sold for G cents, and the poor
people were the ones that suffered. Take flour, $2.50 per sack of 200
pounds; take rice, 2 cents a pound, and at this rate it can be seen
that the burden fell directly upon the poor, because the very things
which they required were the things which were taxed. They have
complained about it; they say that they are becoming anemic for

367

want of proper food because they are unable to buy the necessaries
of life with their small wages.

Dr. Carroll. How long has it been since the tax was first levied?

Mr. Crosas. I do not remember just how long. I remember how I
opposed it, but there was a smart lawyer, who thought he knew it all,
in the council, and he said it was scientific; that France had it, and
that it would be a good thing here. I told him that France had a heavy
debt and everything had to pay there, but that we did not have that
here. However, my objection went for naught.

Dr. Carroll. Is the tax general throughout the island?

Mr. Crosas. As soon as the tax was instituted here every little town
throughout the island did the same thing. They even had a tax on

Dr. Carroll. Do they have a tax on eggs and chickens?

Mr. Crosas. No; it was taken off, but we have it on rum, rice, wine,
beer, Spanish pease, meat, charcoal, milk, etc. The tax should be
abolished immediately. Taxes generally through the country have
been levied according to the party you belonged to. If you were a
Conservative, you got off pretty well; but if you were a native or a
foreigner or a Liberal, they would put the screws on you by chang-
ing the valuation. I remember that there was a farm rented by a
Spaniard and he was obliged to pay the taxes on that farm, the whole
of which amounted to about $80 a year. The owner of the land owed
me considerable money and I had to take this property, and when it
became my property they increased the taxes on it to $400.

Dr. Carroll. Is there a tax, municipal or provincial, on store-
keepers?

Mr. Crosas. We have what is called here patente — that is, the pat-
ent or privilege of opening your doors as a store. They have four
classes; I was in the first class as an importer. The Government
levied the tax on me for the national treasury, amounting to $700.
Then the municipal authorities levied a tax of 7-g- per cent, amounting
to $1,050. Consequently I was paying to Her Majesty annually $1,750
under Spanish administration. But finally, seeing how things were
going, I placed myself in the second class and they have imposed on
me a Government tax of $421, and the city council wants to charge 12-J
per cent ($1,050), but I refused to pay it. The Government taxes you
on your profits 5 per cent, but they appraise the profits a great deal
more than they really are. The municipality taxes the storekeeper
according to its necessities — 7 per cent or more ; this year 7-J- per cent.
I don't know where the municipality got its authority from to con-
tribute so many thousand dollars to the national Government.

ABUSES IN TAXATION.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Gobo, P. R., January 15, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. How many miles is it from here to the city of Arecibo?

Mr. Leopold Strube. About 16 miles, and from here to Utuado, 6
or 7 miles.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have to pay as much taxes as though you
lived in Arecibo?

Mr. Strube. We have to pay only one tax here. That was a tax
on property according to the income — no, not even according to the

368

income, but according to the character of the plantation — and the tax
is not large. This property is valued at 18,000 pesos, and we pay only
about 150 pesos a year in Arecibo, and about 60 or 70 pesos in Utuado.
This is not a large tax, but it is not equally divided between the two
municipal districts, because I have four parts of my land in Arecibo,
and pay 150 pesos there, and one part in Utuado, where I pay nearly
one-half what I pay in Arecibo.

Dr. Carroll. Don't you pay any insular taxes for the General Gov-
ernment in San Juan?

Mr. Strube. That tax covers both. About 50 pesos would go to the
insular treasury and 100 to the municipal.

Dr. Carroll. How do they get at the amount of that tax?

Mr. Strube. It is based on what we declare. That is another thing.
At first I had to pay more money than anybody else. Then one big
plantation here, which raises about five times as much coffee as I,
paid only $20 more than I paid. When I noticed that, I went to the
secretary and arranged it with him in Arecibo. In Utuado I never
could get to see the secretary. When it came time to make state-
ments for taxes in Arecibo, I went there and made a claim and said
I could not pay so much when others were paying less. Then they
reduced my taxes $30. Afterwards the secretary of the municipality
came to me and said that I must give him $15 because he had had my
taxes reduced $30. I said, ' ' No, you did not do it. I protested in
the usual way and got my right in public." But I knew that if I did
not pay him $15 I would lose, the benefit of the reduction, because he
would put the assessment back again to what it was before. I said
to him, "I will give you $15 if you will reduce my taxes another $30,"
and he did that, and since then I have been paying him $15 a year,
and he has kept my assessment down.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think he divided with others?

Mr. Strube. No; the Spaniards did not pay to him, because they had
their ways of getting their rights, but this secretary had all the for-
eigners. It was like a personal tax we had to pay him.

Dr. Carroll. The poor man did not get that rebate?

Mr. Strube. No; but the Spaniards did not tax the poor man,
because they knew he had nothing. They said, "We will tax the
other fellow more and make up the difference."

STATE TAXES ONEROUS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aguadilla, P. R., January 21, 1899.

Mr. Adrian Del Valle (of Del Valle, Coppich & Co.). Mr. Tor-
regrosa and I defend the same ideas and principles. I was mayor of
the town, elected by popular vote. I have a commission house and
coffee-cleaning establishment.

In the name of Porto Rieans generally I thank you for the good
opinions you have formed of the island, as I have seen it stated in the
press. I have a brother in the States, and all the family of my part-
ner are being educated in the United States. Owing to my position
as a taxpayer for twenty-five or thirty years I have always had a
voice in the municipality, and I do not preach anything but that
which will benefit the district in which I live.

One of our necessities is roads, especially that from here to Lares.

369

The deputation had this road under its charge and was planning to
make such a road in former days, but the road was never completed.
They were six years making 5 kilometers of this road, and that has
never been paid for yet. Everything has been done here by what we
call an expediente — that is, you can not address anybody except by a
certain form of writing on stamped paper; everything has to be done
by written documents. The country is ruined by the immense amount
of taxation levied on it.

Our business house had to pay $500 for state taxes. We had to pay
one and one-half times that for municipal taxes. Then we had to
pay besides indirect taxes. They used to say here that the state
had a hand in one pocket and the province a hand in the other pocket
of poor Porto Rico ; but, in spite of this, the Government never allowed
us to take care of our own matters. We had nothing to say in the
government of the country, because we were Porto Ricans. A mer-
chant, if he wished to live a quiet life, had to fall in with the plans of
robbery and thieving from the Government that is practiced here. In
custom-house dealings, for instance, it was impossible to conduct a
business if the merchant did not fall in with the ways of the custom-
house people and bribe them for the purpose of smuggling in goods.
The Spanish employees forced us to rob the Government or go out of
business. Ten years ago, when I was in the United States, I liked the
country so much that I said to my friend, "The only salvation for
Porto Rico is that it fall into the hands of the United States." We
want new laws to be put in force here as soon as possible. It is not
possible to do very much under present conditions.

Dr. Carroll. Do you refer now to any particular code, the penal
or the commercial code, or to the administration of affairs generally?

Mr. Del Valle. The whole system has to be changed, especially
that of instruction. Money is spent and nothing is seen for it.

THE BASIS OF STATE TAXATION.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Mayaguez, P. R. , January 24, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. I should like to ask a few questions about the tax
department. How are estimates upon property made?

Mr. Manuel Balsac (secretary of municipality). They take as a
basis the State taxation, and on that basis the municipality taxes so
much per cent — that is, so much per cent of the amount taxed hj the
State.

Dr. Carroll. Who determines the basis of State taxation?

Secretary Balsac. The taxpayers themselves. They themselves
form a committee of experts and prepare plans showing the amount
of property that they own, and they work upon that.

Dr. Carroll. Is there no attempt to ascertain whether they have
property or income beyond that which they report?

Secretary Balsac. They have not done it up to the present, because
the State has proceeded in the following manner: It merely says,
"We want so much money. Now, you divide it up among your-
selves." Usually this measure applies only to urban property, in
which usually the merchants and householders form committees. As
regards the suburban and agricultural property, a State board of
1125 24

370

experts was formed, and made application to the alcaldes for infor-
mation and returns, and on that they formed the tax rate.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose it was expected that each gremio would see
that every member paid his proper share?

Secretary Balsac. Among the merchants that did take place, but
among agricultural interests the vigilance exercised was not so effect-
ive, and now and then they had complaints.

Dr. Carroll. For the purpose of taxation how many gremios are
there?

Secretary Balsac. I think there are about forty, every industry and
every profession being represented.

Dr. Carroll. How are the accounts divided as between the gre-
mios— by representatives of those gremios?

Secretary Balsac. The basis of the taxation of each gremio is deter-
mined by the tariff established by law. For instance, lawyers pay
$40 each. If there were ten lawyers in the town, they would be taxed
$400. They would meet and apportion that among themselves. In
practice they all pay the same amount. There are several physicians,
and they all pay the same.

Dr. Carroll. How about householders? Do they pay for the value
of the rental of the houses, or how do they pay, if not in that way?

Mr. St. Laurent. Householders send in sworn returns of their
property during the year. .From these sworn returns as to rental
25 per cent is deducted as an allowance for expenses, and they pay 5
per cent on what remains.

Dr. Carroll. Are household needs included in the estimates?

Mr. St. Laurent. No; only rental value of the houses.

Dr. Carroll. Suppose a house were unoccupied for a whole year,
would there be a tax?

Mr. St. Laurent. It pays just the same.

Dr. Carroll. Suppose a farm is abandoned and brings in no
income, does it pay the same tax?

Mr. St. Laurent. In that case the owner would make it known to
the authorities, and instead of paying a tax on his land as cultivated
land he would pay a tax on it as grazing land or pasture land.

Dr. Carroll. Would it, in your judgment, be better to fix a dif-
ferent plan of valuation, a certain percentage, say, on the valuation
of property, it being understood that as property increases or decreases
in value the rate of assessment is changed accordingly, and then to
levy a rate at a certain per cent on the value of the lands and
tenements.

Mr. St. Laurent. That is our desire here, but we are prevented
from doing it because we have not municipal autonomy.

Dr. Carroll. I merely ask if you approve that method — whether
that method ought to be introduced when the new government is
introduced into the island.

Mr. St. Laurent. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. And whether it would be well to levy also a poll tax
of, say, 1 peso upon every voting citizen, apart from all his other
taxes, so that not only those who have property should pay taxes, but
those who have not property.

Mr. St. Laurent. The collection of that would be very difficult.

Mr. Cartagena. Do they have that system to-day in the United
States?

Dr. Carroll. In many of the States they do, and in those States
when a man comes to vote his vote may be challenged if he has not
paid his poll tax.

371

Mr. St. Laurent. Later on, perhaps, I think we could introduce
that, but at present it would be attended with great difficulty.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not a sound principle that every male citizen
should contribute to the government whose pi'otection he enjoys?

Mr. St. Laurent. As a general principle it is as good a plan as you
could advise, but the difficulty would be to put it in practice.

Dr. Carroll. What is the special difficulty about the inaugura-
tion of it? You have had a system of passports for which you have
paid more than this amount of tax.

Mr. St. Laurent. The passive resistance of individuals against it.
The cedulas were divided into different classes. The laborer paid 12
cents only. Then there was a cedula of 20 cents, and so on up to $25,
according to the position of the person who paid.

Dr. Carroll. It might be that a lesser amount should be named.
I named the peso because generally the amount in the United States
is $1.

Mr. St. Laurent. Would you make the amount the same for every-
body?

Dr. Carroll. Yes.

Mr. St. Laurent. The poor men would have to pay an equal amount
then with the rich men.

Dr. Carroll. But the rich men would have to pay several hundred
dollars in other ways, while the poor man would pay only one tax.

Secretary Balsac. The municipal law provides for the collection
of a head tax, but the difficulty of collecting has been so great that
we have given it up.

Dr. Carroll. Perhaps you have not had any penalty attached to
it, such as denying the right of suffrage to those who do not pay the tax.

Mr. St. Laurent. Nobody has that right.

Dr. Carroll. Under the autonomistic regime a voting privilege
was allowed.

Secretary Balsac. Under the law of suffrage granted the head tax
was $5.

Dr. Carroll. Under the autonomistic regime?

A Physician present. There was universal suffrage in that system.

THE NEW LAND TAX.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Island of Vieques, P. R. , January SI, 1899.

Mr. L. F. Wolfe. There is another thing we wish to speak of, and
that is the new tax on land. Our land can not be classed with the
land of Porto Rico as 1, 2, and 3, the cultivation of sugar paying from
50 cents to $1 and the cultivation of grass for cattle paying one-half
that. The $1 charge is exorbitant. The tax on hills that we do not
use at all is also excessive, because we must leave them wooded in
order to attract the rain, as we have no rivers here. If we cut down
the trees on them, we would be ruined.

Dr. Carroll. Your objection is to the rates and not to the classifi-
cation?

Mr. Wolfe. That is it. Porto Rico can stand those rates. We
are paying also a great deal in customs. We pay to the capital also,
and I fear that with all these taxes we shall have to leave the island.

372

Vieques has been badly treated by Porto Rico. We used to pay the
city $25,000 for prisons. Then we used to have to pay for roads,
although we never got roads. Our roads would not have been built
at all if we had not done something for them.

THE MUNICIPAL TAX.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Humacao, P. R. , February 1, 1899.
Mr. Antonio Ortiz, a retail dealer of Humacao, and others:

Mr. Ortiz. Under the Spanish Government we had to pay very
heavy taxes, and still have to pay them. I want to ask if the present
government can not reduce them-.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that the tax was very small under the
Spanish law; that you could open your store for something like $15 a
year.

Mr. Ortiz. The state charges $16; we pay 400 per cent of that to
the municipality, and on top of that $60 for a liquor license.

Dr. Carroll. Are you in the first, second, or third class of liquor
dealers?

M.v. Ortiz. In the seventh class.

Mr. Antonio Roig. We have only two classes — first and second.

Dr. Carroll. Then you haven't followed out the new order, which
makes a further division.

Mr. Ortiz. The order makes no further distinction ; the only dis-
tinction is as to the population of the town in which we do business —
those in some towns paying more than those in others, according to
the number of inhabitants in the towns. The tax of $60 on liquors
and $60 on tobacco are in addition to the old tax, to make up for the
consumption tax, which was in part abolished.

Dr. Carroll. Does the council only make two classes in applying
the new order?

Mr. Ortiz. Yes; only into wholesale and retail. I don't complain
about the new liquor tax, but about the municipal tax of $64. It is
too large an amount as compared with the money I have invested in
my business.

Dr. Carroll. Have you made representation to the alcalde and
council with reference to this matter?

Mr. Ortiz. The whole of the merchants of this district made a com-
plaint to General Henry. Some time ago the collector of taxes went
around town from store to store and told them they were not paying
in the class to which they belonged. I was put from the eighth class
into the seventh, so that I am paying more than I did before. I don't
know why they raised my class. I have been around to all the mer-
chants and they all complain that their status has been changed.

A Councilman. They have no complaint to make on that score,
because formerly they were pajdng in a class to which they did not
belong, owing to the favoritism of the custom-house officials, who placed
them in their respective classes. They now have their proper legal
status, so they can not make any representation to General Henry.

Dr. Carroll. Yes, they can, because that will present a reason for
a new classification. A man who has a capital of only $200 can not
afford to pay nearly $200 to start business.

373

OBJECTIONS TO THE NEW LAND TAX.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Guayama, P. R. , February 3, 1899.

Mr. Juan I. Capo. I am a property owner, and I think I can say
that the people, as a whole, are not pleased with the new tax pub-
lished a few days ago, because it is not a just one. In characterizing
it as unjust I can give data which will uphold my statement. This
data will be given in a written statement which I will send to you at
the capital.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any other gentleman who wishes to speak
on the new land tax?

Mr. Modesto Bird (property owner). I consider that the tax on
cane lands is a just one, but I consider the tax on pasture lands too
high. I am an owner of cane lands, and can, therefore, speak with-
out prejudice.

Dr. Carroll. Will you please give your reasons?

Mr. Bird. There are pasture lands which should pay a dollar,
because they are worth it ; but others should not pay a dollar, because
their condition does not warrant it. There are some lands up on the
mountains, on which the owners raise small fruits, which will have to
pay $200, although the land itself is not worth more than $800. I think
cane lands will be benefited by the tax, but lands growing small
fruits can not pay the tax.

Dr. Belondte. The owners of pasture lands are not all on the same
footing. You have to take into account what land produces, what it
can be rented for, and what it can be sold for. For instance, in
Guayama, where we suffer six months in the year for want of rain,
we require 4 acres to pasture the same number of cattle that can be
pastured on 1 acre in Yabncoa; and when I say Yabucoa, I mean
other districts under the same conditions.

Dr. Carroll. That seems to be reasonable.

Dr. Belondte. If you rent an acre of pasture land here you can
not get more than $2 for it, whereas if you rent an acre of cane land
you can get $8 and more. The same applies to selling. If you sell
an acre of pasture land you get $15, but in the case of sugar or coffee
land you get $100 or more.

INEQUALITY OF THE NEW LAND TAX.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arroyo, P. R. , February 3, 1899.

Mr. Verges (of Arroyo). One of the questions that are causing a
great deal of discussion is the new land tax, which I think perhaps is
not rightly understood. Certainly the old system was very defective,
and this is an improvement, if it can only be established in the correct
way.

Dr. Carroll. What would be your idea as to the inauguration of it?

Mr. Verges. It is difficult to say. I think, however, that a com-
mission should study the matter before it is implanted, because there
are cane lands, for example, which easily give 4 or 5 hogsheads a cuerda,
while others give no more than 2, and yet under this law each must
pay the same.

Dr. Carroll. Are they not classified in three classes?

374

Mr. Verges. No ; in two classes ; and I think that the greatest losers
will be the poorer people — those who will he treated most harshly.

Dr. Carroll. Those who will have to pay 25 centavos a cuerda?

Mr. Verges. Yes; that is too high. People who have very poor
land can not afford to pay that.

Dr. Carroll. I have heard the criticism that you make now made
before as to small proprietors.

Mr. Verges. In places like Arroyo and Maunabo I think the yield,
under the conditions that we have here, will hardly exceed 2 hogs-
heads a cuerda. Formerly lands were more productive, more verdant
than they are to-day, and the yield was considerably more. Our lands
are becoming worn out. If we can establish irrigation here and prop-
erly renew the land, I have no doubt the yield could be augmented a
good deal.

Mr. Verges. Returning to the tax, I think there should be a fourth
class. The first class pays $1; that is 1 per cent for land worth $100;
but 25 per cent is too high, because there are lands here you can
get for $12.

I think there should really be five classes. There are some lands
far away from the roads which are of very little value, some of which
animals can not work, but the idea of the system is good. It puts a
certain tax on our lands, whereas formerly taxation was a source of
great injustice. People who have been so placed that ihej could
work everything to their own interests, without regard to the interest
of others, have taken advantage of it. Certainly there should be a
low tax in behalf of the very poor people.

Dr. Carroll. My own belief is that the property tax best for this
island is the system which is based on valuation, the tax being a cer-
tain per cent on the valuation. It seems to me that that system is a
really just one.

Mr. Verges. My idea would be to assess the land at a certain val-
uation, and let the same per cent rule in the whole district.

Dr. Carroll. That is the system we have in the United States,
and while open to abuse, as any system is, I think on the whole it is
the most equitable. The only difficulty is to put land into the right
classification. You can generally arrive at an idea of what land is
worth an acre and let it be assessed in that way.

Mr. Verges. But we will know better what our lands are worth
when we know under what conditions we are working. If we are
working as United States citizens and are granted the large measure
of freedom enjoyed in the mother country, the situation will be dif-
ferent from what it has been up to this time. There has been no
fixed valuation to any property in the island.

Dr. Carroll. I don't think it is possible for the old system to
continue.

Mr. Verges. We hoped not, but up to the present it has continued.
I have seen properties which have cost their owners $250,000 practi-
cally given away for $50,000 or 175,000. You can not go out into the
country and say this property is worth so much. It has no fixed mar-
ket value. If you want the property, you will give for it what the
particular circumstances of the case may make it worth to you. When
we know under what conditions we are working, then, of course, it
will be different.

Mr. Luis Bosselo. I wish to inform you of a case of injustice of a
kind which frequently occurs in this island. I started a coffee plan-
tation in Patillo, and the ayuntamiento, instead of helping me, imposed

375

on me a maximum tax, as if it were in bearing, whereas it has just
been planted. That is against the law, as under the Spanish law
estates which are newly planted are exempt for ten years from taxation.

Dr. Carroll. If they are working against the law, you have a
remedy.

Mr. Bosselo. No; they pay no attention to petitions or representa-
tions. My estate yielded this year 120 pounds of coffee, and they
charged me $100.

Mr. Juan P. Giovani. I produced on my estate 320 pounds and
paid $160 in Patillo.

THE NEW TAX LAW IN CITIES.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 4, 1899.

Dr. Stephen Vidal (a physician). The laws with regard to house
rent are defective and tend to depreciate the value of city real estate.
Property is not so valuable if there is no facility for collecting rents.

There is a very important question in reference to the city building
lots. City lands within the last few years have increased greatly in
value and have been much built up. I don't think the government
has any right to complain of the holders of town lots, but they have
just put a tax of 5 cents per meter on town lots, and I find that tax
very heavy. I have been trying to make arrangements to build on
some of them, but this tax will prevent. It is a precipitous measure
and uncalled for.

Dr. CarrolL. Do you refer to the last order of General Henry?

Dr. Vidal. Yes; there was absolutely no need for that measure.

Mr. Cortado. I consider it a very unjust tax, because it is not pos-
sible to build up our city in a day. Everything you see here has been
the result of our own initiative. We have never had protection from
the government. Under the administration of Daban I was in the
council of Aguadilla, and he issued an order against putting up of
wooden houses.

Dr. Carroll. What is the size of city lots?

Dr. Vidal. There is no limit to them.

Dr. Carroll. What is the tax per year?

Dr. Vidal. The tax is 5 cents a meter.

Dr. Carroll. Is that square measure?

Dr. Vidal. Yes; and I think the measure must have been devised
by persons who have no property at all.

Dr. Carroll. That would be about $55 a year on a lot 100 foot
front— about what would it be in the United States.

Dr. Vidal. In the United States the inhabitants of a town are in a
better position. There are more people in a position to pay, whereas
here nearly all are poor.

A Gentleman present. I have people on my property too poor to
pay the tax. If they consider my suburban property as within the
limits of the city for the purpose of this tax, it will not be possible to
pay it. Some poor people living in my houses can not even pay $1 a
month, and I can not sell the property, because there are no buyers.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get any income from your land?

A Gentleman present. No; absolutely none.

Dr. Carroll. Do you furnish the houses for them to live in?

A Gentleman present. There are houses built on them which cost

376

very little. If they are considered as standing on building lots, within
the meaning of the tax, I don't know what will he the outcome.

Dr. Carroll. What are you holding the land for?

A Gentleman present. They were formerly grazing lands.

Dr. Carroll. Is all of it occupied now b}^ the poor people?

A Gentleman present. The greater part of it is.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not likely that such lands will be considered as
lands outside of the city and be taxed so much per cuerda?

A Gentleman present. That may be, but as lands have not been
classified yet I am not sure about it. They adjoin the city limits. We
fear the municipality will abuse this power and consider such lands
as city property.

Dr. Carroll. General Heniy said that his reason for taxing poor
men's property at 25 cents per cuerda was to force them to cultivate
the lands and make more out of them. I presume his system of tax-
ing building lands is for the purpose of inducing the owners of them
to make improvements on them or to build on them.

A Gentleman present. We don't require a stimulus of that kind.
If under the Spanish Government we could produce what we have,
you can imagine that under the present Government we will build up
the lands without any such coercion. You can be sure there are mer-
chants here who, as soon as they can see that there are any profits to
be made out of building, will build.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think there should be no tax on these build-
ing lots?

A Gentleman present. A proper way to stimulate building would
be to better the law in relation to landlord and tenant so as to enable
the landlord to collect.

Dr. Carroll. What is the difficulty about that law uoav?

Dr. Vidal. There are a great many difficulties. I will make you a
list of them and send it to you.

Dr. Carroll. Before you pass from that point, unless you are going
to talk further, I want to ask a few questions. I was informed by the
alcalde yesterday that the result of the new tax scheme for city prop-
erty would be that this municipality would not have much more than
one-half the income that it has previously had from taxation ; that the
tax will be very much reduced upon improved property.

A Gentleman present. Formerly, under the Spanish law, unim-
proved building lots paid nothing.

Dr. Carroll. But I am speaking of improved property. The alcalde
says that the new system has greatly reduced taxation on improved
property. Is that true?

Mr. Vidal. The municipality does not need to have so much. The
municipality has too many unnecessary expenses.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that, according to the preceding system,
about 7i per cent of the taxes went to the municipality and about
5 per cent went to the insular government, and under the new arrange-
ment there will be an even division of the proceeds as between the
municipality and the insular government. And the alcalde states that
instead of $300,000 or $360,000 the municipality ought to have at least
$500,000 for its expenditures.

A Gentleman present. We can not be frank in speaking of this
alcalde or. any other, because we don't wish to appear to slander any-
body. I understand the reason for the shortage in the municipality
is that many importing merchants took their names off the importing
list when the war was started. I think the Government has been too

377

kind in removing the licenses on lawyers and doctors. I am a doctor
myself , but I think as such I ought to pay.

Dr. Carroll. Don't you think a just and fair system of taxation
on assessed valuation of all property is a better system than taxation
on incomes?

A Gentleman present. The system is a good one, but it would
take a great while to value property.

Dr. Carroll. General Henry's idea is that the present system is a
step in that direction.

Mr. Cortado. I think that the deficit could be made up by a small
duty on articles imported. Ponce imports 50,000 barrels of flour, and
I don't think a tax of 25 per cent would hurt anybody, and in that
way they could make up their deficits. Flour in the United States
can not possibly be cheaper than the quotations of yesterday — $3.15
per barrel.

Dr. CarrOll. If Porto Rico is to become a Territory of the United
States, all customs duties between the two countries may be abolished.

Mr. Cortado. We have to get our municipal expenses from some-
where.

Mr. Casals. This country is purely an agricultural country, and
has no industries of any sort. Instead of taxing agriculture it should
be protected, because you see the terrible condition it is in now.

Dr. Carroll. I don't think agriculture should be taxed heavier
than it is now.

A Gentleman present. I have been in this country for many years,
and I believe that it is the desire of everybody to have a Territorial
form of government and to secure free trade with the United States.
These gentlemen, I believe, will tell you the same thing. It is an
erroneous opinion on the part of the people in Washington that we
want a colonial form of government.

Dr. Carroll. An important financial question is involved, and that
is whether without the receipts from customs, you can raise money
enough to meet your expenses.

Mr. R. Casals. We all wish to have a Territorial form of govern-
ment, and we believe that the island will be able to raise money
enough to attend to it, but the form in which taxes are collected must
be changed. The present system is too onerous and is not justly
carried out. The assessor may be your enemy, and in that case he
will assess you larger than he ought. The custom-houses should be
constituted as tax collectors, doing away with the assessors and col-
lectors, who are guilty of immoral transactions.

Dr. Vidal. As I am a doctor, have lived all iny life in Porto Rico,
and necessarily mingled with the people, I can say that everybody
would be well satisfied to see a Territorial form of government estab-
lished here. The great mass of the people do not fall in line with the
view of our seeking something else.

A Gentleman present. The Spanish Government used to collect
internal revenue and also customs. Now, Mr. Casals means to say
that the officials in the custom-house named by the Federal Govern-
ment should pay the taxes to the insular government and not trust
the insular agents.

Mr. Cortado. The proof that we must have customs of some sort
is that municipalities have never been able to meet their expenses
without a consumption tax.

Dr. Carroll. But the island has had larger expenses than it will
have hereafter. You won't have to pay $200,000 to the church; you

378

won't have to pay $2,500,000 for the army and navy; and so there will
be a big reduction in the expenses.

Dr. Vidal. I think that by economizing in the municipalities and
levying an equitable tax we could fully cover our expenses.

Dr. Carroll. I think if you had the right system of taxation you
could raise all the money you need without putting a burden on any-
body.

Mr. Cortado. You must understand that this country is dead. In
its interior everybody owes money and no one can pay.

Dr. Carroll. Is not it altogether probable that the system of tax-
ation has been very unequal and unjust?

Mr. Cortado. The people are afraid that the same system will be
continued here.

REFORMS IN TAXES.
STATEMENT OF JOSE M. ORTIZ.

Maunabo, P. R., February 84, 1899.

1. Suppression of the provincial deputation and the enormous dis-
bursements it occasions.

2. Collect no taxes from newly established industries for at least
three years. Impose light duties only on the crude material they may
import.

3. Extensive liberty for mercantile traffic and opening of all the
ports to coasting trade. Allow no measures making this illusory or
favoring the absorbent pretensions of the heads of maritime depart-
ments.

4. The prohibition of the payment of gratuities, fees, and traveling
allowances (apart from expenses) to employees of custom-houses and
public treasury inspectors when on journeys of inspection.

5. Suppression of the sale of meat in the cities by auction, and
complete liberty for anyone to engage in the sale of that article.
The slaughter of cattle in public abattoirs under rigid inspection, and
the payment of the taxes imposed by the state or municipality.
Suppression of direct taxation of the wholesale and retail supplier.

(6) A better system of registry tax on cattle or its complete sup-
pression. There are owners of 200 oxen who only have 10 registries,
and some of 5 or 6 oxen who have no registries, whereas many cattle
dealers possess hundreds of registries of imaginary oxen, which illegal
state of affairs is the cause of much immorality.

(Note by translator. — This probably refers to the ownership of
registered brands. )

(7) Suppression of stamped paper, poll .tax (cedula), royal dues on
transfer of real estate, and the fines which these dues give rise to.

(8) Less rigor and complexity in the custom-house regulations, so
that they shall not contain so many impossible and vexatious requi-
sites, almost impossible of compliance by the importers, who have to
buy, in many cases, the employees' laxity in their observation.

(9) Exaction of responsibility of administrative and public servants
when their acts or habits prejudice the moral or material interests of
citizens. Complete indemnization for persons thus prejudiced.

(10) All, or at least the greater part, of these imposts should be
collected through the custom-house in the form of duties.

(11) To collect no direct taxes from property owners owning less
than 20 cuerdas (about 1 acre to a cuerda) of high mountain lands.

(12) Suppression of the consumption tax.

379

UNEQUAL ASSESSMENTS.
STATEMENT OF TQMAS VASANEZ, M. D.

Mayagttez, P. R. , November 10, 1898.

To assess for municipal taxation it is the custom to name a commis-
sion, called reparticlores (dividers), composed of two principal men
among the agriculturists, manufacturers, and commerce. Naturally
these gentlemen try to lighten their tax burden by increasing
that of the rest. This occasions the occultation of public wealth.
The cattle raiser — I could give names if necessary — possessing 6,000
head of cattle declares only 1,000 or 500; another possessing 1,000
declares 100, and another possessing 100 declares 20 only. I know
personally ranchers who with 1,000 head of beeves pay only $300 tax,
or not more than is paid by those owning one-fourth the number. The
same things take place with sugar and coffee planters. The coffee
planter harvesting 500 hundredweight declares only 80, etc., whereas
the very small producer, with but a few head of cattle or a few acres
of land, has to pay the whole of the tax, which under these conditions
is excessive and enormous.

Porto Rico does not pay as much as she could pay, and therefore
does not attend to public improvements. What she does collect is
badly distributed, and it may be said that the rich pay no taxes,
which fall entirely on the small proprietor, overwhelming and ruin-
ing him.

A remedj^, in my opinion, would be the introduction of the registra-
tion of property for the purpose of taxation. In a small country like
this it would be relatively easy, would give an exact knowledge of
properties, and would allow of a just assessment for taxation, together
with a larsrer taxable area.

OPPOSITION TO THE NEVS TAX SYSTE31.
STATEMENT OF MANY CITIZENS.

Isabela, P. R., February 15, 1899.

About taxes decided on by the Government : When the country was
expecting that the Government would fulfill its promise of freeing
agriculture and commerce from taxation in order to raise them from
a state of prostration, the general order referring to taxation, accom-
panied by the famous letter of the secretary of the treasury to the
president of the council announcing that the island would furnish
half a million to the insular treasury and an equal sum for the munici-
palities by the new plan, showed the island that the ruinous taxation
of old times which has ruined our island was to be continued, and
that the municipalities were to be shorn of their legitimate right of
voting and collecting the necessary imposts required by their local obli-
gations. We think it would be praiseworthy of the secretary of the
treasury to try by every means in his power to make taxation equitable
and acceptable for all. The limiting the tributation of the munici-
palities to $500,000 when their requirements are $3,000,000 makes us
lose hope of the country's regeneration.

We think that if it is desired that Porto Rico become a country of
freedom and happiness, the Government must with a firm hand abol-
ish all beaurocratic centers, which only desire to create a privileged
class and live at the expense of an unhappy people long groaning
under a system of exploitation.

380

THE NEW SYSTEM OF LAND TAXATION.

By a general order issued by General Henry, military commander,
dated January 19, 1899, the following system, devised by the secretary
of the treasury, Senor Coll y Toste, was adopted in place of the former
method of assessment according to income. But one tax on land is
assessed under the new regulations, and the proceeds are divided
equally between the insular and municipal treasuries.

1. The assessment of taxes upon lands will hereafter be made in accordance
with the various cultivations existing in the island and the quality of the land
taxed.

2. In accordance with the various cultivations, there will be taxes on cane lands,
coffee lands, tobacco lands, pasture lands, minor produce lands, and forest lands.

3. In accordance with the quality of the land there will be taxes of the first,
second, and third classes; the first class comprising the best lands, the second class
the next best, and the third class the poorest.

4. On all lands of the first class there will be a tax of 1 peso per cuerda, on all
lands of the second class a tax of 0.50 peso per cuerda, on all lands of the third
class a tax of 0.25 peso per cuerda.

5. Each municipal corporation will appoint a classifying commission which will
select subcommissions in the different districts of each township, these subcom-
missions to report to the classifying commissions on the class of lands in their
respective districts.

6. These commissions will be guided by the following instructions:

(a) First-class cane lands are plains and valleys and other alluvial lands lying
near settled communities, highways, railroads, and seaports, and the lands of
drained lagoons and mangrove marshes.

(a1) Second-class cane lands are the highland plains, generally surcharged with
oxides of iron and known in the country as clayish lands.

(&) First-class coffee lands are valley lands and hills abounding in organic
detritus.

(61) Second-class coffee lands are highlands having a calcareous or limy forma-
tion.

(c1) Second-class tobacco lands axe loamy highlands mixed with clay and sand.
(c2) Third-class tobacco lands are sandy lands along the coast and calcareous
lands among the hills.

(d) First-class pasture lauds are valleys, lagoons, and glens where grow "rnalo-
jilla " and Guinea grass.

(d1) Third-class pasture lands are those along the coast and limy hills where
grow only brush, "rat-tail," sweet grass, etc.

(e) First-class minor-produce lands are valley lands.
(V) Second-class minor-produce lands are highlands.

(e2) Third-class minor-produce lands are sandy and limy lands.

(/) First-class forest lands are those growing virgin forests whose timber can
supply building and cabinet woods, e. g., "aceitillo," cedar, "capa," "ausubo,"etc.

(/') Second-class forest lands are lands with a rocky and calcareous soil, grow-
ing only bushes available for fuel.

7. Taxes on lands whose owners reside abroad will be increased by 50 per cent.

8. All ordinances or decrees conflicting with the provisions of this order are hereby
revoked and rendered null and void.

URBAN TAXATION TOO HEAVY.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR EUSTOQUIO TORRES.

Guayanilla, P. R., November 8, 1898.
The principal sources of income of the State, apart from royal dues,
customs, stamped paper, and poll tax, are thy taxes on territorial
wealth. Until a short time since these were divided into three head-
ings, called agricultural, urban, and commercial, which were subdi-
vided into cane, coffee, tobacco, grazing lands, small crops, mountain
brush, urban, etc.

381

These are taxed by an impost of 5 per cent on their net products,
after deducting for working expenses 75 per cent in the case of sugar;
35 per cent in the case of coffee, small crops, tobacco, and mountain
brush; 10 per cent in the case of other subdivisions.

Although this system of subdivisions has its defenders, it is certain
that it was devised only to protect cane growers, as can at once be
seen by the disproportionate reduction they are allowed, to the preju-
dice of other branches. These, therefore, had to declare a net produc-
tion much greater than the reality in order to be able to cover their
proportion of the impost, levied without any regard for the real prod-
uct of the agriculturist. Experience has shown that the old style of
three divisions was more easy and less complicated, more equitable
and approximate to true assessment. It also prevented assessors
from doing what was frequently done under the new divisional plan —
that is, adding to the number of acres said to be under cultivation an
arbitrary quantity, for fear the original amount was understated, thus
frequently making it appear that twice the number of acres were
under cultivation that in reality were.

It has been stated that the new government proposes to suppress
territorial taxes and to substitute for it urban taxation. Although
this might give results in a few cities, such as San Juan, Ponce, and
Mayaguez, it would be ridiculous if applied to other towns of the
island, whose houses, small in number aud importance (owing to the
fact that the principal property owners live on their country estates),
could not support a tribute so excessive.

Owing to the aforesaid reasons and the fact that this country is
essentially agricultural, urban taxation should be decreased rather
than increased. Besides, if the collection of the municipal taxes be
governed by the territorial tax, as is the rule in force to-day, the result
would be that persons living in one district in which they had built
their houses would not be called on to pay anything in the municipal-
ities in which they might have the bulk of their fortune in land.

The Spanish Government decreed the general enumeration and
assessment of property, which work was well advanced, and returns
were sent in from almost all the towns to the superior centers, where
they were pigeonholed, owing to the influence of persons who would
have been injured by the adoption of this registry.

It is therefore of great importance that the country be left its sys-
tem of territorial taxation, even if the rate on sugar be reduced to a
level with or a little more than that of coffee.

PLEA FOR LOWER TAXES.

Patillas, P. R., March, 1899.
Senor Jose Amadeo, M. D. If the expenses of the budget are not
reduced, neither can the taxes be. In all well-administered countries
when the products decrease taxes also decrease. This is a law of
political economy which everybody knows. We have not before us
the precise data to be able to judge of what each town produces, but
the complaints regarding present taxes are numerous, and nobody is
surprised at it, as our tributary system has produced the same effects
in all countries where it has been tried. We keep on lamenting.
Nonconformity with assessment can be regulated by the efforts of tax-
payers by awakening little by little individual and collective con-
science, which will bring with it equity and justice. We do not have

382

a State assessment and valuation of property, the most solid and cer-
tain means of being able to assess taxation. Meanwhile the munici-
palities, with good alcaldes at their head, administering well and
inspired by highty patriotic sentiments, can do much for the general
welfare. Sugar cane, which grows as a most flourishing agricultural
product, can not possibly support further imposts until the markets
of the United States are opened to us. Sugars are struggling against
bonuses and foreign competition, which reduced the price to an extreme
limit, so that profits will always be very low. Coffee is just beginning
and, instead of exactions, requires assistance to enable it to succeed, as
it is the most costly and difficult of all crops raised in Porto Rico.

We may say nothing of minor agriculture, which for some time has
been decayed and requires a great stimulus. Under such circum-
stances of poor protection municipal expenses should be reduced and
the government should be requested to suppress or reduce the amount
collected for account of the state. This is the only way the munici-
palities can get out of their difficulties during this period of terri-
ble crisis, until prosperity increases in the country. An appropriation
for education alone should be allowed to stand, it being impossible to
do without it. It amounts to $3,303. The state collects 85,010, which,
if it releases the district from, would be of an immense assistance to
it during these days of difficulties. We must say something as regards
the condonation of unpaid taxes, dating back two or three years ago
under the Spanish rule. This would prevent sales of property and
foreclosure proceedings, which dishearten the agriculturist and ruin
the small producer.

THE TAX ON INDUSTRY.
STATEMENT OF HARTMANN & CO.

Arroyo, P. R., November 7, 1898.
We think this strange Spanish system of taxing industry should be
abolished. For example, compelling a merchant to pay the state
treasury, without counting municipal rates, $400 to $800, according
to the importance of the town in which he is established, for the priv-
ilege of doing commercial transactions. The state taxes should be
raised by inland revenue on alcohol, wines, rum, tobacco, etc., and
by duties, custom-house entries, and by the 5 per cent tax on net
incomes.

THE TRANSFER TAX.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR CELESHNO DOMINGUEZ.

G-UAYAMA, P. R., January, 1899.

Fortunately, stamped paper has been abolished. This was one of
the greatest scourges of property which the island was laboring under.
I will not dwell on this subject, as you will already have learned of
the heavy burden this tax constituted. There were stamps that cost
125, and one class, called "state pajmients," which cost as high as $50.

Another of our calamities was the transfer tax levied on transfer of
any class of property, through the custom-houses, which has also been
abolished. This tax was so onerous that the island is full of deeds

383

which have been held in hopes of better times and have not yet paid
this tax, thus making the titles inoperative. Poor people have been
special sufferers by this impost. One of the matters requiring the
immediate attention of the Government is the property registry offices,
whose employees have enjoyed a sinecure. These offices have been a
hindrance to the transfer of real estate. The registrars, although sub-
jected to a tariff of fees, pay no attention to this, but charge whatever
they think fit.

Transfers of property worth 1300 have had to pay as high as $12
registration fee. Those who wanted their de eds registered were obliged
to accede to the demands of the registrars; otherwise their documents
were held up. The history of the employees of the government in
Porto Rico is full of the names of men who, with no other capital than
their pens, their titles of lawyers, and a government employment, have
amassed enormous fortunes. The registries of Ponce, Mayaguez, San
Juan, and Arecibo are mines of gold for the fortunate holders. A
single employee in each municipality could easily attend to the work.

Another impost was that of commercial licenses, invented by the
Spanish Government to protect merchants who are nearly all penin-
sular Spaniards and follow Spanish politics. This tax was based on
the declaration of the interested parties, and the insular government
could neither raise nor lower it even in cases of real necessity. In
some towns this tax was so low that merchants whose business reached
hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly, as in Guayama, paid only
$2,000. Manufacturing, which is here insignificant, was also sub-
jected to this tax.

From time immemorial almost all the island has suffered under the
odious consume tax on articles of food, drink, and fuel. As alcalde
of this town I wished to suppress it, but as I am not allowed to sur-
charge the taxes of the merchants, I should have been obliged to
impose an extra tax to balance the deficiency on other interests, which
would be a further protection for the commercial monopoly, both irri-
tating and unjust, and would further burden the poor classes in a
country already impoverished. For the present, therefore, I have
had to abandon the idea. Besides the taxes already mentioned, there
is the direct territorial tax, consisting of 5 per cent of the sworn
declared gross returns of property made yearly, from which are
reduced the following amounts allowed for working expenses : Sugar
estates, 75 per cent; other crops, 35 per cent; urban property, 25 per
cent; pasture lands, 10 per cent.

Municipalities can also impose a direct tax, taking as a basis the
state assessment, but raising it as high as their needs require, except
in the case of commerce, manufacturing, and professions, which can
not be raised more than 20 per cent.

REDUCTION OF TAXES.
STATEMENT OF JOSE V. CINTRON, PLANTER.

Yabucoa, P. R., February £, 1899.
Reduction in the estimates of expenditures to a point enabling
them to be met by the custom-house receipts. This can be done by
reducing the higher salaries, suppressing the unnecessary posts, and
reducing the custom-house and collectorships to four, viz: Capital,
Ponce, Mayaguez, and Humaeao, but declaring all the ports of the

384

island open for the purpose of import and export under the super-
vision of the nearest custom-house.

Declare free from duties tools and machinery for industries and
agriculture, also coal, and place a heavy duty on rice to stimulate its
production in this country, so as to harvest enough for local use, the
quantity consumed being of extraordinary proportions.

The substitution of the system of taxation of landed property by
the plan proposed to the military government by the secretary of the
treasury fills a long- felt want. The same order might be made
extensive to house property by charging an annual tax equivalent to
the half of one month's rental. The taxation of industries and com-
merce by a system of just and reasonable licensing would complete in
a satisfactory manner the total reform of the present system of
taxation.

The total amount of the direct and internal taxes to be divided in
halves, assigning one-half to the municipalities for local disburse-
ments and the other to a special fund for education under the charge
of the state or department. This would realize the ideal of efficacious
generalization of education.

Work out a vast plan of education, making it gratuitous and obli-
gatory, and attending to roads and railroads (the most pressing need
of the island to-day), whose pitiful condition is showing the lament-
able state of backwardness and calling for the serious consideration
of all concerned.

It is not strange that the country has been reduced to the condition
of poverty now overshadowing us, owing to its system of taxation, both
absurd and absorbing, which only fell short of taxing light and air.
But, thank God, its credit has been spared; there is no public debt,
and the solvency of the treasury and the good purposes of the new
government may open the way by means of loans to the construction
of roads and railroads, which are the arteries through which the wealth
and progress of a country flow.

The cane grower and sugar maker are so related that the one is
nearly always the other, and the division of labor does not therefore
exist. The depreciation of the sugar product during the last few
years, the competition which it has had to sustain with the beet
product, a competition at once unequal and desperate, owing to the
fact that manufacturers in Europe are able to employ the latest
machinery and best methods, capital and science, and above all the
export bonus giving government protection — all that has here been
lacking. The government here protected inversely.

The ravages of usury, on the other hand, taking what the tax-
gatherers left, make it appear impossible that anything could be left
of the industrjr.

It is natural that these causes should have produced a correspond-
ing effect, and that some estates should have passed into the mort-
gagor's hands, and others have ceased to exist, while most of them
follow a course of misery unsustainable.

THE CONSVMO TAX.

STATEMENT OF DR. FRANCISCO DEL VALLE, MAYOR OF SAN JUAN.

Since the year 1883 this municipality has collected the consumo tax.
In that year the only articles taxed under this law were wheat flour,
coal, and charcoal. In successive years the tax has been levied on

385

various articles, and at the present date is collected on the following
things :

Meats of the following animals : Ox, hog, sheep, goat, including their
fats, which brings in monthly about $3,500; coke, $510; wheat flour,
$1,523; milk, $1,381; sugar, $811; spirits, $569;. beer, $118; wines,
$209; rice, $395; Spanish beans, $382; imported lard, $302; cigarettes,
$510. In the fiscal year 1895-96 the total amount collected from these
articles was $164,456. 90; in the year 1896-97 the amount was $163, 786. 10;
in the year 1897-98 the amount was $165,515.13; and for 1898-99 the
estimate is $135,569.47.

It may be observed that these sums constitute one of the principal
resources of the municipality of San Juan with which to cover its esti-
mated expenses, amounting in the present fiscal year to the consider-
able sum of $336,428.55.

November 1, 1898.

STAMPED PAPER.

This was a means employed by the Spanish Government to raise
money. The stamped paper was made at Madrid. The prices were
according to the following scale for various documents :

From $1 to $20 $0.15

From $20 to $40. 25

From $40 to $100 - .40

From $100 to $200 .60

From $200 to $300 . 80

From $300 to $400 1.00

From $400 to $500 2.00

From $500 to $1,000 .. 3.00

From $1,000 to $1,500 ... 5.00

From $1,500 to $2,000. 10.00

From $2,000 to $4.000 15.00

From $4,000 to $10.000 20.00

From $10,000 upward 25.00

Notarial acts .50

Power of attorney 2. 00

Documents whose value could not be determined 4. 00

For "state payments" 50.00

THE PORTO RICAN TARIFF.

PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER, MADE IN DECEM-
BER, 1898.

The tariff at present in force in Porto Rico is the old Spanish tariff,
slightly modified so as to abolish discriminations against the United
States and other countries, to subject imports from Spain to the same
duties as similar articles from the rest of the world, and to collect
tonnage dues on a new basis. Tonnage dues were formerly collected
at the rate of $1 per ton cargo. They are now collected at the rate of
20 cents per ton measurement. Formerly a vessel of 2,000 tons
measurement bringing a cargo of 50 tons to San Juan would pay $50 ;
now she would j)ay $40 for the same cargo, or for 1 ton, and $20 if
in ballast. The change chiefly affects vessels coming in ballast for
1125 25

386

orders. A later order exempts vessels of American registry plying
between ports of the island or between ports of the island and ports
of the United States from these dues.

The Spanish tariff, like all other Spanish methods of raising money,
was designed to secure the revenue needed with the least possible
disadvantage to Spain. It was, of course, natural and proper that
Spanish imports should be favored and that the productions of other
nations should bear the chief burden. Consequent!}7 the rate paid
on goods from the Peninsula averaged about 10 per cent, while the
charges on those from other countries were high, in some instances so
high as to be practically prohibitive. When prohibitive duties are
levied, it is usually for the purpose of excluding undesirable goods or
of protecting home products. Prohibitive duties do not, of course,
yield revenue, and if revenue is sacrificed it must be in order that
some other object deemed more important may be gained. But the
Porto Rican tariff was so levied as to suppress, or at least repress,
Porto Rican industries, and in some instances without benefiting
those of the mother country. There seems to have been an utter dis-
regard of insular interests. If Spanish producers were not affected,
the framers of the tariff showed little concern as to how high or low
the rates were put.

As between Spanish and Porto Rican producers and manufacturers
the latter had no chance. Nor were the needs of Porto Rican con-
sumers, however urgent they might appear from the insular point of
view, treated as worthy of serious attention. Indispensable articles
of food not produced in the island had to come in a roundabout way
through the hands of the merchants in Spain or pay enormous duties
if imported direct from other countries. The Porto Ricans thought
that some of the man}7 streams of the island might well furnish power
to mills to grind wheat from the United States or Canada into flour;
but the Government at Madrid punished these aspirations by making
the duty on wheat almost as high as that on flour. Flour paid 64 per
sack of 92 kilos (about 200 pounds), and wheat $3.15, and flour paid
also, for municipal purposes, a consumption tax of $2.30. There were
mills in Spain, and by importing wheat for them from the United
States they could be kept going. The millers of Spain profited; the
people of Porto Rico suffered.

Attempts were made in the island to manufacture soup paste and
crackers. The result is graphically described in the report of the
manufacturers of Ponce, drawn up in 1898 for the use of the colonial
ministry at Madrid, and presented to the commissioner of the United
States, without change, as the best statement possible of the needs of
the island. The cracker manufacturers had to pay the high duties
on flour and compete with crackers from the peninsula entered free
of all duty. Those who invested largely in the manufacture of soup
paste saw their business killed in the same way. Their petition to
the Liberal ministry, from which they hoped so much, is pathetic in
its pleadings for simple justice. Appeal after appeal was made, they
say, but all "sleep the sleep of the just (are pigeonholed)," for "if
ever a minister intended to cast a pitying glance upon such injustice
and relieve so much misfortune by some saving measure, this inten-
tion never materialized, but was strangled in its birth by the influences
brought to bear by Spanish manufacturers." All they got was prom-
ises and manana never came. The advent of the Liberal ministry
kindled new hopes. "We are emerging from the tutelage of ex-

387

ploiters," they said; but Sagasta never had full opportunity to show
how he would meet the appeals for relief.

The shoe manufacturers have the same story to tell : Shoes imported
free from Spain, shoes of the poorest quality — "pasteboard soles,"
"badly made, unsightly, coarse, and without durability" — while
Porto Rican manufacturers were heavily taxed for the raw materials.
Of course, shoes are costly, and 700,000 out of the 900,000 population
go barefoot. It was the opinion of industrialists that they could
make better shoes and furnish them more cheaply than the Balearic
Island manufacturers, but they were not given the chance. They
believed that the result of home manufacture would be to lower
prices, as in other instances, but competition with Spanish producers
when the latter had both the home and the insular market was impos-
sible. There are salt mines at Cabo Rojo, but salt from Spain is free,
and vessels loading with salt had to clear at Mayaguez, increasing the
expenses of shipments, because the port of Cabo Rojo had been closed;
so the salt industry Avas crippled.

Those interested, or who would be glad to be interested in the manu-
facture of soap, show that while soap from Barcelona paid only the
transitory duty of 10 per cent at the ports of the island, amounting
to $15 for every hundred boxes of 1 hundredweight each, the insular
industry is compelled to pay $32.52 in duties for the raw materials to
make that quantity of soap. No wonder they ask in despair: " What
business can succeed under such circumstances?"

It is not strange that though the Porto Rican tariff is high, too high
by about 50 per cent, it did not tend to develop Porto Rican indus-
tries. It was evidently framed so as not to promote such a develop-
ment.

The representations of the industrial leaders of Ponce, not origi-
nally intended for the United States, but for Spain, indicate that
they not only desired to introduce new business enterprises, but that
they knew that the only possible way of doing so was under the pro-
tection of judicious tariff schedules. The arguments in support of
their appeal are such as we have long been familiar with in the United
States. Countries, they say, which have no industries of their own
can never advance to the front rank. Manufacturing countries are
the richest and most powerful. They have the largest resources, the
necessaries of life are within the reach of all, and the lower classes
are better off. Manufacturing is the source, they add, of progress,
because it contributes to the general education and to the general
wealth; of well being, because it cheapens prices and enlarges the
range of things accessible to the poor; of morality, because It gives
work, stimulates to good habits, and opens to woman a wide field of
usefulness. It improves social relations, lessens indigence and vice,
and converts vagrants into prosperous workingmen.

They point to England, Germany, France, and the United States as
object lessons, showing what manufactures can do to make nations
great, prosperous, intelligent, and contented. It is impossible, how-
ever, they contend to have thriving industries without positive pro-
tection. ' 'A government anxious for wealth and social prestige would
not leave its industries to take care of themselves, but would stimu-
late them by removing or lowering the duties on raw materials, by
imposing high duties on competitive goods, and by making all pos-
sible concessions to them." If such a course might seem to shut out
altogether foreign competition, they argaie that it would stimulate
home competition and give the people better goods and cheaper goods.

388

They conclude their appeal to the Sagasta government at Madrid
with these words, using reiteration to add emphasis :

Protection! protection! and protection, in every sense of the word, in all its
forms, and in every measure — this is what the industries of Porto Rico need.

It is not possible to visit Porto Rico and investigate, however inad-
equately, its industrial condition without a feeling of sympatic for
the industrialists of Ponce in their aspirations. The existing indus-
tries are few and weak. Capital is needed to develop them and to add
to their number. Capital can of course only be had when better con-
ditions than those which the Spanish Government allowed are made
possible. An equitable and judicious customs system is needed,
which should neither be prohibitive on the one hand nor unmindful
of local interests on the other. The desire for protection is very gen-
eral, not only among manufacturers and capitalists, but also among
the workingmen. At an interview held at the office of the commis-
sioner, November 4, with the heads of the various gremios, or unions,
of the artisians of San Juan, Santiago Iglesias, head of the greniio of
carpenters, and president of the federation of workingmen, expressed
the opinion that ' ' protective duties on all manufactured articles "
should be imposed "so as to protect the embryonic industries which
exist here * * * for at least a certain number of years." After
they are able to look after themselves, the competition of other markets
could be admitted. Of course the multiplication of industries means
more work, more kinds of work, and therefore, better wages and steadier
employment. The report of the manufacturers and capitalists of
Ponce indicates a number of enterprises which might be made profit-
able. No doubt others could be introduced.

The rates on machinery seem to have been levied with the purpose
of allowing as little of it to be introduced as possible. If the framers
of the tariff wanted to encourage railroads in the islands, why did
they tax locomotives to the point of prohibition? If they thought it
well that the sugar cane should be ground where it Avas grown, why
did they put so much duty on boilers, cane crushers, vats, and other
machinery for the mills? When it was necessary to import detached
parts of agricultural and industrial machines, the duty was increased
sevenfold. For four-seated coaches the importer had to pay $350, a
full hundred dollars more than was collected at the custom-houses in
Cuba, and Cuba had an enormous debt and a war, while Porto Rico
had no debt and was at peace. Railway carriages had to pay $8 per
100 kilograms in the smaller, but only $4. 80 in the larger island. The
rate on carts and handcarts was $3.80 in Cuba; in Porto Rico it was $6.
Porto Ricians might well say that only a capitalist could afford to
import machinery. There was another difficulty manufacturers were
subjected to. In order to import machinery they had to pay an
importer's tax. This was no light burden. Mr. Andres Crosas, an
American citizen, long engaged in the importing business in San Juan,
states that he paid as tax on his business $700 to the insular and $1,050
to the municipal government. That was the tax which importers and
merchants of the first class paid. Later he placed himself in the
second class and paid $420 government tax, besides the municipal
levy. Of course, this unnecessary burden will be removed when the
tax system of the island is reformed.

The duties on food stuffs are very high, and while all bear the bur-
tden of increased prices of indispensable articles of sustenance, it rests

389

with crushing weight on the shoulders of the poor, who are very nu-
merous. The farm hand and laborer may go without shoes for him-
self and his family, he may make out with a few coarse garments, but
he can not get along without food. Chickens and eggs bring too much
in the market to retain for his own use; fresh meat is far beyond his
means. A diet of bananas and native vegetables is not sufficient to
keep him in good condition as a worker. He needs something more
substantial. The food stuffs which are most largely imported are .

Articles.

Value of
importa-
tion in 1897.

$2,481,631

Codfish

1,461,751

1, 394, 935

Flour.- _.- ...

969, 642

These four articles constituted, in value, more than 34 per cent of
the total ($17,858,063) of importations in 1897, or $6,307,959. The
change made by the United States by which articles from Spain pay
the same rates as those from other countries raises, of course, the
prices ; or did the Spanish exporter get the benefit of the difference in
duty?

There can be no question that the duties on these articles, except-
ing codfish, should be reduced. Codfish pays only 90 cents, while in
the old Cuban tariff it paid $2.50, and the Ponce committee think it
might remain unchanged. The committee add to the three articles
above enumerated four more as deserving preference in the cutting-
down process, viz., jerked beef, olive oil and olives, cheese, and butter.
For some unexplained reason the imports of jerked beef, chiefly from
South America, increased in 1896 over those of 1895 enormously, but
fell off in 1897 more than was gained in 1896. The quantity imported
in 1895 was 1,030,676 kilograms; in 1896, 3,524,116; in 1897, 774,392,
valued at $108,415. The value of the olive oil imported in 1897 was
$172,178; of cheese,. $202,789. Butter came in to the value of $60,178,
chiefly from Spain, the United States, Germany, and Denmark.

The propriety of reducing the duties on the chief articles of food
can hardly be questioned from any point of view. It is favored by
all Porto Ricans. A congress of 208 representatives of all classes,
from various parts of the island, held in San Juan, October 30, recom-
mended that no customs or consumption taxes should be levied on
articles of food, drink, and fuel. They would have them come in
free. Some of the merchants suggest that low duties on necessary
articles from Spain, such as Spanish rice, onions, garlic, olive oil,
beans, pease, potatoes, raisins, wines, and certain kinds of dry goods
would be in the interest of the people at large.

There is a very strong demand that raw materials, so called, used
in the manufacture of various articles of commerce should have con-
sideration in the reform of the tariff. The reasonableness of the
demand does not need to be argued. If manufactures are to be
encouraged, low duties on materials needed for them are a legitimate
concession of the state. Of course it is to be remembered that what
the manufacturer calls raw materials may be to the farmer or woods-
man or miner finished products. Regard must be had, therefore, in
determining rates on this class of imports to the interests of home

390

producers, to the needs of the treasury, to the importance of the enter-
prise asking relief, and to the character and extent of its output.
Among the manufacturers of Ponce those interested in the making of
shoes ask to have leather introduced free of duty and to have raw
hides pay a heavier rate. On the other hand, the tanners say an
export tax ought to be put on the native production of raw hides.
They complain that they have to pay too much for the raw materials
for their tanneries. The shoe manufacturers not only want raw mate-
rials free, but they want the rates on imports of boots and shoes trebled.
This would be practically prohibitive. The carriage manufacturers
ask to have the raw materials used in their factories put on the free
list — various kinds of leather, wooden articles, such as fellies, spokes,
paints, varnishes, etc. At the same time they ask that the duty on
carriages be made higher. As carriages already pay from $120 to §350
at the custom-houses, this last request seems both unnecessary and
unreasonable. If with the very low wages prevailing in Porto Rico
carriages can not be made profitably on the wide margin of the present
imposts, it must be due to lack of skill and management. It would
seem that the duties on these and other articles ought to be lowered
and encouragement given to manufactures in other forms.

Those who ship coffee, tobacco, and lumber, which pay export
duties, ask that these taxes on native products, which fall entirely
upon the producers, be abolished. Imposts of this class, which can
hardly be justified except by exigency of the treasury, are burden-
some. In the case of Porto Rico, which has no debt, it is doubtful if
they are necessary, and, together with the cargo or transit duties on
exports, which extend also to sugar, molasses, salt, and other prod-
ucts, might properly be remitted altogether or gradually removed.
Agriculturists, who pay 12| per cent of their net revenues in the way
of taxes, might well be excused from paying double duties on their
products — duties to get them out of their own country and duties to
get them into another. A great saving has already been accomplished
in the abolition of the useless provincial deputation, in the stoppage
of payments to the Government at Madrid, and for pensions, and in
the cessation of allowances for the support of the church. Other
economies can be made without in the least imperiling the effieiencj*
of government.

The question of absolute free trade between the United States and
Porto Rico suggests points which can not be fully settled just now.
The matter is one for discussion in connection with the form of govern-
ment to be given to the island after the treaty recently signed in Paris
shall have been ratified and Congress is ready to take it up. It is
proper here to say that Porto Ricans of all classes are united in urging
that the markets of the United States and Porto Rico shall be as free,
reciprocally, as those of New York and Jersey City, or Philadelphia
and Camden, or Alaska and Oregon. They look to the markets of the
United States as the natural markets in which they shall sell their
exports and buy their imports. They say they want American food
stuffs, American dry goods, American hardware, machinery, clothing,
American wines and canned goods, and an American marine to carry
them. They will take these, with American institutions and civiliza-
tion, and aspire to no higher destiny than to become an integral part of
the great American nation.

The classification of the Porto Rican tariff is similar to that of the
Cuban. There are 13 schedules, with various groups under each. The

391

following table shows for the year 1897 the value of the importations
under the several schedules and the duties collected :

Schedules.

I. Stones, earths, minerals, etc

II. Metals and manufactures of

III. Chemicals, etc

IV. Cotton and manufactures of

V. Vegetable fibers and manufactures of

VI. Wool and manufactures of

VII. Silk and manufactures of

VIII. Paper

IX. Wood...

X. Animals and animal products..

XI. Machinery, etc

XII. Foodstuffs

XIII. Miscellaneous

Special imports

Values.

Duties.

Pesos.

691,834.86

69,772.91

675,647.58

124,431.13

651, 947. 78

66, 696. 36

2,540,293.87

180, 725. 36

512,094.46

66,389.01

128,464.25

12,661.16

50,581.84

5,871.54

368,211.55

22,449.92

818,952.71

78,176.26

1,196,377.39

28,046.46

401,156.76

35,739.06

8,984,808.41

1,750,856.54

189,557.83

27, 185. 98

648,044.00

12,960.88

The schedules most productive of duties are, in order of amounts
of revenue, those relating to food stuffs, cotton goods, and manu-
factures of metals. These three produce nearly four-fifths of the
entire revenue. The silk schedule yields very small returns. It is
suggested that the duties are too high and that, under lax adminis-
tration of the customs, smuggling has been encouraged. While the
duties on luxuries, among which silks are classed, may be high for
the purpose of revenue, they may be so high as to defeat this purpose.
It is the opinion of some Porto Ricans that those on silks are too high.
They are considerably higher than in the old Cuban tariff.

The duties paid by the various countries, in amounts exceeding
$10,000, are indicated by the following table:

1. United States $945,677.88

2. Germany 431,507.02

3. Englishlndia 352,023.08

4. England ..- 299,477.90

5. English possessions - - . 108, 070. 92

6. Spain 106,943.14

7. France 54,000.66

8. Denmark -. 43,081.22

9. Belgium... 41,663.71

10. Holland 40,566.53

11. Argentina.... _ _• 12,480.49

12. Cuba.... 10,624.47

The value of imports by countries, for amounts above $100,000, is
shown by the following:

Countries.

Chief item.

Value.

1. Spain

.2. United States

3. England

4. English possessions

5. Germany

6. Englishlndia..

7. Cuba

8. Prance -..

9. Belgium

10. Holland..

• 11. Denmark

Cotton goods

Pork

Wrought-iron sheets.

Codfish

Rice

Tobacco

Cotton goods

Rice

Cheese

Rice

$7,152,016

3,741,815

1,755,755

1,445,601

1,314,603

913,069

692,780

215,474

163,675

155,363

124,406

A comparison of these two tables will show that Spain furnished
over 40 per cent of the imports, according to value, and paid less

than 4 per cent of the customs collected; the United States furnished
21 per cent of the imports, according to value, and paid 38 per cent
of the customs collected. As Spanish imports now pay duties at the
same rates as those from other countries, an increase of revenue is to
be expected.

There are many requests for reduction in the duties on wines and
beers, on the ground that they are now so high that the majority of
the people can not afford to buy them. Wines formerly came in from
Spain at a low duty, about 3 centavos. Now they pay, including the
consumption tax, 30 centavos. The Ponce committee propose that
the duties on alcohol and brandy should be increased and those on
wines and beers be reduced, and that the consumption tax on all liquors
be abolished. The manufacturers of liquors do not ask for additional
protection, but oppose the removal of the consumption tax. They
speak of brandy and alcohol as the raw materials of their industry.
If I am correctly informed, wine is manufactured from these strong
liquors. Such, at least, is the report made to me by an attache of
this commission who visited a distillery which produces 200 gallons of
alcohol per day. Most of this is made into wine by the help of sugar
and of raisins from Spain. It would seem to be better to lower the
duties on wines made from grapes, for the benefit of the people, even
though it be at the expense of this particular industry of local wine
making.

The effect on the revenues of the reductions proposed by Porto
Ricans it is difficult to estimate. The belief is quite general that an
improved administration of the customs system would save a con-
siderable amount of income; that many of the reductions proposed
would add to the revenue through increased importations, and that,
on the whole, a judicious revision of the schedules would lead to
larger rather than smaller results. It is also to be considered that
the great volume of imports from Spain will no longer be almost free.
The difference between the sum which Spain paid in 1897 and that
which she would pay now is the difference between §106,913 and
$1,788,000, on the basis of the duties paid by imports from the United
States, or $1,681,057. If imports for the present year do not fall off
there should be a substantial gain in receipts for the balance of the
fiscal year, on the basis of the old rates.

It is hardly possible to estimate what can be expected for the treas-
ury of the insular government from other sources or what its actual
needs will be. The taxes need a complete readjustment. The main
dependence has been on the customs revenue, and must continue to
be until the future government of the island is determined. The
estimates of receipts for the year ending June 30, 1898, amounted,
for both the Government and the provincial deputation to So, 157, 200.
Of this there was expected from :

Customs "... $3,377,900

Taxes 1.051,200

Monopoly revenues 184. 200

Postage stamps - - 128. 000

Lottery, etc 309,700

Other sources 106,200

Total . 5,157,200-

The orders already issued, under the military control of the United

393

States, have cut off several sources of revenue. The amounts expected
from them in the fiscal year 1897-98 were as follows:

Monopoly revenues (stamped papers) $184, 200

Lottery, etc .,_ 309,700

Taxes on transfer of property 148, 000

Passports ---- 31,000

Total .. 672,900

On the other hand, reductions will he effected in expenditures.
These items, which appeared in the estimates for 1897-98, disappear
from the accounts of the last half of the year :

Expenses of colonial ministry at Madrid $498, 502

Public worship 197,945

Army . . 1,252,378

Navy •„_ 222,668

Provincial deputation - 71, 860

Lottery - 23,180

Total.... ---- 2,266,533

According to the judgment of Porto Bicans most competent to have
an opinion other reductions can be made for the good of the service.
It must he remembered, however, that large sums will be needed
almost immediately for the public schools .and for various internal
improvements indispensable to the development of Porto Rico. For-
tunately there is no debt, so far as can be learned ; surpluses have
been the rule in the insular accounts, though they do not seem to
have been carried over, but used for Spanish exigencies in Cuba and
elsewhere.

It would seem to be prudent not to revise the Porto Rican tariff so
as very greatly to reduce the customs revenue, at least for the period
ad interim.

I beg to make the following recommendations :

(1) That export duties on coffee, wood, and tobacco be abolished.
This measure of relief to the agriculturists of Porto Rico is recom-
mended in the elaborate reports of the Ponce merchants, manufacturers,
and agriculturists, and is highly desirable.

(2) That the consumption tax on beverages be abolished, provided
the duties on distilled liquors be increased as recommended in obser-
vations on Schedule XII.

(3) That to the- free list be added plows, hoes, spades, hatchets,
machetes, cane knives, and other agricultural tools, excepting agri-
cultural machinery.

(4) That scientific, literary, and artistic works not dangerous to pub-
lic order be admitted free, in the terms of the treaty between Spain
and the United States, which shall apply to such works whether from
Spain or any other country.

(5) That a separate schedule be made for tobacco, separating it
from the miscellaneous class and numbering it XIV, as in the Cuban
tariff.

(6) That, the conditions in Cuba and Porto Rico being similar, the
revision of the Porto Rican tariff follow that of the Cuban, except in
specific instances to be indicated in the observations which follow on
the schedules severally.

Schedule I. — Stones, Earth, etc.

Under this schedule the value of the importations in 1897 was
$691,825; duties, $69,773— nearly 10 per cent. No changes have been

394

asked for in group 1. Some of the items are higher, others lower,
than those in the Cuban tariff. I would suggest that none of the items
be increased. Coal, for which free entry has been asked, should be
grouped with bitumens and schists and reduced from 33 to 20 centavos.
As to crude and refined petroleum, earnest representations have been
made in favor of protection for an oil refinery at San Juan. As the
margin is wide, I would suggest that an increase be made in item 8
from 55 to, say, 90 centavos, leaving item 9 at $3.10. The Cuban rate
for item 7 is four times as great as the existing rate in the Porto Rican
tariff. I know of no reason for increase. In group 5 the Cuban clas-
sification might be adopted with the Cuban rates for mirrors; but as
reductions are desired in items 11, 12, and 15, and the Cuban rates
are higher, I would recommend that no increase be made. For group
6 Cuban rates and classification would be acceptable, I think. If
surtaxes are to be retained, that of 75 per cent on painted or gilt por-
celain should be reduced to 50 per cent.

Schedule II. — Metals, Manufactures of, etc.

The value of the imports under this schedule for the calendar year 1897
was 1675,748, which paid #124,431 in duties (nearly 9 per cent), twice
as much as the first schedule, although the value of the importations
under the latter were larger. For group 1, gold, silver, and platinum,
it would be well to substitute the classification and rates of the similar
group in the Cuban tariff. The same recommendation will apply to
group 2. The reductions in both cases will be acceptable to Porto
Ricans. • The adoption of the Cuban rates for group 3, wrought iron
and steel, will give the relief needed on various indispensable articles,
while the few instances of increased rates, as in firearms, will cause no
hardship. Encouragement is asked for the manufacture of tinware
in Porto Rico. The Ponce committee says that the countries of Latin
America are very successful in this industry, and Porto Rico might
make everything needed for home use if the raw materials were only
free. These materials with the present rates of duty and with the
Cuban rates are:

i Porto
Item. Bican

duty.

Cuban
duty.

60. Unmanufactured tin S2. 10

80. Tin in ingots. 11.00

81. Bar zinc, rosin, etc : 2.90

82. Zinc in sheets, nails, etc ! j 3.00

SI. 50
4.00
1.00
1.50

Manufactures of tin plate pay $9. The Cuban rate is 84. Perhaps
this would not give sufficient margin for the industry. If the Cuban
rates are adopted for 60, 80, 81, and 82, I would suggest that item 61
be not reduced below $7 or $6.50. The reductions specially asked for
in articles entering into the manufacture' of carriages and articles
known as builders' hardware seem to be fairly met in the proposed
Cuban rates, and I recommend their adoption-.

Schedule III. — Chemical and Pharmaceutical Articles.

Under this schedule the importations in 1897 were valued at
$651,948, on which $66,696 in duties was collected, somewhat more

395

than 10 per cent. The committee at Ponce seem to have given the
system of classification a careful examination and make a number of
suggestions of changes upon the value of which expert opinion is
desirable. They are all in the interest of reductions, which the adop-
tion of the Cuban rates would accomplish perhaps sufficiently. That
in cod-liver oil would be especially welcome. Quinine should be
made free. The soap makers ask for rosin and caustic soda free.
While this is not conceded, large reductions are made in these articles
in the Cuban rates.

Schedule IV. — Cotton, and Manufactures of.

This schedule produced in 1897 in duties $180,725, the importations
being valued at $2,540,294. Undoubtedly both the Cuban classifica-
tion and rates would be more satisfactory to the vast number of Porto
Ricans interested in cotton goods than those of their own tariff. Cot-
ton goods are used for clothing and household purposes almost exclu-
sively bj^ the great majority of the inhabitants of Porto Rico. The
imports under this schedule are nearly four times as great as those
under the wool, linen, and silk schedules combined. It will be of
special benefit to the poorer classes to get their cotton goods cheaper,
and the Ponce tariff reformers have proposed lower rates in some cases
and higher in others. The Cuban schedule would answer for Porto
Rico, except for item 128. The present rate for that item is 30 cents,
the rate proposed by the Ponce committee 25 cents, and the Cuban
33 cents. I believe it would be well to make it 25 cents. It would be
of benefit to an industry in which many young girls are engaged, and
in which they are very skillful.

Schedule V. — Hemp, Flax, etc., and Manufactures of.

No one has asked that items 163 and 164 shall be free. The Ponce
tariff reform committee suggest that these items be dutiable at f 1 each,
cutting down one 65 cents and increasing the other 40 cents. So far
as appears there is no extensive rope factory or other industry using
these materials in the making of fabrics. I would suggest that the
duties be fixed at $1 in each case. A reduction is asked in sewing-
thread. It now pays 16 cents per kilogram gross; the proposal is $8
per 100 kilos. Reductions are suggested from Ponce on various kinds
of tissues and increases on others. Probably the Cuban schedule
entire, with the exceptions noted, would be satisfactory.

Schedule VI. — Wool, and Manufactures of.

The importations of wool and woolen manufactures amounted to
$128,464 in 1897, paying duties of $12,661, or less than 10 per cent.
The Cuban schedule levies 40 per cent. The Ponce committee pro-
pose new rates, most of which are in the direction of increase. No
reasons are given for raising the rates. It is to be considered whether
a fourfold advance on the average would not be too great, even allow-
ing for the large imports which have hitherto come from Spain almost
free. Tailors ask for an increase on ready-made clothing, and the
Ponce committee propose that it be 50 per cent.

Schedule VII. — Silk, and Manufactures of.

The importations of silk and manufactures of silk are extremely
small, amounting to only $50,582 in 1897, yielding in duties $5,872,

396

or somewhat more than 11 per cent. Intelligent Porto Ricans express
the opinion that the rates are too high for revenue ; that there has
been a good deal of smuggling. With this in mind, perhaps, the
Ponce committee proposes a radical reduction in some cases, as for
example, from $6.10 to 11.25 in item 214; from $9J0 to $4 in item
216, and from $18 to $6 in item 218. An increase is suggested in
items 219 and 220, and surtaxes for silk ribbons, ready-made clothing
of the materials of the schedule, and silk handkerchiefs. The Cuban
rate of 50 per cent ad valorem would, I fear, lessen rather than
increase the income from this schedule. Silks must be cheap to find
many buyers in Porto Rico.

Schedule VIII. — Paper.

The imports under this schedule in 1897 were valued at $368,212 and
paid $22,450 in duties. The Ponce reformers ask that pulp or paste
for the manufacture of paper be free and that paper of all kinds be
greatly reduced, because "it is the essential basis of a thousand
mediums of intelligence and liberty." They also propose that books,
both bound and unbound, go on the free list. As the treaty recently
negotiated at Paris makes provision for free importation of Spanish
literary, scientific, and artistic works, it would be only just to make
all such articles from each and every country free. In view of the
large reductions proposed by the Cuban tariff and its improved classi-
fication, I recommend that it be adopted entire, allowing paper pulp
to pay the small duty of 15 per cent instead of making it free. This
reduction amounts to 40 per cent.

Schedule IX. — Wood.

This is one of the more important schedules, yielding $78,176 in
duties on importations valued at $818,953. The Ponce committee say,
' ' There is no reason why lumber should not continue to pay the same
duties as at present. " On the other hand, United States Consul Hanna
considers that cheapening the cost of materials for houses, and pre-
sumably of furniture also, would be a boon. Probably timber will be
required to build vessels, the need of which for transportation between
ports of the island is greatly felt. Materials for casks, hogsheads, etc.,
might, it is suggested, be allowed to come in at reduced rates. It
would seem to be wise, therefore, to adopt the rates of the Cuban
schedule. The manufacturers of straw hats complain of the excessive
duties they have to pay on straw braids, and suggest that these be
taken out of item 257 and incorporated in item 256 and that the braids
should be classified as first, second, and third, the first class compris-
ing braids from 3 to 5 millimeters in width, the second those from 6 to
8 millimeters, and the third those of 9 millimeters and over. This
would avoid, they nay, the ' present inconsistencies by which the
coarser straw pays more duty than the finer because it is heavier,
although it is far less valuable.

Schedule X. — Animals and Animal Products.

In value of imports this is the third schedule in importance, cotton
being second and food stuffs first. The imports in 1897 amounted to
$1,196,377, yielding $28,046 in duties. No reduction of duties is asked
for in group 1 of animals. There has been no long, wasting Avar in

397

Porto Rico to deplete the meat supply, as in Cuba. The Porto Rican
cattle are large and fine and make splendid draft animals, quite
superior to the native horses, which are small and only adapted to driv-
ing and riding purposes. According to a property census, taken in
1896, there were in that year 303,612 cattle, 67,751 horses, 13,111 hogs,
5,799 goats, 4,167 mules, 2,055 sheep, and 717 asses. There are lands
well adapted to cattle raising. It is not necessary, therefore, that any
of the animals in group 1 be put on the free list. Perhaps, however,
some benefit would come to the people if the rate 25 per cent ad
valorem were adopted. A comparison of group 2, hides, skins, and
leather ware, with that of the Cuban tariff will show no very wide
differences in the rates on manufactured articles. The new item in
the Cuban schedule for children's shoes is provided for in the Porto
Rican schedule by an allowance of a rebate of 50 per cent for shoes
the inside soles of which do not measure more than 18 centimeters.
That appears to be more favorable to this class of goods than the
Cuban classification. It is very desirable that the use of shoes by
children shall be encouraged by low prices.

The manufacturers of Ponce estimate that not more than 200,000
persons in Porto Rico wear shoes. Of these, 50,000 wear four pairs a
year; 50,000, three pairs; 50,000, two pairs, and 50,000, one pair, mak-
ing 500,000 pairs for a year's supply. Of these, 100,000 pairs are made
in the island, and they believe that all that are needed can be sup-
plied by the native industry if only sufficient encouragement be given.
This encouragement consists in admitting sheepskins and calfskins,
tanned and patent leather free; but strangely enough they ask for a
higher rate on raw skins, saying that the increased demand for leather
will compensate the tanners. On the other hand, the tanners repre-
sent that tan bark costs too much, and that the premium offered on
raw hides in Hamburg and Havre puts the native production beyond
their reach. They ask that an export duty be put on raw hides. It
would seem more equitable to allow the tanners to import hides at a
reduced rate, say two-tenths of one per cent, as in the Cuban schedule.
The shoe manufacturers also ask that shoes for men and women, under
items 276 and 277, shall pay ' ' three times the duty now in force, " or $7. 65
and $6. 75 instead of $2. 75 and $2. 25. They would probably now agree
that this is unnecessary in view of the fact that shoes from Spain have
ceased to come in practically free of duty. The Balearic Island shoes,
which were so poor, now pay the same duties as similar shoes from other
countries. The tanners are helped by lower duties on tan bark and
on hides, and the shoe manufacturers get protection against "the
coarse, unsightly" Balearic Island shoes, with "pasteboard soles."
The adoption of the Cuban rates is therefore recommended.

Schedule XL — Instruments, Machinery, etc.

On articles in this class $35,739 in duties was paid in 1897 on imports
valued at $401,157. There is a general call for lower duties on.articles
in this list, particularly on agricultural machinery, which many think
ought to be free. It was formerly free, but in view of the proposal to
abolish export duties, to admit agricultural implements free, and other
concessions to the interests represented, a reduction, such as the new
Cuban rates would give, willprobably be reasonably satisfactory. It
is to be hoped that the importer's license or tax which agriculturists
have to pay for importing machineiy will be abolished. The adoption
of ad valorem rates will avoid excessive duties on cheap machines and

398

distribute the burdens more equally. Especially to be commended
is the provision of the Cuban schedule making detached parts of
machines dutiable at the same rates as the machines themselves. I
recommend the adoption also of the Cuban rates for the other groups.
Musical instruments, watches, etc., may properly pay a duty of 50 per
cent ad valorem. This will lessen the cost of pianos and organs, the
rates on which are higher than were the Spanish rates in Cuba.
Appeals have been made for reductions of from 20 to 50 per cent or
more, particularly for small practice pianos of four octaves or less,
also for hand organs.

In the interests of carriage making the Ponce committee asks for
an increase in the duty on carriages, in addition to lower duties on
the leather, wooden, and metallic materials used in the construction
of them. Carriages now pay from $120 to $350. The last figure is a
full $100 more than the highest rate in the original Cuban tariff — $250.
This was reduced at Santiago to $100. It would seem that the Porto
Ricaii rates ought, in the interests of the people, to be lowered. A
duty of 50 per cent ad valorem ought to be sufficiently protective to
carriage makers, who are to get their raw materials cheaper. The
rates on vessels are high. There is great need of sailing and steam
craft for island navigation. The ad valorem rates of the Cuban tariff
are recommended for adoption.

Schedule XII — Alimentary Substances.

The rates in this schedule affect directly more people in Porto Rico
than those of any other class. The importations in 1897 amounted to
$8,984,808, which was more than 50 per cent of the total for all the
schedules. The duties collected were $1,750,857, or upward of 70
per cent of the aggregate. Those interested in the condition of the
peasant and laborer of the island are anxious that duties shall be
lower on all classes of foods, particularly rice, which leads the entire
list of imported foodstuffs in quantity and value, and meats.

The rates in group 1, meat and fish, butter and preserves, are far
lower than those of the old Cuban tariff, and are lower even than
those of the new schedule. Codfish, for example, which is second
only to rice in the value of imports, is rated at 90 cents, while in the
old Cuban tariff it was $2.50 and in the new $2. I am informed that
the present rate on codfish is satisfactory. I would suggest that all
the articles in group 1, except codfish and jerked beef, be reduced 10
per cent. The new Cuban rates in group 2, for cereals, if adopted for
Porto Rico, would allow a reduction for rice, which now pays $1.95 in
the husk and $2.70 without the husk. The Cuban rate is $1.50 for
both. The reduction in wheat flour and wheat will also be a great
boon, but the proposed classification for corn, rye, oats, and barley
makes reductions far beyond what is necessary or desired in Porto
Rico. Corn is an important crop in the island and can be grown
profitably to a larger extent, if the duty is not lowered too much.
The present duty is $3.15. I would recommend that the rates be
fixed as follows :

Corn $1.30 I Barley $1.50

Rye 1.40 I Oats 1.40

And that flour of corn be $1.50. Items 316 and 347 should be incor-
porated in group 3, garden produce, and the Cuban classification and
rates be substituted.

399

In group 4 a redaction in the duties of cocoa is desired by the Ponce
and San Juan chocolate makers; also an increase of duty on choco-
late. The best chocolate made in San Juan commands a price of $1 a
pound. Asked why it was so high, the maker said it was because the
duty on cocoa was so heavy. Cocoa is grown in Porto Rico, and, the
Ponce committee say, in "sufficient quantity," the product augment-
ing daily. But they want lower duties on the raw material and higher
on the finished product. On the latter the rate is 30 cents. On the
former $13. Of course no reduction is asked for in the rate on coffee.
No reduction should be made in the rate on tea, which is half the old
Cuban duty. It would be well if heavier rates could be assessed on
inferior chocolates, which contain little cocoa, such as come from
Spain. This would be a measure of protection to the home manufac-
turers. Large reductions are requested in the rates on olive oil and
on beers and wines in group 5. These are articles in very general
demand. Good wines have almost been driven out of use by the
prices. Artificial wines made in the island and the products of the
distilleries have taken the place of the lighter drinks. Mr. Casals,
president of the Industrial Club of Ponce, expressed the opinion that
native rum is doing great harm to the people and that the adoption of
the internal-revenue excise system of the United States would be of
advantage. With this opinion the congress of Porto Ricans, held in
San Juan October 30 last, agrees in its conclusions, recommending
"the imposition of a heavy tax on alcoholic drinks" and the "abso-
lute prohibition of harmful drinks." Of course native producers
think otherwise and would like to have insular taxes lowered and
higher duties levied on distilled liquors. They say if the consump-
tion tax is taken off the duties should be increased in compensation.

It seems wise to encourage importation of grape wines and beers
rather than distilled liquors. The rates recommended for the latter
from Ponce are higher than those of the present tariff and considera-
bly higher than those of the new Cuban tariff. It would seem to be
desirable that the duties should not be greatly reduced, if at all.
Item 372 should be incorporated in group 4. The Cuban rates will be
satisfactory for articles in group 7. The manufacturers of soup paste
want the duty on that article increased fivefold ; but the reductions
on flour and grease will make increase unnecessary.

Schedule XIII. — Miscellaneous.

There was imported under this class in 1897 $189,558, which yielded
$27,186 in duties. A special plea has been made in the report of the
Ponce tariff reformers for all possible reduction in toys, as they are
"a moralizing factor among children" and "a mental stimulus."
They suggest a reduction from $35 to $20. The Cuban rate is $10,
which will be heartily approved. They also asked for lower rates for
trinkets. Their views are met by the Cuban rate. Too great a reduc-
tion should not be made in matches. There are several match fac-
tories in Porto Rico. The reduction should not exceed 50 per cent,
probably.

An increase is suggested by the Ponce committee on umbrellas and
parasols, but no reason is assigned. Instead of 40 cents and 20 cents,
they ask for 60 cents and 25 cents. The Cuban rates are 10 cents
and 5 cents. This is perhaps a larger reduction than would be advisa-
ble. With respect to straw hats many changes are requested, mainly
in the interest of native manufacture. They want straw braids, now

400

imported under item 257, Class IX, to be differently classified and be
subject to greatly reduced duties*. Straw hats, they think, should
pay heavier rates. Item 402 they would increase from 37 centavas to
$2; item 403, from $1.60 to 16, while they would reduce item 404 from
$2.35 to $1; item 405, from $5 to $2; item 400, from $9.50 to $2.50,
and item 407, from $34 to $5. If the classification and rates suggested
for straw braids in Schedule IX be made, perhaps the Cuban rates
for the above items ought to be adopted. The Ponce manufacturers
say, concerning felt hats :

Most of the felt hats imported in the island are woolen. The value of the
forms for the manufacture of one dozen of these hats is 1 peso, more or less: the
import duty on the same is 1 peso 25 centavos plus the 10 per cent transitory tax,
making a total of 137+ per cent. Besides, there is a duty on the ribbons, bands,
linings, and other materials, such as stiffenings and dyes, which raise the price
to 1 peso 75 centavos per dozen: adding this to the 137+ centavos for the forms
makes a total of 3 pesos 12+ centavos — that is to say, 312+ per cent on the value of
the forms.

The value of the finished hats is from 3 to 6 pesos a dozen, an average of about
4+ pesos per dozen. The import duty, under item 409, is 3 pesos plus 10 per cent
transitory duties, §3.30, making a total tax of from 73 to 74 per cent on their
value.

Proposed Schedule XIV. — Tobacco.

This is an important industry in Porto Rico. The value of the
product exported in 1897 was $1,194,318. The Ponce committee esti-
mate that there are 250,000 smokers in the island — 50,000 who smoke
cigars and 200,000 who smoke cigarettes; that the consumption of
cigarettes is 200,000 daily, or 73,000,000 annually; that a large pro-
portion of this total comes from Cuba, the value of the imports approx-
imating $1,500,000 annually, and that all the tobacco consumed could
be manufactured in Porto Rico and employment thus be given to
8,000 men if there were more protection. They say new methods of
cultivation are employed with better results and that more skill has
been introduced in the manufacture of the weed. They complain
that while Porto Rico tobacco was practically excluded from Cuba, the
Cuban manufactures were admitted to Porto Rico free from all duty
except the 10 per cent transitory tax. The Porto Rican article also
paid an export tax of 32 cents, including the transitory tax. There
are five tobacco factories in Ponce alone, besides those in Caguas and
other places — thirty or more in all. The industry has improved in
the past few years, and it is expected that it will be greatly extended.
No rates are suggested, but those of the new Cuban tariff would
undoubtedly give necessary protection, particularly if the export
duties are removed.

Respectfully submitted.

Henry K. Carroll, Commissioner.

how the tariff should be revised.
Views of Ponce Merchants.

The two accompanying papers on tariff reform were presented to
the Commissioner at San Juan, November 8, 1898, by Seilors D. Felici,
E. Torres, and A. Casals, chosen by the representatives of the com-
mercial, agricultural, and industrial classes of the district of Ponce.

401

The deputation presented to the Commissioner the following resolu-
tions hearing on the tariff:

First. That a banker, an agriculturist, and the president of the Club de Indus-
trials shall be selected to call on Mr. H. K. Carroll at his office in San Juan.

Second. That, it not being possible in such a short time to prepare a special
work or information to offer to Mr. Carroll, the commission elected shall present
him with an exact copy of the extensive and. laborious work that was successfully
accomplished by the Club de Industriales and the Chamber of Commerce of the
city of Ponce. This work comprises a good many statistical details and logical
arguments, all tending to show the modifications that should be made in the
custom-house regulations and tariff, in order to protect the development of the
industries and to demonstrate also the reason why agriculture in Porto Rico is in
such a decadent condition.

Third. Said work, made by seven different commissions, was ordered by the
Spanish Government with the object of making the necessary alterations in the
custom-house tariff and of using it as a guide to make commercial treaties with
the United States and Canada; but when the work was finished and ready to be
sent the war broke out and the Club de Industriales did not send it.

Fourth. It is our opinion that if the translation of said work into the English
language were ordered by Mr. Carroll, a good many important details would be
found that could aid considerably his present investigation. He will, of course,
have to set aside all that was intended for the special use of the Spanish Govern-
ment.

Fifth. We wish now to call his attention to the most vital, urgent, and neces-
sary measure that should be taken in Porto Rico, if the ruin of this rich island is
to be prevented. This measure is the free importation in the island of the products
of the United States, and vice versa.

Report of the Manufacturers of Ponce.

[Commission: Don Juan Cabrer, Don Julio E. Prats. Don Arturo Idrach, Don Alfredo Casals,
Don Luis Aguerrevere, Don Roberto G-raham.]

To the President and Members of the Official Chamber of Commerce

and the Manufacturers' Club of Ponce:

In compliance with the request made by the honorable secretary of
agriculture, manufactures, and commerce for information in regard
to the modifications which may be introduced into the custom-house
tariff, in view of the opening industries of Porto Rico, the under-
signed commission, appointed by the above-named officers to make a
report upon the same, has endeavored to fulfill its mission conscien-
tiously, not only by analyzing the obstacles opposed to industrial
development, but also the means necessary to promote activity in
these branches, so that they may develop in Porto Rico, to the increase
of public prosperity and the welfare of the country.

With this object in view, and in order to cooperate the better with
the laudable autonomic system just initiated for our government, all
the manufacturers of Ponce have been invited to make a detailed
report of the requirements of their respective industries, and at the
same time to offer such suggestions as, in their opinion, are advisable
for the development of such industry.

The result of these various reports, all tending to one end, is
embodied in the accompanying report. Satisfied and proud we will be
if it sheds any light upon the plausible work which it is intended to
realize and open to our beloved country new and extensive fields of
wealth, work, and life.

REPORT ON THE INDUSTRIES OF PORTO RICO.

If our century is remarkable for one above other things it is for the
immense impulse to manufactures and industries.
1125—26

402

Countries which have no industries of their own, or have them only
in limited scale, are lacking in self-support, and are therefore subject
to the tutelage of those which have acquired great development in
this branch of human employment.

It should be observed that manufacturing countries are, par excel-
lence, the richest and most powerful — England, Germany, France,
and the United States of America.

It must be observed, too, that in these countries, and in them only,
the necessaries of life are easily procured; there are greater resources
for persons of all capacities, and the condition of the lower class is
far better than in other places.

In all the countries of the world manufacture is the source of prog-
ress, well-being, and morality. Of progress, because it contributes
in the highest degree to general education as well as to general
wealth; it educates the people in the performance of work, cultivates
their mechanical aptitudes, and elevates them in the social scale. In
manufactories the proletariat is converted into a Workman. Well-
being, because it affords employment and the means for supplying
the material needs and enjoyments of life to the poor by lowering the
revenue taxes, which bear heavily upon the contributors, and it
reduces the price of the necessaries of life. Of morality, because of
the numerous opportunities it affords for work ; it does away with
vagrancy and the evils of vice; it educates mankind in the practice
of good habits, and especially elevates and dignifies woman, to whom
it opens a wider field than that of ordinary labor as a domestic, and
enables her to turn away from the inducements offered by houses of
ill fame.

The foregoing ideas are based upon facts and practical observations
made in the workshops and in the social relations.

The few manufactures of our island have declined in price.

Numbers of indigent poor who were subjected to daily want have
been converted into useful workmen, doubling and trebling their
means of subsistence. Hundreds of women take the fruit of their
labor to their homes, thanks to the factory which has saved them from
the wages of sin.

Of the facts of these details the hat factory, tanneiy, and cigar fac-
tories of Ponce will bear evidence.

In order that these experiments may take root, develop, and multi-
ply in our province, offering solid guaranties to the capital invested
in the various enterprises, it is necessary, in order to obtain the best
results in the various manufactures, that we follow the course employed
by those nations which are in the vanguard of the contemporaneous
industrial movement.

This is nothing other than a positive, unfettered protection to the
industries of the country, or what we would call, referring to Porto
Rico, a system of colonial protection. To attempt the development
of industries without openly protecting them is to attempt an impos-
sibility.

A government anxious for wealth and local prestige would not leave
its industries to take care of themselves, but would help and stimulate
them by suppressing or lowering the customs duties on materials
imported for use in manufactories. It would impose prohibitive
duties imported upon goods which made competition, and would con-
cede all possible facilities to the industry in order that all manufac-
tures may redound to the general prosperity. All that does not go to
further these interests will be a lamentable loss of time and labor and

403

endanger the complete loss of the capital invested in unprofitable
business.

Nor should it be urged that countries lacking the raw materials for
manufacture can not become manufacturing centers. There are many
examples to the contrary.

The fine manufactory of candles and soap of Rocamora, in Bar-
celona, imports the grease and resins used in its business. The piano
factories established in the same city also import from foreign coun-
tries the strings, pegs, keys, and other accessories of their business.
The weaving mills of different places in Catalonia obtain their flax
and cotton from England and America. Many other like examples
might be cited which do not occur to us at this time.

And can the industrial importance of Catalonia be doubted?

In the same manner many industries in Porto Rico might be fostered
without taking into account that not a few of the raw materials neces-
sary can be found in the country.

To this end we propose the following general bases, susceptible of
great amplification:

First. Declares free from duty all raw material and machine^ from
whatever source.

Second. Authorize the manufacturers doing business or those
licensed to manufacture to make a declaration before the custom-
houses of the raw materials and machinery which they import for their
respective industries.

Third. Impose an additional tax of 30 per cent upon all goods simi-
lar to those manufactured or which may be manufactured in this
island, from whatever country they may be imported.

Fourth. Exempt from duties, taxes, or other burdens, for the space
of five years, the new industries which may be established here.

Fifth. Stimulate industrial enterprise by offering premiums of some
value, to be awarded each year, to those who have made most progress
in their respective industries.

These are, in our opinion, the only means really practicable to favor
in a substantial manner the development of the industries of Porto
Rico.

We do not care for monopoly; we are the first to condemn unjust
privileges; but the insular industries should obtain a margin of pro-
tection under the tariff in force, for, according to an old adage, ' ' Char-
ity, well understood, begins at home." Furthermore, if protection is
ample and is based upon fair measures, monopoly could not exist.
Any industry that attempted it would find itself at once mistaken,
because, by virtue of the ample protection afforded, other similar indus-
tries would be established for the purpose of competition.

In proof of our assertion we will refer to the case of the match fac-
tory of Bolivar, in San Juan de Porto Rico, and to the ice manufac-
tories in the capital and in Ponce. Their abuses brought to them a
non-productive result.

Protection, protection, and protection in every sense of the word,
in all its forms and in every measure — this is what the industries of
Porto Rico need.

Having made the foregoing statements upon industries in general,
we will proceed to describe, in detail, three of the most important in
Porto Rico — shoe factories, cigar and cigarette factories, and salt
mines.

We do not refer to the other industries, because each has its special
report accompanying this.

404

SHOE FACTORY.

Of the 1,000,000 inhabitants of the island it is calculated that only
150,000 wear shoes regularly and 50,000 use them occasionally. Of
these —

50,000 wear 4 pairs per year _ 200, 000

50,000 wear 3 pairs per year 150, 000

50,000 wear 2 pairs per year __ 100,000

50,000 wear 1 pair per year . . . 50, 000

Total 500,000

Deducting the shoes made in the country, which may be estimated
at about the fifth part of the number used, or 100,000, there remains
as imported, 400,000 pairs of shoes, of which seven-eighths are from
the Balearic Islands and from Catalonia and the remainder from
France, England, and the United States of America.

Calculating that the 400,000 pairs of shoes imported cost in the fac-
tory about 10 pesetas each, on an average, they yield in addition an
annual duty of 4,000,000 pesetas, or 800,000 pesos (dollars), which is
the tribute we pay to the countries which supply us with these
articles.

As will be seen Porto Rico contributes quite a respectable amount
to the morocco leather industry. Our market is, for the Balearic
Islands, a veritable mine of wealth. This should oblige them to send
to us their best; but notwithstanding our trade, only the commonest
kinds produced by those factories are sold here. Generally these
shoes are badly made, unsightly, coarse, and without durability; they
are made of the worst kind of materials, with pasteboard soles, and
are commonly called "pacotilla" (unwarranted).

Although the shoe industry in Porto Rico is hardly more than in
its infancy, the manufacturers have the firmest conviction, based
upon the balance of their accounts, that they will be able, success-
fully, to compete with the foreign goods in the home market. For
this reason the enterprise has been established. Now is the time,
when we are emerging from the tutelage of exploiters, for us to look
about for the means to establish a good shoe manufactory and place
the Porto Rican shoe within the reach of everyone. Large shoe fac-
tories must be established in Porto Rico, supplied with all the modern
improvements.

Keeping strictly to the foregoing calculations, which must serve as
a basis for others if we could manufacture all the shoes used in the
island, we would be obliged to increase the number of shoemakers
now occupied in the trade by 1,323 additional for the manufacture of
the 400,000 pairs of shoes annually, imported, supposing that each
shoemaker can make one pair of shoes daily. Another favorable
result of home manufacture would be the saving on exchange which
now amounts to the- value of the imported shoes ; this would be reduced
one-third, more or less, being the value of the raw material imported
for use in the manufactories.

In viewr of the reasons set forth, it seems to us that articles under
items of the tariff numbered 270, 271, and 272, now in force should be
exempted from duty. These items refer to sheepskin, calfskin, patent
leather, and all similar goods of every class, which are the raw mate-
rials used in the maufacture of shoes and carriages.

On the other hand, we think that an additional tax should be imposed
upon the articles under item 274, raw skins, because the shoemakers

405

will, in turn, protect the tanneries by creating a demand for leather
through greater consumption.

In the same way an additional tax, amounting to three times the
duty now in force, should be imposed upon items under 276 and 277,
which comprise shoes for men and women, respectively. Up to the
present time, shoes from the Peninsula have entered our ports free of
duty, whilst our shoe industries are heavily taxed for the raw material
imported.

If the old slow methods of prohibition are pursued, there will be no
progress made in the industries of Porto Rico.

THE MANUFACTURE OF CIGARS.

Considering that of the 1,000,000 inhabitants of Porto Rico one-
half are women and half of the other half are children and nonsmok-
ers, we have still 250,000 smokers upon whom to base our calculations.
Suppose that of these smokers only 50,000 smoke cigars, there still
remains a body of 200,000 who smoke cigarettes and tobacco. Calcu-
lating the minimum of one package of cigarettes daily to each smoker,
we have a daily consumption of 200,000 packages, 73,000,000 packages
per annum. These figures agree with the number of packages imported
from Havana if we deduct the consumption of cigarettes of home
manufacture.

Taking as a basis 2,000 cigarettes manufactured daily by each work-
man, in order to manufacture 200.000 packages per day, 3,000,000
cigarettes, at 15 per package, it would be necessary to employ 1,500
workmen who would be exclusively engaged in this branch of the
tobacco industry. To this calculation there must be added other
employees— say 5U0 more workmen, occupied in separating, chipping,
and preparing the tobacco, in boxing, packing, and in the other
accessory manipulations.

It is necessary, therefore, for the manufacture of cigarettes in the
country, to employ dail}7 2,000 workmen, which number might be
duplicated in the probability that there would be some exportation.

We do not hide from ourselves the fact that machinery considerably
diminishes the employment of manual labor. Rut this effect is not
sensibly experienced when we take into account that not all factories
are able to have machinery, and that the cigarette in use can only be
manufactured by hand.

In the manufacture of cigars a greater number, perhaps, of work-
men are employed.

There is no use to enter upon the details of this assertion, admitted
by everyone and proved by the facts. It is sufficient to say that in
those factories where both articles are produced there are more per-
sons employed in the selection, preparation, and manufacture of
cigars than in factories where cigarettes only are made.

From this data it will be seen that with a little protection afforded
to this industry Porto Rico might decently maintain at least 8,000
workmen employed in the manufacture of cigars. Thanks to such
protection, the cultivation of tobacco would greatly increase and the
agricultural wealth of this product would receive notable encourage-
ment.

From a careful examination of the foregoing you may assure your-
self, without danger of falling into error, that in the balance of our
agriculture the production of tobacco will have as much weight and

406

importance as that of coffee and sugar cane, which are now our most
valuable agricultural products.

SALT MINES.

Porto Rico has a mine of wealth in its salt beds of Cabo Rojo.
These salt mines cover, approximately, a surface of 1,200 cuerda,1 of
which only one-tenth part is worked.. But neither the country nor
the Government knows what the salt mines contain ; they are veritable
gold mines. The portion now being worked produces sufficient salt to
supply the needs of the island and leave a surplus of 300,000 quintals,2
and if they are properly developed they would produce salt enough to
supply Cuba and the United States of America, which countries do
not produce the article and are obliged to import the same. This
branch of industry owes the basis of its prosperity to the consumption
in the island, and having this consumption guaranteed it would soon
become sufficiently strong and prosperous to supply salt to the afore-
named countries, which are near to our ports. If to-day these salt
mines are worth 350,000 pesos and afford employment to 200 laborers,
to-morrow they might be worth a million pesos and employ a thousand
men.

The causes of the actual decline of this industry may be summed
up as follows:

The facility with which salt enters our ports from foreign countries
and the Peninsula.

The enormous prohibitive duties in the United States and Canada,
which make it difficult for our salt to find a market in those countries.

The fact that although we have good salt here, better and purer
than that imported, the majority of the home consumers favor the
salt from Spain. The low price of the article.

Generally the merchant vessels which enter our waters bring salt
in ballast or to complete their cargo, and pay no import duties in vir-
tue of the sui generis existing between Porto Rico and the mother
country.

On the other hand, Porto Rican salt pays a custom-house duty in
the United States of. 6 cents, gold value, on each bushel — a measure
equal to 70 pounds, more or less, resulting, therefore, in a tax of 9
cents per quintal (hundredweight). Under such a heavy burden it
will be understood why our island is deprived of that important
market for our salt.

It would be otherwise if there existed between Spain and the United
States a broad and equitable commercial treaty, which would give an
opportunity for the easy output of the products of the Antilles.

As a means of prosperity for the salt mines of Cabo Rojo and for
the municipal district which depends upon them for its wealth, we
propose the following :

First. Concessions in the commercial treaties with the United States
and Canada, upon a reciprocity basis, which would admit our salt free
of duty to those markets, or at least give it the maximum protection.

Second. Impose dutj^ on salt from Spain equal to that of any other
foreign importation of the article, with a maximum duty of 35 per
cent fixed by the autonomic constitution.

1 Equal to 81 varas or Spanish yard measure.
' A quintal is equal to 1 hundredweight.

407

Third. Open the port of Cabo Rojo, now closed.

Fourth. Grant facilities to foreign and domestic ships to load with
salt without compelling them to stop at Mayaguez before clearing.

Fifth. Exemption from cargo duty of ships loading with salt.

These are, in our opinion, the measures which will conduce to the
freest development of which the salt industry of the country is capable.

We will conclude this task by showing that in our humble opinion
if the tariff reform should protect in a decided and explicit manner
the manufacturing industries which might exist in Porto Rico until
the capital invested in them shall be guaranteed, there will be estab-
lished in the island as an immediate consequence of such reform
paper mills, breweries, cotton mills, and candle factories.

Upon these four industries studies and plans have been made, which
only await the decisions of our governmental organizations for the
required protection to be given to the industries of this region in
order to be put into execution.

We have no hesitation whatever in asking exemption from taxes
for industries of such importance. The statistics demonstrate as an
irrefutable truth that little, very little, revenue accrues to our treas-
ury from duties on raw material imported for manufacturing pur-
poses. Thejr also show that the sums derived from duties on imports
on manufactured articles are insignificant, because the greater part
of these goods come from Spain and are exempt from all duty by rea-
son of their nationality.

Therefore to admit the importation of raw material free of duty
for manufacturing purposes, and as a consequence of that concession
cease to import manufactured products from the peninsula, because
they are manufactured in the island, would not make any marked
difference in the actual revenue derived from this source; and even
though the revenue should decline somewhat, the loss would not equal
the enormous surplus which accrues to it every year.

Besides, we believe that from the moment that the Spanish products
have no other protection than the 35 per cent levied upon foreign
products they would in turn contribute, as in justice they ought, to
the revenues of the public treasury.

For these reasons we believe that a resolution to protect the indus-
tries of Porto Rico would not result in serious injury to the provincial
treasury.

We have endeavored to fulfill the mission confided to us with the
strictest impartiality, with the best desire to serve the material inter-
ests of Porto Rico, and to combine with the justifiable project for
reform a demand for that of the tariff.

If we have failed in our object, the failure is due to our inability,
but not to a lack of the best intention nor of our intense love and ten-
derness toward the noble and generous soil, which returns with inter-
est the labor devoted to it.

. A. Casals,
Arturo Ldrach,
I. Agtterrevere,
Julio E. Prats,
J. Cabrer,

Commissioners.

Ponce, April 8, 1898.

408

MANUFACTURE OF SOUP PASTES, ETC.

[Presented by Messrs. Casals & Besosa, of the city of Ponce, to the commission appointed to
secure information for the projectors of a scheme to reform the tariff.]

This industry was established in Ponee in 1881 . The production,
at first very small, continued to increase from day to day, whilst the
market price declined.

From 1884 it increased rapidly. The products of the vermicelli fac-
tory at Ponce made such a creditable name for their superior quality
and cheapness that they almost completely superseded similar products
imported from Spain and foreign countries and supplied the necessi-
ties of the island. Before that time the consumers in the island used
very bad Catalan soup paste at 20 centavos a pound and 25 centavos
for the Italian article. Since then the best quality of soup paste made
in the island is sold at 12-J and 15 centavos a pound; and herein was
the first advantage derived by the inhabitants of Porto Rico from the
introduction of this industry.

To prove the excellent quality of the soup paste produced by the
manufactory of Ponce it will be sufficient to state that at the famous
international exhibition in Chicago the Soup Paste Factory of Ponce
took the first gold medal in competition with the other countries.
Besides it had other gold medals awarded to it in Porto Rico.

This manufacture reached the height of its success in 1894, when
owing to the assistance of the laws then in force and the tariff guar-
anteed by the commercial treaty with the United States of America,
the undersigned put up a large three-story building of stone and mor-
tar and supplied it with all the modern improvements. It has a
capacity for manufacturing 600 boxes of soup paste daily — a steam
engine of 24 horsepower, a furnace and registers, and all other mod-
ern improvements known in 1894. This factory is the best and most
important of its kind existing in Spanish territory. None of the soup-
paste factories of Spain have the appliances that this has, nor can they
manufacture 600 boxes of soup paste daily.

Who could have foretold that within four months after the opening
of this fine factory a decree would be issued denouncing the treaty
with the United States of America and at the same time compassing
the ruin and extermination of the soup-paste industry of Porto Rico?
Who could have said that there would be a depriving of work and
bread to hundreds of workmen? From that time forward the factory
has barely sustained itself, suffering many losses in order not to
abandon completely the home market to foreign and Spanish specu-
lators and, besides, not to discharge the workmen who are expert in
the practical knowledge which it requires niany years to attain.
Skilled workmen are not invented nor assembled when they are
needed ; they are trained at the expense of years and years of appren-
ticeship to labor.

We will conclude this report by inclosing a copy of an appeal made
to the foreign minister, dated October 16, 1897, which we indorse in
all its points, and which, like many others, sleeps the sleep of the
just (is pigeonholed).

To his Excellency tbe Minister of Foreign Affairs:

Messrs. Casals and Besosa, manufacturers of soup paste (thickening for soup),
established in the city of Ponce, island of Porto Rico, appear before your excel-
lency and respectfully submit the following:

In February, 1894, under protection of the laws, they established a factory for
the manufacture of soup paste, investing 40,000 pesos in building a factory three

409

stories high, a photograph of which we herewith present, in order that an idea
may be had of the said industrial establishment.

Supplied with all the necessaries for the manufacture of soup paste, with mod-
ern steam machinery of 24 horsepower and all the modern apparatus used for this
purpose in the principal manufacturing centers, we have in consequence a manu-
facturing establishment which does honor to Spain in the Antilles. There is none
other, neither here nor in all the Spanish peninsula, which can compare with it,
not only for its importance, but for the superior quality of its manufactures, which
it has introduced into the market through several foreign and international expo-
sitions, in which it has been awarded for the excellent quality of its products,
and to the glory of the nation, first premiums in the shape of gold and silver
medals.

This factory, your honor, gave employment and bread to 100 laborers of both
sexes. It also sharpened the intelligence of these people by teaching them a new
industry, before unknown to them; it gave occupation to coasting vessels trading
with other parts of the island; it contributed to the State and municipality large
sums as taxes on manufactures and thousands of dollars in custom-house duties.
The products of this factory acquired such fame for the quality and cheapness of
its manufactures that from that time this article of prime necessity has been fur-
nished to the consumer at almost half the price which it brought before the fac-
tory was established, and this is another benefit which this enterprise has brought
to the island.

But how short was the satisfaction of seeing the progress of a West Indian
industry!

Four months later, your honor, the annulment of the treaty "with America
reduced to naught our apparently well-founded hopes of success. The industry
was annihilated, and on the horizon appeared a picture of the dark future which
threatened the success of the projectors of this industry and portrayed the want
and misery of the 100 unfortunate laborers who depended upon this industry for
their livelihood.

The import duties on grease and American flour, which are the raw materials
used in the manufacture of soup paste, were increased from 1 peso per 100 kilos to
5 pesos for the same quantity, thus making an increase in our daily expenditures
of 80 pesos. And it was upon those raw materials that the manufacturers had
based their hopes for profit from the business in which they had invested all of
their small capital. Later the duties were reduced to 4 pesos per 100 kilos, butnot
even with this reduction was it possible to earn a loaf of bread for our children.

Thus a cloud settled over the smiling future which we had courted and the
business in which we had invested our capital, believing ourselves under the pro-
tection of Spanish laws.

On several occasions, and to every minister who has presided over the foreign
office, we have made appeals for protection for this industry and for the laborers
who are to-day without work and food. Finally the big factory had to close,
owing to the competition in the market of similar goods imported from foreign
countries and from Spain; especially from the latter, from whence they enter our
island free of all duties, while we have to pay heavy import duties on the grease
which we import.

All the ministers and all the governors who have presided in turn over the
respective offices, and to whom we have applied for a just compensation for our
losses, have recognized our argument and our right to appeal for indemnity or
for a tariff reduction which would put us in the position to sustain the competi-
tion of similar products imported into Porto Rico, but no one of them has con-
sidered himself sufficiently authorized to accomplish this act of justice.

The admission free of duty of grease, wheat flour, and unfinished boxes as raw
materials for the manufacture of soup paste would justify, if necessary, an
import duty on the soup paste, etc., imported from Spain which now enters free
of all duty, while we are paying an exorbitant duty upon all our raw materials.
An additional tax of 25 per cent over the tax now paid by the foreign article
would be the only means of restoring the vitality and energy which this industry
enjoyed before the rupture of the American treaty.

And while we are treating of an industry established and well known in the
island, where two important factories exist, and are both closed, representing
inert capital, two ruined families, and 200 laborers without employment — in a
word, ruin, desolation, poverty — we would state that this condition arises from
the little or no attention which has been paid to our just complaints, so often
made to the officers of the Government. If ever a minister intended to cast a
pitying glance upon such injustice and relieve so much misfortune by some saving
measure, this intention never materialized, but was strangled in its birth by the

410

influences brought to bear by Spanish manufacturers, and only promises and
still other promises of speedy relief reached us through our deputies.

Now that a liberal government presides over the destinies of Spain and a min-
ister anxious to do us justice is seated in the foreign office, there is some guaranty
of success for those of us who are hungry and thirsty for justice, and we again
make our everlasting complaint and beg for redress and justice.

Therefore, and by virtue of the arguments here set forth, we beseech 3'our excel-
lency to grant the appeal which we make for redress or for modifications in the
tariff such as in the opinion of your excellency may be deemed just and advisable,
and enable our industry to return to active life and compete without loss with
similar articles from foreign countries and Spain. These can be produced at home
for less money, and there is no necessity for importing them, neither from Spain
nor from foreign countries.

From the well-known rectitude of your excellency, we hope to receive the con-
sideration and justice for which we make appeal from Ponce, October 16, 1897.

Casals & Besosa.
E. Coetada.

HAT FACTORY.

[Presented by Senor Juan Cabrer, of the city of Ponce, to the commission appointed by the
industrial club to secure information for the projected tariff reform relating to the manufac-
ture of hats. ]

Straw braids for the manufacture of hats are classified under the
tariff as worked straw and pay a duty, under item 257, of 30 pesos
per 100 kilos and an additional transitory tax of 10 per cent, making
a total of 33 pesos per 100 kilos. As the greater number of hats used
in Porto Rico are of coarse straw and heavy weight, we, the manufac-
turers of the island, are unable to compete with the imported hats, the
high duties on the raw material raising the price to such a figure as to
make it impossible for us to compete with the imported article.

In our opinion, these braids should be taxed, under item 256, at 3
pesos 20 centavos per 100 kilos, as raw material for hats, and not as
manufactured straw.

It would be well if the braids were classified as first, second, and
third class. First class would comprise braids of from 3 to 5 milli-
meters in width; second class, braids of from 6 to 8 millimeters wide,
and third class, those of 9 millimeters and over. In this way each hat
would pay a relative duty according to its value, and not as happens
at present — that a hat of least value pays most duty, because it is
heavier than a finer one.

In the classification of felt hats there is no provision for untrimmed
and unironed hats, which should be rated as felt in strips and pieces,
item 194, paying 18 centavos per kilo, and not as unfinished hats, for
the following reasons:

Most of the felt hats imported in the island are woolen. The value
of the forms for the manufacture of one dozen of these hats is 1 peso,
more or less; the import duty on the same is 1 peso 25 centavos, plus
the 10 per cent transitory tax, making a total of 137+ per cent. Besides,
there is a duty on the ribbons, bands, linings, and other materials,
such as stiffenings and dyes, which raise the price to 1 peso 75 centa-
vos per dozen. Adding this to the 137+, centavos for the forms, makes
a total of 3 pesos 12+ centavos — that is to say, 312^ per cent of the
value of the forms.

The value of the finished hats is from 3 to 6 pesos a dozen — an aver-
age of about 4+ pesos per dozen. The import duty under item 409 is
3 pesos, plus 10 percent transitory duties — $3.30 — making a total tax
of from 73 to 74 per cent on their value.

411

The name " casco " (form) given to unfinished hats is not applicable.
A casco is an untrimmed hat — that is to say, a hat without lining, rib-
band, and binding. The cascos (forms) bought by the hatters from the
manufacturers are called, in French, " campana,"and the houses which
deal in these goods "manufacture de cloches pour le chapellerie,"
whilst the hat factories are known by the same name which we use in
Spanish.

The foregoing, we believe, will explain the causes of the nonsuccess
of the hat industry in the island, and we hope that the insular gov-
ernment will amend the errors of the existing tariff.

J. Cabrer.

Ponce, P. R., March 27, 1898.

SOAP FACTORIES.

To the President of the Industrial Club of Ponce:

Having been asked to make a report enumerating the obstacles
which paralyze the industry in which we are engaged and to offer prac-
tical suggestions which may conduce to its development and prosperity,
we have the honor to comply with pleasure and to offer the following
as the result of our experience through long years of labor :

Although this industry seems to be of little importance, it is without
doubt one to which the attention of the government officials should
be called in order to protect the province from the enormous contri-
butions it makes to the foreign manufacturers who supply us with this
article.

The consumption of soap in our country is immense, as is shown by
the last statistics of imports.

In the past year, 1897, Porto Rico imported from Barcelona 30,060
boxes of soap of 1 hundredweight each, for which it paid 20 pesetas a
box, making a sum total of 601,200 pesetas, which we expend annually
through bills of exchange in order to procure this article for our neces-
sities. . The soap made in the island is scarcely used, in spite of the
great economy exercised by the manufacturers in its production with
a view of lowering the price and enabling our product to compete with
the imported article. Notwithstanding these measures and the infe-
rior quality of the soap with which we endeavor to compete in price,
we have not succeeded.

The raw materials which we need in our manufacture are heavily
taxed because similar manufactures coming from Barcelona enter
our markets free of all revenue taxes and subject only to a transitory
tax of 10 per cent, which is equal to about 15 centavos, more or less,
for every 100 pounds or 15 pesos for every hundred boxes of soap of 1
hundredweight each.

Meantime the insular industry pays duties on the raw materials
which it requires in order to manufacture 100 boxes of soap of 1 hun-
dredweight each, as follows:

1,610 Mlos (35 quintals) grease, item 292, at $1.20 per 100 kilos $19.32

1,104 kilos (24 quintals) rosin, item 92, at 90 cents per 100 kilos 9. 93

92 kilos (2 quintals) caustic soda, item 107, at 65 cents per 100 kilos ' .59

Total 29.84

10 per cent transitory tax 2.98

Total 32.82

412

It is clearly seen that our soap industry pays for the raw material
to manufacture 100 boxes of soap of 1 hundredweight each more
than double the amount paid by 100 boxes of the same article manu-
factured in Barcelona.

What business can succeed under such circumstances? Who can
stand the competition?

Nor should it be argued that we ought not to enter into this busi-
ness because we have not the raw material. Rocamora and all the
other large soap factories of Catalonia import rosin from North
America, rough tallow from the Argentine, and paraffin and stearine
from other foreign countries, and, notwithstanding, the soap industry
of Catalonia is rich and powerful.

It is more economical to manufacture soap in connection with
stearine or tallow candles, and in almost all factories where the busi-
ness is carried on these two manufactures appear together. The
same might be done in Porto Rico if item 121 of the tariff relating to
"pacapua" (animal fat), stearine, wax, and sperm oil were allowed
free entry instead of paying a duty of 4 pesos 50 centavos per 100
kilos.

If the. articles under this item, as well as those under items num-
bered 292, 92, and 107, respectively, were declared free of duty for
manufacturing purposes, and an additional tax placed on imported
candles and soap, from whatever source, the soap industry of Porto
Rico might improve its products, cheapen its goods, and enjoy pros-
perity.

The foregoing is the result of practical experience and careful study
of this industry through long years of labor.

Manuel Hedilla.
Aguerrevere Brothers.

Ponce, P. R., April 9, 1898.

TINWARE.
[By representatives of the tinware industry, on the requirements of said industry.]

The raw materials imported to give impulse to this industry are
designated under the four items of the existing tariff as follows :

Per 100 kilos.

Item 60. Unmanufactured tin . . 82. 10

Item 80. Pig iron . 11.00

Item 81. Bar zinc, rosin, etc _.- 2.90

Item 82. Sheet zinc, nails, and wires -. 3.00

In the Latin republics of America this industry has achieved the
greatest success to which it could attain. Everything in the way of
tinware is manufactured at home, and nothing of the kind is imported.
This is due to the free importation of the raw material for manufac-
tures of all kinds, and amongst those which have had the greatest
success is the tinware industry. In Central America it has made most
progress, and large establishments have been founded there for the
manufacture of this article.

If Porto Rico enjocyed free importation of raw materials for the car-
rying on of this branch of industry, no manufactured articles would
be imported, but a preference given for the home products, in the
assurance that they would be as well finished as the imported goods.

413

Raw materials, free of duty, would be an advantageous commercial
concession to importers who wish to manufacture them.

Several importing houses of this city received from abroad zinc bath
tubs and bracket oil lamps. Now they are supplied with the same
articles manufactured in the country, as good and as handsome as
those from abroad.

All utensils connected with this industry can be manufactured at
home with the exception of one or two articles, which, on account of
the lack of apparatus for the manufacture of the same, would not be
profitable — such, for instance, as frying pans, large bowls or basins,
tinned iron pots and saucepans, for the manufacture of which steam
machinery is necessary.

If a tin factory should be established, protected by the tariff, there
would be no difficulty in suppressing the importation of all these
articles, and the necessary apparatus and machinery would be forth-
coming.

Felix S. Rojas.

Ponce, P. P., March 28, 1898.

The undersigned, manufacturer of all kinds of chocolate, in the
city of Ponce, invited by the Industrial Club to make a report upon
the causes of the obstacles in the way of the progress of this industry,
explains :

MANUFACTURE OF CHOCOLATE.

There are several chocolate factories of some importance in the
island. They produce fine and delicious chocolates of various kinds
and prices. Some fail and others sustain themselves, but none pro-
gress. Why? Because chocolate menier, Swiss, and other foreign
chocolates, under the protection of the Peninsula, which is exempt
from the payment of duty, enter the island with very low duties, under
the present tariff, whilst the chocolate manufacturers of Porto Rico
have to pay 14 pesos for every 100 kilos of cocoa imported from Vene-
zuela or Trinidad.

But even without this duty on raw material, very little of which is
imported, for Porto Rico produces a sufficient quantity of cocoa, and
the product augments daily, the insular manufacture can not compete
with the ordinary chocolate imported from the Peninsula, the greater
part of which is of inferior quality and contains very little cocoa. If
the directors of the board of health should look into this matter and
analyze the product they would doubtless find that much of it is com-
posed of cracker dust.

This is the reason why such fine factories, well furnished with
machinery — such as that of Don E. Cortada, which has cost thousands
of pesos — sleep the sleep of the just, hoping for the day when the
industries of the country will be protected.

This industry needs free entry for the raw materials used in this
business, and an additional tax upon similar goods imported from
foreign countries as well as those coming from Spain.

And this is the petition made by the undersigned.

Pablo E. Arroyo.

Ponce, P. R., March 29, 1898.

414

The undersigned, manufacturers of carriages in this city, present
the following report to the Industrial Club, in order that it may for-
ward the same to the secretary of agriculture, industry, and com-
merce, so that in the discussion of the projected tariff reform the
requirements of the carriage makers may be had in view:

CARRIAGE FACTORY.

This industry has been much depressed since it was established in
Ponce. Many years ago Mr. Hicks, founder of the same, was very
poor, but as his resources improved in Ponce he drew around him a
hundred workmen to whom he taught the trade.

The annulment of the treaty with America in 1894, by virtue of
which the duties on carriages and coaches had been increased, put a
little life into this industry, and to-day there are two magnificent fac-
tories competing with each other in their superior workmanship of
vehicles, as well finished as those imported, and stronger.

A carriage built in either of these factories, it can not be denied,
is as elegant and as durable as any imported. Notwithstanding,
many carriages are imported from the United States which ought not
to be imported when we have such perf ect and well-finished vehicles.

If the importation of carriages could be curtailed, instead of
employing only a little over a hundred workmen, sufficient now to
supply the necessities of the factories, the number could be doubled.
This is what the country needs — workmen. Convert the laborers
into artisans.

If the raw materials for this industry were imported free of duty
we might be better able to compete with the importations from foreign
countries. This, and a higher duty on imported carriages, would
favor our industry and place us in condition to build large factories,
to the honor and prestige of our island.

The articles imported as raw materials for use in this industry are
as follows :

Shins. — Buffalo, morocco, patent leather, rubber or oilcloth of dif-
ferent kinds.

Wooden articles. — Felloes for wheels, spokes, shafts and poles for
carriages, breeching hooks, splinter bars, crosspieces, linchpins for
wheels.

Iron and steel. — Spring braces, axles (iron and steel), screws of
various kinds, clamps, iron and steel tires.

Nickel-plated. — Compasses, lanterns, points for poles and splinter
bars, buttons of various kinds, rods (para ante pecho).

Molds, fans lined with j>atent leather, fans (unlined), paints, and
varnishes.

It is very necessary, furthermore, that manufacturers should be
able to import the raw material which we need for our respective
industries without paying tax as importers.

O. Florensan.
Julio M. Bernard.

Ponce, P. R., April 3, 1898.

MANUFACTURE OF SOLE LEATHER. .

Mr. President:*

We, the undersigned manufacturers of leather, established on the
coast (playa) of this city, declare that the manufacture of sole

415

leather, in which business we have been exclusively engaged for over
thirty years, instead of increasing as would be natural, diminishes
from year to year for the following reasons :

First. The unpremeditated measure of monopolizing the mangrove
trees of the province without any advantage to the revenue, thus
obliging us for the past twenty years to seek, outside of the country,
a material so indispensable to the tanning of leather as is the bark
of the mangrove. It may be estimated that about 30,000 pesos at
least have been expended by us, outside of the country, for the said
material.

Second. Since 1893 we have been taxed 50 cento ves of a peso for
100 kilos of tanning bark imported by us from abroad. This meas-
ure has been greatly to the detriment of the manufacture of sole
leather already so costly.

Third. With our monetary system we have to struggle with the
speculators in raw hides, as they get a premium of from 60 to 70 per
cent on goods in the markets of Havre and Hamburg, and from 20 to
30 per cent on those in the markets of the Peninsula, whilst we have to
pay prices not in accord with the sales. There is not that valid and
legitimate agreement which should exist between manufacturers in
the island for the increase of price, because we are obliged to buy
the raw materials such as mangrove bark and raw hides.

In view of the foregoing, and in order not to witness the decline of
an industry so valuable to the country as is ours, we beg for use, free
from all tax, of the mangrove bark on the coast of the province, where
hundreds of laborers may earn their daily bread and sustenance for
their families. We also ask for the suppression of that item in the
tariff that taxes the mangrove bark which we import from Santo
Domingo and Venezuela; and whilst our present monetary system
obtains we think it logical that an export tax should be levied on
raw hides.

This is the justice for which we plead.

BONGEOIS & BOISSEN.

Ponce, P. R., March 4, 1898.

MANUFACTURE OF LIQUORS.

To the President of the Industrial Club:

The undersigned subcommission, appointed to report on manufac-
ture of liquors, with a view to the advisability of reforming the tariff
in force relating to the branch of industry which we represent, are of
the opinion :

First. That the industry has no present need of greater protection
under the tariff than that it now enjoys, and does not, therefore, ask for
anything further than that the existing tariff shall remain in statu
quo, and that the transitory tax levied on the consumption of liquors,
national and foreign, imported into the island shall remain in force.

Thanks to the aforenamed duties, and especially to the last, that
on the consumption of liquors, which is the only tax on the produc-
tions from the Peninsula, they being exempt from all others, we have
been enabled to develop the local industry in spite of the imports from
Spain, and to compete with her, notwithstanding the advantage which
she enjoys over the foreign markets, on account of the comparatively
low rate of bills of exchange drawn on Spain. This of itself consti-

416

tutes at times a protective margin of from 40 to 50 per cent over
foreign products, and is a great advantage. Should any future modi-
fication in the tariff suppress the tax on consumption, it would be
impossible in future to sustain this branch of our incipient industry.
For this reason the subscribers believe it to be of the greatest
importance that the taxes upon all classes of alcoholic drinks remain
in statu quo. Should the tax on consumption be suppressed, as pro-
posed, it would be necessary to augment the import tax to an amount
equivalent to that of the tax removed.

Second. That for the purpose of further protecting their industry
they beg to suggest the propriety of arousing the zeal of the custom-
house officers to prevent the introduction, under the denomination
of liquors, dutiable at a very low rate, of real alcoholic drinks and
brandies which are subject to higher rates. This is done to evade the
payment of tax on the higher grade of goods and is in detriment not
only to the local industry, the raw material of which is alcohol and
the common brandy of the country, but it is also an injury to the
sugar-cane estates which produce these raw materials.

Third. That while no glass manufactories exist in the island, bot-
tles intended for use in this industry be imported free of duty, and
that this exemption of tax extend to seeds and such other raw materials
as are used in the manufacture of liquors.

Arturo Idrachs.

J. M. Saavedra.

Duran y Coll.

Narciso Vilaro.

Julio E. Prats.

I. Charidox.
Ponce, P. R., March 28, 1898.

SHOE FACTORY.

To the President of the Industrial Club :

The undersigned, in compliance with the call inserted in the news-
papers of this locality for manufacturers to furnish data as they con-
sider advisable to satisfy the requirements of their respective indus-
tries, for the information of the projectors of a reform in the tariff,
have the honor to submit:

That there exists a great difference between the import duties on
shoes and the raw material for the manufacture of the same. The
result of this is that shoes pay 100 per cent less than the raw mate-
rials, for which reason the manufactures of this country can not com-
pete with the imported goods.

Opening the market free to the importation of raw materials, espe-
cially those from Germany, where the best class of goods at the low-
est prices is procured, there is no doubt but that this industry will be
put in condition to attract men of capital to invest money in it, build
factories with machinery, and produce shoes which will compete in
style, price, and quality with the imported article, and at the same
time give occupation to a greater number of workmen, which of itself
would be a source of wealth to the country.

Jaime Homar.
Gabriel Ripoll.
Jaime Oliver.

Ponce, P. R. , March SI, 1898.

417

MANUFACTURE OF CRACKERS.

Report made and presented by the undersigned, manufacturers of
crackers in this city, to the commission of industries, appointed by
the club to present a report relative to the needs of this industry in
reference to the customs tariff as relates to our manufacture of
crackers.

The causes which we justly believe are responsible for the languish-
ment in the manufacture of all kinds of crackers in this country are
principally due to the high tariff on flour — 4 pesos per 92 kilos, or
a sack of flour of that weight. Besides this a local tax is levied on
the consumption at the rate of 2 pesos 30 centavos on the same quantity.
We would call attention to the duties imposed on crackers imported
from North America, which are out of all proportion to those levied
upon flour.

As to crackers imported from the Peninsula, they pay no custom-
house duty whatever, but enter absolutely free of duty. These are
the reasons why this industry has been prostrated to such extent that
it is not now able even to manufacture the most ordinary kinds of
crackers, which were the only tolerable means of subsistence of some
laborers.

Thus, in order that this industry may prosper, it is necessary that
the crackers imported from the Peninsula and foreign countries should
pay an import duty in proportion to that of 6 pesos 30 centavos cus-
toms duty and tax on consumption, levied on a sack of flour weighing
92 kilos.

Besosa Brothers.
Alrizu & Arias.
Bigas Brothers.
Garcia & Colon.
Ponce, P. R., March 23, 1898.

TAILORS AND SHIRT MAKERS.

To the Commission Appointed by the Industrial Club :

The undersigned, tailors and shirt makers, present the following:
The large importation of shirts and ready-made clothing from Europe
to this island, principally to Ponce and to the capital, is the reason
why our industry languishes and declines, more and more, in detri-
ment to our interests.

Notwithstanding the subscribers pay into the municipal treasury
large amounts for the afore-named industry, the merchants pay very
low duties upon shirts, ready-made clothing, collars, and cuffs, which
they import from various points in Europe. This tariff regulation
enables these merchants to sell their goods at a much lower rate than
those manufactured here.

Our shirts and ready-made clothing can compete, with advantage
as to quality and shape, with those imported, and for these and other
reasons our industries should be protected and favored in every pos-
sible manner. With such protection the demand would increase,
prices would be lower, and consequent gain would accrue to our manu-
facturers and workmen.

In order to obtain these results we beg that, in fixing the rates of
duty under a new tariff, there should be borne in mind the above
1125 27

418

explanation — that import duties on all classes of shirts, collars, cuffs,
and ready-made clothing coming from foreign countries should be
increased as much as possible.

We do not doubt that the board, having in mind our best interests,
will favorably consider the present appeal and accord us what we ask.

F. Alsina.

roqlte scarez.

Successors to Pbnzgl.

e. auffaut.
Ponce, P. R., March 28, 1898.

CIGARS AND CIGARETTES.

To the Commission of Manufacturers

on the Projected Tariff Reform:

This tobacco industry of Porto Rico until lately was in an abandoned
condition, owing to great competition with similar products from Cuba
and because there is an erroneous idea that the tobacco of that
country is better than ours. But, as no error is lasting, our tobacco
industry has arisen from its unjust prostration. This is due to the
demand of our leaf tobacco from the sister island, where it is prepared
in their factories with the same results as obtain with Cuban tobacco.

This, in conjunction with the improvement in making cigars and
the practical skill introduced by Cuban and foreign cigar makers, has
caused the tobacco industry of Porto Rico to emerge from its lament-
able illusion that our tobacco was inferior in quality to the Cuban.
Under the new system of cultivation already adopted in some districts
of the island we have been able to prove that the tobacco of Porto
Rico can attain equal excellence with that of Cuba and that our
country has a mine of wealth in the production of the weed as aro-
matic, fine in texture, and as well colored as the best in the world; in
fine, that the tobacco industry of our country may reach at no distant
date equal development, importance, and fame as that of our sister
island.

The importations to our island of cigars and cigarettes from Cuba
approximate 1,500,000 pesos per annum, an amount adequate to insure
the prosperity of our factories if the consumption could be suppbed
by the home industiy. But the Cuban products enjoy free entry into
the markets of Porto Rico, without the payment of any customs duty,
and are only mulcted in the 10 per cent transitory taxes, which amount
to 4 cents per kilo, while the sister island responds to those advan-
vantages afforded by our tariff by closing her ports against our
tobacco because it is to her advantage to do so.

There are now five tobacco factories of more or less importance
manufacturing cigars and cigarettes in Ponce. One of them, recently
established, is run by steam power and possesses machinery and appa-
ratus of the most improved kind up to the present. Together they
give employment to 250 workmen and niay be increased to thousands
when the home industiy is enabled to supply the consumption of the
island and export its products with some advantage. This might be
attained through commercial treaties made by our Government with
foreign countries, above all with the United States of America and
Canada, where our tobacco, in leaf and manufactured, pays an import
tax almost prohibitive.

419

Our filling tobacco, crude, pays in the United States 35 centavos
gold per pound; the wrapper un worked, 1 peso 85 centavos gold per
pound, and manufactured cigars and cigarettes 4 pesos 50 centavos
gold per pound, besides 25 per cent ad valorem.

The whole island seconds the movement just initiated in the tobacco
industry. In Mayaguez and San Juan there are factories which have
adopted the necessary improved methods, and there are over thirty
factories of more or less importance, which are seeking industrial
progress. Some of these are creditable establishments, known for the
excellent quality of their manufactures. We estimate that there are
thousands of cigar makers who now earn their living by the tobacco
industry of the island, and this number might be greatly increased if
under judicious protection the industry should reach the summit of
success.

The more the tobacco industry of the country develops and does
credit to itself the more advantage it will be to the farmer as a product
of the soil. He will have to depend less upon foreign markets and can
with greater confidence invest his time and capital in the cultivation
of tobacco, feeling assured that he will be able to sell it in the island
at a remunerative price.

It is our unanimous opinion, and we therefore waste no time in proofs,
that in the production of tobacco, in leaf or manufactured, Porto Rico
may aspire to a new source of wealth of great importance. It will give
employment to thousands of laborers and cease to pay tribute to Cuba
of nearly 1,500,000 pesos.

This will contribute to the decline in values of exchange in propor-
tion as the product is quoted in the export value.

But in order that this flattering future should be realized and become
a practical and evident fact it is necessary that all the protection
which its well-known importance merits should be given it.

Tax the cigars and cigarettes imported from Cuba to our island in
such amount as to give some advantages to the product of Porto Rico.
In making treaties with foreign countries bear in mind the advantage
of making concessions with such as will favor the importation of our
tobacco, in leaf and manufactured.

These practical measures are, in our opinion, such as will be most
efficacious in securing the development of the tobacco industry in the
island and will guarantee the capital invested.

At the same time such tariff regulations as will encourage the culti-
vation of tobacco on a large scale will itself be a powerful factor in the
increase of the agricultural wealth of the island.

Jose M. Besosa.
F. Tort & Co.
Toro & Co.
C. F. Vaillant.

Ponce, P. R., April 6, 1898.

Proposed Changes in Schedules.

[Committee: Don Javier Mariani, Don Olimpio Otero, Don Domingo Felici, Don Jose Trujillo
Don Antonio Piza, Don Ernesto Mormglane. Subcommittee: Don Ramon Gadea, Don Antonio
Yumet. ]

OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE.

The undersigned, representing the dry goods committee on the pro-
jected tariff reform, have the honor to present the accompanying
report as the result of their labors concerning woven goods, perf umery,
hats, umbrellas and parasols, preserves, liquors, and sewing machines.

420

■Nothing is farther from the thoughts of the committee than the
assumption of having completely fulfilled the difficult task confided
to them, when the importance of the work and the short space of time
in which they had to accomplish it is taken into consideration; but the
undersigned believe that they have done all in their power to fulfill
the noble and patriotic desires of the association, which, having
greater duties to perform, put into such inexperienced hands as ours
.so difficult a task.

In the preparation of this modest work we have observed a tendency
1bo excessive grouping and an evident fear of multiplying the items.

The latest statistics show that the importation of certain articles do
not bear an adequate proportion to the number of similar articles in
constant use in the island, and therefore many subdivisions, which
^complicate the tariff in force without advantage to the revenue, may
may easily be done away.

Another advantage of the mode of procedure adopted here is that in
"the future the doubts which now arrest every attempt made at the inter-
pretation and appreciation of the tariff will not arise. These doubts
often put the merchant at the mercy of the officials, or vice versa, and
it frequently happens that the latter do not possess the quabfications
necessary to fulfill conscientiously the duties for which they were
^appointed.

The foregoing suggestions appear trifling and unimportant when,
from another standpoint, we think of the ease with which frauds are
perpetrated.

On the verge of such an abyss — for we can call it nothing less — which
we are bound to avoid at all hazards, it becomes necessary to remodel
the tariff, as well as the actual necessities of the provincial treasury,
so that they will bear a just relation to each other and to the social
influence which every well-regulated tariff exercises upon the future
<of the commonwealth.

The products which are the subjects of our present investigation
*aa*e, doubtless, among the most fruitful sources of revenue to tne island.
It therefore becomes necessary that the total amount of duties now
:fixed by the tariff should be collected ; but there are some reductions
absolutely indispensable on goods which are of prime necessity to the
poorer classes, and which reductions would enable them to subsist
oinder more advantageous circumstances.

We will not examine here the statistics of the past few years. It
is sufficient to say that they show a flagrant contradiction of state-
ments and figures with the actual facts relating to the import of
textile goods and the intentions of those who framed the tariff in
force.

This contradiction, from the moral and material force of which no
one can escape, is the veiy point which must be cleared with firm and
resolute hands. It is principally to this end that the authors of the
projected tariff have given careful attention.

Without entering into unnecessary details, the undersigned believe
that they have accomplished this purpose by subdividing their work
_in the form adopted.

They dare to affirm and to demonstrate clearly in the note given
herewith that the projected tariff scheme, as drafted, relating to those
articles which have been the object of their studies will give a larger
revenue to the provincial treasury and that all classes of consumers
will derive positive advantage therefrom.

The first object of every well-organized government, having at heart

421

the welfare of its people, should be to have a wisely regulated tariff, so>
that the most perfect civilization would not advise its absolute sup-
pression.

J. Mariani.

F. A. Vendrell.

Jose R. Gonzalez.
Ponce, P. R., April 15, 1898.

Note. — From the statistics for 1896 and the custom-house receipts^
of the island the importation of certain articles comprised in this-
report is given, and estimates are made for future years in an equal
amount. This estimate we have found to be erroneous, as our imports
are constantly increasing. If the native products were accorded the^
maximum protection under the present autonomic constitution, there-
would still result a difference in favor of our project of 387,843 pesos
89 centavos, which sum might be at once applied to a considerable
reduction of the enormous duties now imposed upon flour, rice, and:
other articles of large consumption.

REPORT ON DRY GOODS, FRUITS, LIQUORS, ETC.

Items.

Articles.

Proposed;
duty.

133 and 134

137.

158

139

130

131

133

134.

135.

136

PERFUMERY.

This item, gross weight, is valued at 73 centavos per kilogram. Sole
duty per kilograni-

COTTOKT.

Cotton, raw, cotton waste, and cotton twisted in wicks for can-
dles; valued at $15.50 100 kilograms, only rate, gross weight, per
100 kilograms

Cotton yarn and thread, crochet cord and embroidery cotton, per
gross weight (value of 100 kilograms, $90) per kilogram.

COTTON FABRICS.

Cotton textures of all kinds, smooth or cross-barred, plain or fig-
ured, white or colored, fine or medium fine, light and heavy, up
to 30 kilograms inclusive (approximate value per kilogram,

78 centavos) per kilogram .

Textures of the above class over 30 kilograms (approximate value
per kilogram, $1.56) .per kilogram-
Cotton fabrics, felt, quilts, towels, and bed spreads (approximate

value per kilogram, 91 centavos )... per kilogram .

Cotton fabrics, woven in counterpanes and the like, unbleached,
white, colored, figured, and all coverlets (approximate value

per kilogram, 58 cents) -per kilogram ..

Cotton lace, edging, or simple sewing cotton in whatever article

(approximate value per kilogram, 70 cents) per kilogram.

Fabrics of cotton lace with an edge, with double edge, or without
edge, on whatever kind of article (approximate value per kilo-
gram, $1.95).. -- per kilogram-
Tulle and lace of all kinds, including cardboard and paper lace

(approximate value per kilogram, $3.75).-- ..per kilogram..

Velvets and velveteens and the like, in pieces, ribbons, and s,uit-
ings per kilogram-

Pesos.
0.2(5>

2. so

.25-

REMARKS.

A. The fabrics under items 129 and 130, when figured, to pay a surtax of 25 per cent.

B. Embroidered goods, in pieces or strips, to pay an additional duty of 50 per cent.

C Handkerchiefs, hemmed or seamed, not hemstitched, to pay an additional tax, over that
levied on the texture to which it belongs, of 25 per cent.

D. Readymade or partlymade clothing of materials comprised under items 139 to 136, to pay
sur-tax of 50 per cent.

E. Lace goods, under item 133, are held exclusively to mean such as are finished with a
scalloped edge.

P. Cotton goods mixed with silk exceeding 9 per cent, to pay an additional tax equal to the-
regular duty.
G. Hemstitched handkerchiefs, to pay an additional duty of 50 per cent.
H. Cotton tape, besides the prescribed duty, to pay an additional tax of 35 per cent.

422

Items.

Articles.

Pro-
posed
duty.

163, 164
165....
169,170

171....

172,174
175,179

180,185
186....
187....

TEXTURES OF JUTE AND FLAX, ETC.

Hemp, raw, hackled, or tow, abaca, manila hemp, aloe, jute, and
other vegetable fiber (approximate value per 100 kilograms,
$12.50) - - - per 100 kilograms..

Thread, pack thread, on spools, tackle and cordage of the same
materials, and hempen twine (approximate value per 100 kilo-
grams, $31.80) per 100 kilograms..

Textiles as above, mixed or unmixed with cotton, unfinished,
smooth or crossbarred, although they may have colored stripes,
such as pack cloths, hessian. empty sacks and similar goods, up
to 5 kilograms, inclusive (approximate value per kilogram, 15
cents) — per kilogram..

Fabrics as above, unbleached or partly bleached, with or without
a mixture of cotton; smooth or twilled, such as nankeen, Irish
linen, creas, osnaburg, drill, and other similar cloths, from 5 to
8 kilograms (approximate value per kilogram, 37 cents), per
kilogram _

Fabrics as above, of more than 8 kilograms (approximate value
per kilogram, 98 cents).. per kilogram..

Fabrics as above, white or colored, plain, such as creas, long-
lawn, and the like, up to 21 kilograms, inclusive: and all those
crossbarred or twilled, such as German drill and the like (ap-
proximate value per kilogram, SI. 42) per kilogram. .

Fabrics as above: bleached, but over 21 kilograms (approximate
value per kilogram, S3. 12). per kilogram..

Fabrics of linen lace or of linen and cotton, in all kinds of goods
(approximate value per kilogram, $6.75) per kilogram..

Lace, edging, and netted goods of linen or mixed with cotton (ap-
proximate value per kilogram, $10.20) per kilogram. .

Pesos.
1.00
8.00

.04

.10
.25

.35
.75

1.50
3.00

REMARKS.

I. Fabrics under 169 and 170 ought to show the gross weight separately in order that they
shall not be confounded with those under the item next to them.

J. Tape, linen, or linen and cotton mixed, to pay, besides the duty on the class of weave, an
additional tax of 25 per cent.

Items.

188,190.
191

192,193
194-197

198,199
200-212
213....

Articles.

Bristles, horsehair and other animal' hair, human hair, manufac-
tured and unmanufactured, and raw wool, per gross weight, per
100 kilograms --

Woolen yarns of all kinds, wool, white or dyed, spun or twisted
(approximate value, per kilogram, $1.45) per kilogram..

WOOLEN FABRICS.

Carpets and coverings of all kinds (approximate value, per kilo-
gram, 80 cents) per kilogram..

Felt textures and coverings or rugs and baize in all kinds of arti-
cles, although mixed with cotton, dyed or figured (approximate
value, per kilogram, 75 cents) per kilogram..

Woolen fabrics, mixed with cotton, whatever the weave (approxi-
mate value, per kilogram, §1.90) - per kilogram.

Similar tissues of pure wool (approximate value, per kilogram,
$3.70) per kilogram..

Woolen tissues of lace or netting, pure or mixed with cotton, in all
kinds of goods (approximate value, per kilogram, $3.40), per
kilogram

Proposed
duty.

Pesos.

10.00
.40

.30

.20

.50

1.00

REMARKS.

K. Ready-made clothing of wool, or of wool and cotton mixed, even though only half made, to
pay, besides the duty levied on the weave, an additional tax of 50 per cent.

L. The fabrics should be examined and appraised by measuring from the center the width of
the goods, not including the selvages.

M. The fabrics under items 175-185, when figured, to pay an additional tax of 50 per cent.

423

Items.

Articles.

Pro-
posed
duty.

214,215

216,217

218....
219,220

221

Silk and waste silk, spun or twisted, in hanks and on reels, includ-
ing the weight of the reels (approximate value per kilogram,
$3.75) per kilogram.

Textures of silk or with a mixture of other material, always when-
ever the proportion of silk is not inferior to that of the other
material (approximate value per kilogram §11.80), per kilogram.

Textures of pure silk (approximate value per kilogram, §17.80),
per kilogram

Laces, edgings, blondes, tulles, and the like of pure silk or of silk
mixed with other material (approximate value per kilogram,
§19.80) per kilogram.

Netted tissues of pure silk or silk mixed with cotton or other ma-
terial (approximate value per kilogram, §27) per kilogram.

Pesos.

1.25

4.00
6.00

8.00
10.00

REMARKS.

N. Silk ribbons or ribbons mixed with silk and other materials to pay, besides the tax on the
weave, a surtax of 50 per cent.

O. Clothing of all kinds made up with fabrics under the preceding items to pay a surtax of 100
per cent.

P. Handkerchiefs of silk or of silk mixed with other materials, besides the regular duty, to
pay a surtax of 50 per cent when the handkerchiefs are hemmed or hemstitched.

Items.

311.

337
347.

357
358
359
360

361

362
363
364
365
366
367
368

Articles.

SEWING MACHINES.

Sewing machines, gross weight 100 kilograms (approximate value
per kilogram, 20 cents)

CANNED GOODS AND LIQUORS.

Pish and shellfish, in oil or in other forms, in cans, including the
weight of the immediate package, gross weight (approximate
valtie per kilogram, 35 cents) per kilogram-
Vegetables and garden products, pickles, preserves in vacuo, mush-
rooms, etc., including the weight of the immediate receptacles,
gross weight (approximate value per kilogram, 20 cents) , per kilo-
gram..

Oil in jugs or tins, gross weight ...per kilogram.

Oil in glass bottles, boxed, gross weight - do...

Alcohol and brandy .per liter .

Liqueurs, cognac and other brandies in casks or in demijohns, per

liter

The same in bottles per liter.

Beer and cider, natural or artificial, in casks do

The same in bottles do —

Sweet wines of all kinds in casks. ...do

The same in bottles do

Sparkling wines of all kinds do

Table wines, red or white ..do

The same in bottles do

Pro-
posed
duty.

Pesos.
5.00

.10

.02

2.50

.30

.15

.20
.02
.03
.10
.15
.50
.03
.15

REMARKS.

Q. The consumption tax on alcoholic liquors, sherry wines, beers and liqueurs should be
removed.

R. The tax on receptacles containing the articles as above, whether of glass or of wood, to be
removed.

424

Item.

Articles.

Pro-
posed
duty.

371

374 -

PRESERVED ARTICLES.

Alimentary preserves, not otherwise mentioned per kilog..

Chocolates and candied sweets, gross weight do

BONNETS AND CAPS.

Hats, of yarey or straw of Italy, India, rice straw, and Spanish
straw, finished or unfinished (approximate value, $3.75 to $4 per

dozen) - per dozen. .

Same, of jipijapa, Panama, or other similar straw do

Same, of felt, wool, trimmed or untrimmed and unfinished.. .do

Same, finished do

Hats, of felt or haired felt, of cloth, cashmere, satin, or plush, un-
finished _-_ _ .- per dozen..

Same, finished do

TRIMMED HATS.

Hats, trimmed, for ladies and children, adorned with handwork,

plumes, flowers, tulle, etc each..

Caps and berrets of all kinds, for men and children per dozen. .

UMBRELLAS AND PARASOLS.

Umbrellas and parasols, of silk or mixtures of same each..

Same, of other materials do

Pesos.
0.10
.15

402

403

2.00
6.00

404

1.00

405

2.00

406

407

2.50
5.00

1.00
3.00

.60
.25

GLASS, PAPER, BOOKS, TOYS, ETC.

The undersigned committee, having fulfilled with pleasure the com-
mission intrusted to it, has the honor to present its opinion. With
very little previous knowledge of the subject, but with a will to accom-
plish the work, it has, as far as possible, endeavored to adjust the import
duties to the requirements of the insular budget.

As will be seen, we have been able to follow an opportune and eco-
nomic course with respect to the importation 'of such raw materials as
are necessary to maintain the existing industries and facilitate the
establishment of others. We have lowered the tariff on some articles
in common use, especially by the middle and poorer classes. We have
decreased the duties on paper of all kinds and manufactures, because
it is the essential basis of a thousand mediums of intelligence and
liberty, and we have absolutely put on the free list printed books of
every description for the same reasons, which it is unnecessary to
explain.

We have endeavored also to correct the classifications by reducing
the number of items in order to avoid injurious and cumbersome com-
plications.

In weights, in general, we have provided a greater allowance for tare,
guided by experience, which proves that in many cases great loss is
suffered by neglect to protect the cargo, as well on steamers as on
lighters and wagons.

425

In toys we have made all possible reductions, considering them for
the most part as a stimulus to children and, when properly directed,
as a moralizing factor.

Allowance for tares on glass, porcelain, china, etc., has been in-
creased, because we have observed that in many cases the breakage
is greater than the allowance for tare now in force.

Olimpio Obero.
e. g. moringlane.
Amadeo Gilot.
Ponce, P. P., May SI, 1898.

Articles.

Proposed
duty.

GLASS AND CRYSTAL.

Common hollow glassware, flasks, uncut .. per 100 kilograms..

Glass, flatf , or pavements and window panes, tare, 50 per cent.
Glass, packed in barrels, colored and flat, gross weight.

For expediency we have made a larger average for tare, as
experience has proved that there is greater loss by breakage
than allowed for in the tariff.
Quicksilvered glass, large mirrors, including the frames, per 100

kilograms - -

Same, without frames... per 100 kilograms. .

Allowance for tare, 50 per cent.

The reduction made has for its object allowance for the cost
of packing.
Small mirrors, of all kinds and shapes, ordinary .. per 100 kilograms . .

Tare, 40 per cent.
Glass, for optical purposes, spectacles, statuettes, jars, flower
vases, and other similar articles for toilet purposes and house

decorations per kilogram. .

Tare, 40 per cent.

Wineglasses, goblets, and similar articles per kilogram...

Glass chandeliers with crystal ornaments do —

Glass in wineglasses, goblets, and the like in all shapes for domes-
tic use, and lamps with glass stands per 100 kilograms . .

Tare, 50 per cent.

UTENSILS OF CLAY, EARTHENWARE, AND PORCELAIN.

Clay tiles for floors and roofs, fire brick, etc per 100 kilograms..

Tare, SO per cent.
Glazed clay tiles, square, for paving. do —

Glazed tiles for roofs, tare, SO per cent.
Clay in manufactures, hollow, glazed, or imglazed, for cooking and
domestic utensils. per 100 kilograms..

Tare, 20 per cent.
Flintware, fine earthenware, and gypsum statuettes do —

Tare, 40 per cent.
Note.— This reduction is made in order to encourage the use

White porcelain in all its applications per 100 kilograms.

Tare, 40 per cent.

Painted or gilt china, a surtax of 50 per cent.
Clay, faience, porcelain, and bisque in figures, jars, bas-relief,
flower vases, and ornaments for toilet tables, houses, and other
like uses; liquor cases and dishes for sweets. .per 100 kilograms.
Tare, 30 per cent.

PAPER AND ITS APPLICATIONS.

Cardboard.

Pulp or paste for the manufacture of paper

Printing paper, white and colored, for typography or for stamp-
ing per 100 kilograms.

Writing paper of all kinds, in reams and folded, including the en-
velopes per 100 kilograms-
Surtax on envelopes, 50 per cent.

Books, bound or unbound, those pointed in Spanish or other lan-
guages

Stamped paper, forms for invoices, tickets, cards, and similar
objects, printed, engraved, or lithographed, in one color, per
kilogram .._ -

Paper, stamps, maps, and drawings per kilogram .

Chromolithographs, oleographs, etc., in three or more colors, on
cards, tobacco packages, and other articles per kilogram-
Wall paper on natural ground and printed on dull or glazed
ground. .- per 100 kilograms .

With gold, silver, etc do

Pesos.
2.00

17.50
8.00

8.00

.30

.30
.30

450

.45

.72

.90
2.50

4.50
.30

Free.
2.75
6.00

Free.

.20
.20

• 70

6.00
24.00

426

Item.

235

236
337

239

240

82.

250-251

297....
298....

299....
300....

396

378
379
380
238

22..
381.

3S3

381

86
385

Articles.

paper and its applications— continued.
Cardboa rd— Continued.

Sandpaper, white and ordinary wrapping paper, straw paper,
blotting paper, thin yellow wrapping paper, parchment, per
100 kilograms - -

Thin paper of common pulp for packing fruits .. per 100 kilograms ..

Music paper, lamp and fire screens, drawing paper, and other
paper not in the tariff per 100 kilograms..

Pasteboard and fine cardboard.

Pasteboard and fine cardboard glazed and pressed in sheets,
per 100 kilograms •

Same, cardboard in sheets, ordinary pasteboard articles, and those

of stone cardboard in unfinished articles per 100 kilograms..

Same, in finished articles per kilogram. .

Thin sheets of tin and lead per 100 kilograms..

Note.— Paper in all its applications being a prime element to
facilitate education, we have endeavored to lower the tariff.
Catalogues of all kinds, without commercial value

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUS.

Violins, violoncellos, double basses, viols, clarinets, fiddle bows,
mouthpieces, hautboys, flutes, fifes, terceolas, flageolets, etc.,

per 100 kilograms..

Musical instruments of brass, such as drums, trumpets, baritones,

helicons, cornets, etc.. per kilogram..

The same instruments nickle plated do

Pianos, grand _ - each..

Other pianos of from 5 to 8 octavos _._ -__.■ do

Small pianos for practice, up to 4 octavos do

Harmoniums and organs. per 100 kilograms. .

Hand organs - do

Musical boxes do

Military musical instruments, drums, double basses, kettledrums,

and cymbals per kilogram..

Accordeons . per 100 kilograms..

Toys of all kinds, except those of tortoise shell, mother-of-pearl,
ivory, gold, or silver, including mouth organs, .per 100 kilograms.

Fans, with sticks of bamboo, cane, or wood per kilogram.

Same, with sticks of paste, bone, and horn.. do...

Same, mounted on tortoise shell, ivory, or mother-of-pearl. -.do.--

Fans of palm leaf, pasteboard, with advertisements, per 100 kilo-
grams.

JEWELRY.

Ornaments of gold, silver, platinum, in trinkets and .jewelry, even
if set with precious stones, pearls, and precious jewels andpassa-
menterie of such metals, ad valorem

Trinkets and ornaments of all kinds in amber, jet, tortoise shell,
coral, meerschaum, ivory, mother-of-pearl, and paste, and other
similar materials ._ per kilogram.

Same of whalebone, horn, gutta-percha, bone, paste, in imitation
of the preceding classifications, and of other metals, whether or

not gilded or plated per kilogram.

Note. — The materials used in the manufacture of these trink-
ets are generally of such low price that they are excluded from
group 381.

Amber, horn, jet, whalebone, tortoise shell, coral, meerschaum,
ivory, and paste, in the rough or cut, even in strips or sheets,

per kilogram _

These are considered as raw materials.

Amber, jet, tortoise shell, coral, ivory, and mother-of-pearl, man-
ufactured ..per kilogram.

Horn, whalebone, bone, and paste, manufactured, including tooth
brushes per kilogram.

Buttons of all kinds, except those of gold and silver do

Walking sticks and 'umbrella and parasol handles, per 100 kilo-
grams

427

HARDWARE, LEATHER GOODS, ETC.

The committee appointed by the official chamber of commerce and
the Industrial Clnb has the honor to propose the following reforms in
the tariff of the island :

Glass or crystal lamps or chandeliers, under item 15, ought to be
combined with item 12, at 6 pesos 50 centavos, and not 52 centavos
per kilogram.

Machetes for agricultural purposes, of all kinds, should be appraised
under item 307, at 1 peso 10 centavos per 100 kilograms, as agricul-
tural implements.

Files, under item 48, should be appraised under item 58, at 3 pesos 75
centavos.

French or screw nails, so called, should be appraised under item 47,
at 250 pesos.

Iron shovels, appraised under item 56, at 4 pesos 10 centavos, should
be incorporated with spades, under 307, at 1 peso 10 centavos per 100
kilograms.

Iron hooks and hinges, which at manufacturers' price cost 1 peso 75
centavos per quintal, are appraised under item 56, at 4 pesos 10 cen-
tavos per 100 kilograms, and we think, therefore, that the duties
should be reduced one-half.

Iron locks for doors, under item 57, at 6 pesos per 100 kilograms,
should be appraised under item 56, at 4 pesos 10 centavos, as ordinary
manufactures.

Common pins and hooks and eyes, appraised under item 62, at 1.50,
should be appraised under item 78, as wrought iron, brass, at 30
centavos.

Scissors, under item 64, at 90 centavos, should be incorporated with
item 48, at 11 centavos.

Knives and forks with handles of iron, whalebone, bone, or compo-
sition, appraised under item 55 at 40 centavos, this duty being more
than the original cost, we beg that they be appraised under item 48,
at 11 centavos.

Linseed oil, under item 88, appraised at 9 pesos 70 centavos, should
be appraised under item 87, the same as cocoanut and palm oil, at 5
pesos, net weight only.

Varnishes, being of little cost and appraised under item 99, at 9
pesos, we think that the tax should be reduced to one-half, paying
only net weight.

Paints, in powder, prepared, and inks, appraised under 100 and 101,
should be taxed, instead of 2 pesos 90 centavos and 5 pesos 95 centavos,
at 2 pesos 50 centavos per 100 kilograms, net weight.

Woven-wire bed springs, appraised under item 249, should be
appraised as spring or wire beds, under item 53, at 2 pesos 85 centavos
per 200 kilograms.

Leather belts for machinery, appraised under item 312 at $4.90, and
afterwards under item 288 at 47 centavos, we think that as those
articles are only applicable to machineiy used for sugar cane and
coffee, they should only be appraised under 312 at $4.90.

Saddles, straps, stirrups, and the like articles, for harness manu-
facture, not patent leather, should be appraised under 287 at 23 cen-
tavos, instead of under 288 at 47 centavos, because this duty is in
proportion to the cost.

Tanned or dressed skins, patent leather, under item 272, at 80 cen-
tavos, should be appraised under item 271 at 45 centavos, because these

428

goods belong to the same class, and the fact of being varnished does
not change the first cost.

Wagon sidepieces and rods for poles, spokes, felloes, and hoops for
carriages, uncovered, we think should be appraised under item 248,
at 12.14, because the hoops and poles are similar to broom handles or
clothes poles, and should be included under the same head, instead of
appraising them under item 249, at 19.50, which only applies to com-
mon furniture.

Carriage wheels, being of common wood, should be appraised under
common furniture, to which class we think they belong.

All furniture of common wood, including wickerwork and bent wood,
not veneered, though with cane seats and backs, should be appraised
under item 249 as common furniture.

Buttons of bone and metal, appraised under item 386, at 75 cen-
tavos, is altogether too high a rate, and such articles should be appraised
at 30 centavos per kilo.

The tare allowed on hollow glass should be increased to 70 per cent
in place of 40 per cent.

Jose Trujillo,
Mariano Vidal.

Ponce, P. R., April 6, 1898.

RULES, FINES, ETC.

The committee appointed by the official chamber of commerce and
the Industrial Club has the honor to propose the following reforms
in the customs tariff of the island :

Article 4-0. — Omit exception in regulation 3 "that textiles and
opium can not enter to order " as other merchandise of lawful com-
merce.

Regulations 10 and 11. — Word in the following manner: "If ship-
owners, supercargoes, or consignees notice on the countersigned
manifest, presented by the captain, any error, they should notify the
customs collector of the port, who will receive and amend the mani-
fest within twenty-four hours after the arrival of the vessel."

Article 1^8 . — Concludes as follows : ' ' Unless said manifest shall have
been amended within twenty-four hours of the arrival of the ves-
sel." It should be edited to read: "At the expiration of twenty-four
hours, more or less, after the arrival of the vessel, the captain must
present a copy of the manifest, in Spanish, properly stamped, to the
collector of customs, who will cancel said stamp by the affixture of a
seal. The fact that the twenty-four hours limit may expire on a
holiday shall be no hindrance to the presentation of the manifest.
The captain of the vessel will also deliver, at the port of entry, the
manifests of cargoes intended for other ports; these will be counter-
signed bj7 the collector of customs and returned to the captain upon
the clearance of the vessel.'"

Article 62. — Add: "When the fines and surtaxes imposed upon
the captain shall exceed the value of the freight, the consignee will
have the right to renounce the consignment and the custom-house
will proceed against the vessel, by notifying the consul, if the vessel
is foreign, and proceed to recover the liabilities incurred by the cap-
tain."

Article 63. — The consignee, if he thinks proper, may present one

429

declaration only to cover all the goods on the manifest, separating' the
merchandise to be forwarded to warehouses, and furniture or goods
to he deposited, and he may request an extension of three working
days instead of forty-eight working hours.

Article 65. — Omit regulations 10 and 11 provided for in Article 40.

Article 68. — All merchandise of lawful commerce, whether or not
consigned to order, may be declared in transit for another part of the
island, or for some place not in the island. The consignee should
apply, in writing, to the collector of customs for transit before declar-
ing the merchandise "for consumption." In such case the director
or collector will file in the office a list of the merchandise declared in
transit for another port. Omit the rest of Article 68.

Article 69. — Vessels may begin to discharge the cargo as soon as the
consignee makes the required application, which must not be delayed
longer than forty-eight working hours from the time of the arrival of
the vessel. The collector, in cases that seem to him justifiable, may
extend this time forty-eight hours longer.

Article 75. — Omit the last paragraph, referring to a vessel that has
stopped at some foreign port and from the cargo of which packages
containing opium and textiles are missing.

Article 87. — Section 4: The consignee shall ask for the opening and
examination of packages of damaged goods, in order to judge of the
allowance to be made on the same, in the payment of duties.

Article 101. — Omit the second section, which reads: "That the port
to which the goods are consigned shall not be the same from which it
sailed nor any of those at which it has stopped en route."

Article 103. — Transshipment will be allowed in all cases, even when
the goods come consigned on the captain's manifest to some certain
person.

Article 106. — Omit section 4 of case 6, which relates to the abandon-
ment of prohibited merchandise.

FINES.

Total receipts from fines imposed shall be covered into the treasury;
one-half of the same to be used for repairs and improvements of
custom-house buildings and offices.

Article 149. — Oasel: Lower the fine to 1100. Case 2: Lower the
fine to $5 for each. Case 3: Lower the fine to $10 for each. Case 4:
Lower the fine to $10 for each. Case 5: Any difference found in the
weight, exceeding 10 per cent, more or less, of the gross weight, shall
be fined double the amount of unloading duty, if the captain is found
to have disregarded the stipulations relating to the manifests. Case
6: Omit. Case 7: Fix the fine at 10 pesos. Cases 10, 11, and 12: Fix
the fine at twice the duty. Case 13: Double duty. Case 14: Lower
the fine to 300 pesos. Case 15 : Lower the fine to 10 pesos per package.
Case 16 : Double the duty in both cases. Case 17: Fix the fine at 300
pesos. Case 19: Double the duty.

Article 150.— Case 1 : Fix the fine at 25 pesos. In other cases double
the duties.

Article 151. — The fine for the presentation of the manifest beyond
the limit of time specified will be 2 per cent on the duties imposed for
the first eight days and 4 per cent for further delay. In other cases
under article 151 the fine will be double the duty.

Article 153. — Case 1 : Double duties.

Article 151/.. — Cases 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5: Ten pesos fine.

430

Article 156. — Case 1: Ten pesos fine for each package. Case 2:
Double duty.

Article 157. — Case 5: Ten pesos fine per package or double duty.

Article 158. — Double duty.

Article 183. — Claims for unintentional errors made in the assessment
of duties will be considered if presented before payment of the same;
and if found valid, the appraisement will be amended by a second
appraisement.

Article 189. — Omit the distribution of packages and turn the same
over to the treasury.

Article 144- — The president of the board of arbitration will be the
municipal alcalde. The president will have a casting vote in case of
a tie.

When the merchant has failed to receive an invoice, he ma}* ask for
an examination of the goods, and in such case will pay 5 per cent
additional duty.

E. Salazar.
C. Armstrong.

E. G. MORINGLANE.

DRUGS, MEDICINES, ETC.

[Report submitted by the committee on drugs and pharmacy for the consideration of the com-
missioners appointed to advise on tariff reform.]

First. Medicinal elixirs, being pharmaceutical products, should not
have a special item, and instead of appraising them under item 115
they should be included in item 116, to which they belong.

Second. It is neither just nor equitable that sugar candj*, as entered
in the tariff, should pay a duty which amounts to no less than 300 per
cent more than the original cost, and. we think that this article as
well as sweet pastilles and gum drops, the principal ingredient of
which is not medicine, should form a separate item under which the
duty should be assessed at 6 pesos per 100 kilograms.

Third. Antipyrine, and other aromatic substances, being chemical
products, it is a mistake of our tariff to class them under item 105,
which included the alkaloids and their salts, with which the former
are not allied; therefore, antipyrine and other products of that class
should be appraised under 117, to which they properly belong.

Fourth. Item 88 should be included in 87, because the first cost
of the oils, to which both items refer, is at about the same market rate
as those appraised under 87.

Fifth. There is little equity in the appraisement of pharmaceutical
products; on some articles the rate is as high as from 50 to 100 per
cent, while on others it is as low as 25 per cent on the first cost. It
follows, therefore, that many articles of equal cost can not be sold for
the same price, and it is unjust that the wrappers, packages, etc.,
should be rated as high as the contents. As it is impossible to
restrict the importation of specialties to which the public are accus-
tomed, we propose to amend item 116 in such manner that the high-
est rate will not exceed 25 centavos per kilogram, and, like the former
tariff, the products, to which said item refers, should be appraised at
net weight.

Sixth. Item 115 should be included in 116, because capsules, pills,

431

and comfits are medicines which constitute first specialties, defined as
wine, tonics, or sirups, etc., mentioned in the second.

Seventh. Item 115 has been erroneously interpreted by some of the
customs employees. They have held that such articles as Pelletier
capsules, from the mere fact that they are manufactured with an
alkaloid, should be rated as alkaloid. For this reason it is necessary
to give attention to the matter and show that the said capsules have
a definite medicinal formula, that they belong under item 115, and
such interpretation of the item can not be justified. Now then, as in
the preceding paragraph, we ask for the incorporation of items 115
and 116, and we think that Pelletier capsules should be appraised
under the latter.

Eighth. We consider the rate under 89, of 6 pesos per 100 kilograms
on spirits of turpentine, as excessive. On account of the low price and
extensive use of the article we think it should not pay over 3 pesos
per 100 kilograms.

Ninth. We beg the suppression of item 94, so that all seeds, roots,
and grains used in medicine may be rated under item 91.

Tenth. The frequent use of aniline colors has caused a notable
reduction in the price of indigo blue and cochineal, for which reason
these articles might be rated under item 98. We think, also, that
articles now overcharged under item 102 should be rated under 98.

Eleventh. Alkaloids and their salts being overcharged in the ap-
praisement (12 pesos per kilogram), we ask that the rate be reduced
one-half.

Twelfth. Glue, gelatin, glycerin, and sealing-wax, being articles
used in manufacture, and bearing in mind that all the protection
which can be afforded to industry redounds to the benefit of the coun-
try, we think these articles should pay 3 pesos per 100 kilograms.

Thirteenth. Abolish items 113 and 114 and let the articles embraced
in these items, along with borate of soda, be incorporated in item 107,
to which class they belong.

Fourteenth. Perfumed vaseline should not be considered as per-
fumery ; it is a very cheap product, and we think it should be classed
under item 8 when in packages of 1 pound and over.

Fifteenth. Distilled waters, such as lettuce, lime, rose, etc., being
only used in preparations put up in a pharmacy, should not be
appraised under 116, as at present; these waters are very cheap and
should not jjay over 8 centavos per liter.

Sixteenth. Cod-liver oil, purified, is an animal product used in
medicine. If its price were lower it would be within the means of
many persons who now are deprived of its healing properties, and we
think, therefore, that it should not be rated under item 116, but under
95, to which it legitimately belongs.

Seventeenth. Fluid extracts, the use of which has become so gen-
eral, are solutions of solids, and therefore should be appraised under
item 116, which refers to such articles, unless a reduction is made in
the tariff of from 50 to 70 per cent.

Eighteenth. Essential oils, most used in pharmacy, are very heav-
ily taxed under item 124, which also embraces fine perfumery. We
consider this surtax unjust, and believe that a reduction of 50 per
cent should be made on the duties now paid.

Antonio Yumet.
Ramon E. Gadea.

432

FOOD STUFFS, MACHINERY, ETC.

The undersigned, having been requested to report upon the princi-
pal articles of export embraced in the customs tariff of this island,
and also upon the principal imports, such as provisions, lumber, coal,
cement, machinery, etc., for the purpose of fixing a basis which, in
their opinion, should regulate the projected tariff rates, and to sug-
gest means of securing commercial treaties with certain countries,
have concluded the duties accepted by them, and report :

I. — Export Duties.

The principal articles of export produced in this island are as fol-
lows: Coffee, tobacco, sugar, and molasses; to which might be added
salt, an excellent quality of which is produced in the salt mines of
Cabo Rojo and Guanica. This last is an industry which is capable
of great development if placed under favorable circumstances.

Products now exported through our custom-houses pay duties as
follows, per 100 kilograms.

Export.

Cargo.

Total.

. $1.00
.22
.15

Free.

SO. 10
.10
.10
.07*

.10

$0.10

.32

.25

.07i

.07*

Salt -

.10

The committee is of opinion that export and cargo duties on the
products of the country should be entirely abolished; the more so
because real estate contributes to the State 5 per cent of its revenue
and to the municipality 7£ per cent, making a total of 12% per cent.
It follows, therefore, that all export duties collected are a great bur-
den to the producers, who in years when the crops are short and the
prices low find great difficulty in covering their expenses and paying
the direct taxes.

Export duties are paid solely by the producer. The merchant,
agent, or exporter, knowing the market prices of export articles,
naturally deducts from the price of the goods paid to the farmer the
export duties and cargo dues, which logically should not be part of the
first cost.

The export and cargo duties paid by the producers of said articles
in the year 1896 were as follows :

Cargo dues on sugar $44, 081. 00

Export duty on coffee - §266.621.94

Cargo dues on coffee 26, 662. 06

293, 284. 00

Lumber, both duties. _. - - 75. 15

Tobacco, both, duties 3, 222. 25

Molasses, cargo duty .. 10,962.00

351,624.40

If the present condition of the treasury of Porto Rico does not
admit of the immediate abolishment of these duties, a gradual reduc-
tion might be made, beginning the first year after an agreement has
been had, by abolishing the duties on all grades of sugar, lumber,

433

tobacco, molasses, salt, and other articles exported except coffee. In
the second year the cargo duties on coffee ought to he abolished, and
in ten more years the export duties might be abolished on this product
at the rate of one-tenth part per annum.

II.— Import Duties.

The articles imported, to which our report refers, are:

Pesos.
Wheat flour: In 1896 there was imported kilograms 15,400,000 — import

and unloading duties, at $4.10 per 100 kilograms 631,400.00

Wheat: 318 kilograms, at $3.25 per 100 kilograms, both duties 10. 33

Corn: 50,000 kilograms, at $3.25 per 100 kilograms, both duties 1, 625. 00

Corn meal: 30,000 kilograms, at $4.10 per 100 kilograms, both duties ._ 1, 230. 00
Pork and lard: 4,700,000 kilograms, at $4.60 per 100 kilograms, both

duties ---- 212,200.00

Rice (hulled): 32,000,000 kilograms, at $2.88 per 100 kilograms, both

duties 896,000.00

Butter and beef suet (or grease): Of the 141,028 kilograms imported,
94,780 were from the peninsula. The total amount paid for duties on

cargo and imports was ....-- 3, 787. 00

Jerked beef: 3,524,116 kilograms, at $2.45 per 100 kilograms— cargo and

import duties 86,341.00

Codfish and other salt fish: 86,369 kilograms, imported from Spain, ex-
empt from import duty; 728,714 kilograms, imported from the United
States; 11,974,462 kilograms, from English possessions. The two
latter paid import duties at the rate of 90 centavos per 100 kilograms,
which, with the unloading duty of 10 centavos per 100 kilograms,

amounted to.,. - 128,675.00

Olive oil in tin cans:

1,175,808 kilograms, imported from Spain, free from import duty:

unloading duty -. -. 1, 175. 80

1,660 kilograms from other countries, at the rate of $3.55 per 100

kilograms, both duties. . . - - 74. 04

Olive oil in bottles:

13,640 kilograms, imported from Spain, free from import duties;

unloading duty 13. 64

6,304 kilograms, from other countries, at the rate of $5.35 per 100

kilograms, both duties 337. 26

Cheeses:

16,008 kilograms, from Spain, free of import duties; unloading

duty 16.00

311.872 kilograms, from other countries, at $15.10 per 100 kilo-
grams, both duties 47,093.00

Casks and hogsheads (for sugar and molasses, set up or not): 3,170,000

kilograms, at 28 centavos per 100 kilograms, both duties 8, 876. 00

Barrels, made or unmade: 174,000 kilograms, at $2.24 per 100 kilo-
grams, both duties 3, 723. 00

Lumber, common, in boards and other pieces: 38,000 cubic meters, at
$1 per cubic meter, plus 10 centavos for each 100 kilograms (transi-
tory duty) 80,472.00

Lumber, planed or dovetailed: 5,652 cubic meters, at $2.20 per cubic

meter, plus 10 centavos per 100 kilograms 18,086.00

Mineral coal: 32,561,151 kilograms; import duties only, at 33 centavos

per 100 kilograms - 10,740.00

Cement: 878.943 kilograms. Of this number of kilograms 241,393 came
from Spain, at 5 centavos per 100 kilograms, and 637,550 kilograms

from other countries, at 50 centavos; both duties _ . _ . 3, 627. 00

Machinery for the manufacture of sugar: 1,587,166 kilograms, at 75

centavos per 100 kilograms; both duties - 12, 905. 36

Machinery, apparatus, tools, and agricultural implements: 190,724 kilo-
grams, at' $120 per 100 kilograms; both duties 2,497.00

Motors, boilers, etc.: 152,325 kilograms, at $2.60 per 100 kilograms;

both duties 4,106.25

Copper machinery and detached pieces: 12,490 kilograms, at $15.10 per

100 kilograms; both duties .-. 1,780.00

1125 28

434

With regard to the articles above referred to, the committee are of
opinion:

First. Import duties should be collected only on the net weight,
deducting the weight of the inner or outer covering, as follows:

Meat; lard; unhulled rice, wheat, corn, and flour of these grains;
jerked beef and codfish; oil and olives; cheese and butter.

The packing cases should only pay duties when they are likely to
become of commercial value when emptj7, in which case these packing
cases should be subject to duty under their respective items of the
tariff. If the value of the packing case proves to be less than the duties
assessed, and the circumstances justify it, a reduction of 20 per cent
on the actual value in the island of the packing case should be made
in the appraisement.

Casks, hogsheads, and barrels should pay duty per gross weight in
the cases in which they come, according to the tariff.

As to mineral coal, cement, and machinery, motors, and boilers of
all kinds, the committee think that, so far as the exigencies of the
treasury of the island permit, the import duties should be reduced,
and on food products the reduction should be made as low as possible.
As far as preference is concerned it should be given to the articles
cited by us as follows : (1) Wheat flour; (2) unhulled rice; (3) jerked
beef; (4) pork and lard; (5) olive oil and olives in all kinds of pack-
ages; (6) cheese; (7) butter!

Codfish and other salt fish may continue to pay the same duties as
at present.

We think that wheat and unhulled rice should pay half the amount
of duty assessed upon wheat flour and hulled rice.

Casks, hogsheads, and barrels might be reduced 5 per cent of the
present duty.

There is no reason why lumber and cement should not continue to
pay the same duties as at present.

Machinery for sugar works and for other purposes, sugar estates
and farms, including copper machinery and the like for similar pur-
poses, ought in our opinion to be free from duties.

We also think that the same exemption should be accorded to other
machinery, apparatus, and agricultural implements, as well as to min-
eral coal.

On steam engines of all kinds and boilers for generating steam we
think there should be a great reduction in the tariff; the import duties
should be reduced to about 25 per cent of those now paid. If still
greater reduction were possible, we would agree to have it made.

As regards locomotives and material for railroads, we would reduce
the duties to one-third of those now assessed.

We would also reduce by one-third the duties on copper machines
and combinations not intended to improve agricultural products.
(For this purpose we have asked that such articles be put upon the
free list.)

Detached pieces of machinery of all kinds should be appraised
under the items, respectively, to which the completed article pertains.

III. — Treaty with the United States.

If the North American Republic should concede a reduction of 20
per cent in duties on the importation of tobacco, sugar, molasses, and
salt from Porto Rico, we might in turn concede to that country cer-
tain reductions in the tariff, so that the total amount would be approx-

435

imately equivalent to the reductions made by the United States on
the products of Porto Rico.

A proper estimate of the reductions to he made might he arrived at
by taking into account the difference in money values of the two coun-
tries, and a rate might be estimated and fixed until the standard is
changed in some positive manner.

An account will be kept of the amount reduced each year, and for
each dollar in gold of the sum total of duties reduced in the United
States on the products of Porto Rico an allowance will be made here
of 1.76 pesos. That is to say, if the total reductions made in the
United States in one year on the imports from Porto Rico amounted
to 100,000 pesos, the amount of reductions in our country would be
176,000 pesos on the products of the United States imported into
Porto Rico.

A. This basis, referred to in the preceding paragraph, should be the
initiatory work of the framers of the treaty, and every five years
thereafter the proper reciprocal estimates should be made.

B. If the average of exchange should appreciably and permanently
change, the consequent changes would be made in the rates of exchange,
without loss of time, in order that the reciprocal arrangement might
be effective and advantageous to both countries.

The treaty may be annulled by giving notice three months in advance
of such intention, but during that time the tariff shall not be altered
to the injury of the products of either country.

Until notice of annullment of the treaty be given the same shall
continue in force, although subject to the changes indicated in Para-
graphs A and B.

Porto Rico will reserve the right to make similar treaties with other
nations, importing the products of the island, which will give it
equivalent advantages. Such treaties will be based upon the same
terms as those entered into with the United States.

IV. —Relations with the Peninsula.

The reductions made in the tariff in Porto Rico on the products of
the Peninsula should necessarily be compensated by proportionate
reductions made in Spain and the adjacent islands on the products of
Porto Rico imported by such places. The total reductions made by
one country should equal or approximate those made by the other
country, always keeping in mind the difference in money values whilst
such difference exists.

The total amount of reductions made in the island of Porto Rico in
favor of the products of Spain should be made in Spain and the adja-
cent islands in favor of the products of Porto Rico — such as on sugar,
molasses, and coffee — in such manner that the said concessions could
prove absolutely reciprocal. It would not be fair to continue our
present rates, for whilst the products of Spain pay little or no import
duties here, those of Porto Rico are heavily taxed in the Peninsula to
the extent of being almost prohibitive.

There should be but one rate of customs duty for both countries,
and not as it happens, that, under the term "consumption" or other
similar terms, a surtax is levied upon the first import duties.

V. — Dues on Loading and Unloading and the Customs Duty on Con-
sumption.

The first two should be abolished and the third incorporated in the
import duties.

436

With the foregoing we close our report, which is based upon careful
and conscientious study of the points embraced in it. Nevertheless
we are bound to consider the necessities of the public treasury if the
circumstances demand certain modifications.

Carlos Armstrong.
J. M. Mora.
P. J. Rosaly.
Ponce, P. R., April U, 1898.

HOW TO HELP AGRICULTURE.

The undersigned, commissioned to suggest measures which should,
in the interest of agriculture, serve as a guide for drafting a new
tariff and making commercial treaties to be celebrated with the United
States and Canada, herewith submit to your judgment the following
considerations :

This committee believe that it would be advisable to reduce con-
siderably the import duties paid on provisions coming from those two
countries.

The total imports from those two countries in 1894 amounted to the
value of 6,290,218 pesos 35 centavos; of this sum the value of food
articles was 4,376,257 pesos 73 centavos, or more than two-thirds of
the whole amount. Based upon these figures, the reduction in the
tariff would have to be considerable in view of the necessity for lower-
ing the price of living in the island and bettering the condition of the
poorer classes. But the subject is worthy of consideration, and the
committee believe that such purpose might be used as an argument
for obtaining from the Governments of the United States and Canada
markets for such product of the island as sugar, coffee, tobacco,
hides, live stock, fruit, etc., under more favorable conditions than
those existing.

The committee also believe that, with the exception perhaps of the
Peninsula, the United States and Canada are the natural markets for
the products of the island, and nothing should be left undone to
place this island in the most advantageous position possible with
those countries.

With regard to tariff the undersigned believe that whatever tends
to facilitate the cultivation and improvement of the products of the
country, and the introduction of the same into foreign markets, with
the least possible expense, should be exempt from duty. In this
class would come agricultural implements, etc.

At this time, when the production of cane sugar is brought into
competition with beet sugar, a product which enjoys a bounty of 1 peso
80 centavos, provincial money, for each 50 kilograms exported, and
now that this bounty has so stimulated the production of. beet sugar
that it has almost driven cane sugar from the markets of the world,
with a consequent decline in price, it has become necessary to
retrench our expenses by investing less money in modern apparatus.
During fifteen years of high prices the production of coffee in the
world has almost doubled; from year to year the price has declined,
and, from all appearances, will continue to decline year by year.
Under these circumstances, the committee think that agriculture
ought to be aided to sustain itself and should not be burdened with
duties which, besides being unjust, are suicidal. Satisfied with this

437

view, the committee recommends the following as a basis for the
drafting of a new tariff relating to these subjects:

(1) That machinery, spades, and mineral coal be exempt from duty,
as they were in the tariff of 1882.

(2) That the import duties now paid on sacks, staves, and wooden
hoops, from whatever source, be reduced 75 per cent.

(3) That loading and export duties paid on the products of the
island should be abolished.

The undersigned believe that if the suggestions submitted' are
adopted, as well as those to be made by the other committees appointed
to consider other branches, they will tend materially to improve the
agricultural interests of Porto Rico, and, although perhaps not perti-
nent to the business in hand, the committee believe that they are in
duty bound to point out that the natural market for the products of
the island is that of the peninsula, to which we are united by the ties
of history, race, religion, and customs, and that in order to bind still
closer these ties of union between the mother country and this island
a common interest should be encouraged.

It is not sufficient that our products enter the peninsula free of
duty so long as taxes under the name of "consumption" are levied.
Under this duty sugar pays 33^ pesetas plus 10 per cent and coffee 60
pesetas per 100 kilograms.

Such prohibitive duties place these articles beyond the means of the
poorer classes and have a fatal tendency to drive away the export com-
merce of the island to other markets than Spain. This is shown by
the following figures :

Total exports of coffee and sugar in 1894-

Coffee.

Sugar.

To Spain .

To foreign countries

Total....

Kilograms,

5, 568, 284

17,341,405

Kilograms.
13,781,281
32, 839, 858

22,909,689

46,621,139

We are all victims of this exorbitant tax. The people of Spain are,
for the most part, deprived of one of the necessaries of life on account
of its artificial price. This island is deprived of its natural market
where, at least, it should be protected, and the treasury is deprived
of this source of revenue because the high prices caused by the tax
curtail the importation and consumption of articles which, under a
more liberal regime, would largely contribute to the finances.

The committee are of the opinion that for the good of both the
mother country and Porto Rico the import duties on articles imported
from this island into Spain, if not abolished altogether, should at least
be considerably reduced.

And, Mr. President, in spite of their inadequacy for the task, the
commissioners believe that they have fulfilled their task as representa-
tives of the agricultural wealth of the country.

Gusto Cabrera.

Jose Serra.

E. Wellenkamp.

Rafael Collazo.

Felix Jauri.

Luis Rubert.
Ponce, P. R., April 5, 1898.

438

THE TARIFF AND PORT CHARGES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 26, 1898.

Mr. T. G. J. Waymouth, of the house of J. T. Silva & Co., San Juan,
P. R.:

Dr. Carroll. I want to ask you about the customs. Do you under-
stand that the same customs are levied now, practically, as were levied
previous to the occupation of the island b}r the Americans, except that
the duties collected from goods coming from Spain are precisely the
same as those from other countries?

Mr. Waymouth. That is my understanding of it.

Dr. Carroll. Formerly you collected a very small tariff on Spanish
goods?

Mr. Waymouth. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. I have had an intimation that the business men of
Porto Rico consider this tariff too high; that they would like a reduc-
tion of 50 per cent in it, and that that reduction ought to be made
immediately ; also that there ought to be a removal of certain port
charges which are now in the nature of an embargo. Do you regard
the rates now charged too high and onerous to the merchants and
people of Porto Rico?

Mr. Waymouth. I consider all the duties on machinery double what
they ought to be — perhaps more than double.

Dr. Carroll. Is that true of any other articles?

Mr. Waymouth. Articles like flour pay too high a duty and I think
most of them could be reduced without doing any harm to the island.
There was formerly a heavy duty on American flour, so that practi-
cally it had to be shipped to Spain and from there reshipped to Porto
Rico. Now, of course, it will come direct from the United States,
but the dutjr is too high still. Formerly the duty was something like
$4 a bag; now I believe it is $2 a bag.

Dr. Carroll. You get it as cheaply as under Spanish sovereignty?

Mr. Waymouth. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think of any other articles that ought to be
reduced?

Mr. Waymouth. I don't think of any at the present moment. I
only have in mind now those principal things — flour, which is the
principal article of consumption imported into the island, and machin-
ery, which we need in order to develop our industries. To import a
piece of machinery for grinding sugar or coffee you require to be
almost a capitalist. It is very expensive, not only because of the
freight charges, but because the duties are enormous.

Dr. Carroll. Where has the island been getting its machinery
from chiefly?

Mr. Waymouth. They are getting it from England and France;
also from the United States, but not so much for sugar plantations.
They seem to prefer here the English mills for grinding cane.

Dr. Carroll. Is the English cheaper?

Mr. Waymouth. Yes ; they get boilers from the United States ; also
telephones and telegraphs. The bridges of the island have been
imported principally from Belgium. I think the tariff should be
reduced about 50 per cent all round. I believe the increased impor-
tation which would result would compensate for the loss of revenue
by the reduction.

439

Dr. Carkoll. Yon have also a duty on exports. Is it desirable to
continue that?

Mr. Waymouth. That is a question of calculation after you con-
sider the budget. You will figure that the administration of the island
costs so much, and then you can select such means of revenue as may
seem most convenient and desirable to produce the amount required.
The ambition of the people here is, however, that there should be free
trade between the island and the United States.

Dr. Carroll. Could you make up some of the necessary amount
for purposes of administering the affairs of the island by some form
of internal revenue?

Mr. Waymouth. No ; I think it would be unwise to have any more
internal revenue.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think any of the present internal taxes should
be wiped out altogether?

Mr. Waymouth. I do, and I believe that will be necessary to build-
up the country.

Dr. Carroll. We have a successful system of revenue tax adopted
for the purpose of paying war expenses. Under this system a stamp
is required to be put upon every telegram, bank check, deed, mort-
gage, contract, etc., which distributes the burden equally.

Mr. Waymouth. That is just. Our internal-revenue law will have
to be looked into, because, up to the present, it has been very loose.

Dr. Carroll. Who can give me the most accurate and full infor-
mation as to the stamp and other taxes that have been imposed,
licenses, stamps on merchants' books of account, etc. ?

Mr. Waymouth. I will tell you how that is done. They generally
divide the merchants into groups which they call gremios. The first
gremio includes the bankers and importers and exporters ; the second
gremio would be importers who are not also exporters; then there
would be a gremio to take in the coffee houses. The Government says
we require so many thousands of dollars. This amount is divided
among the various gremios, and each gremio is required to produce
the amount assigned to it. The gremios call meetings and each
gremio adjusts the amount to be paid by each person included in it,
which amount is arrived at by taking the proportion of business that
is done.

Dr. Carroll. Who apportions the several amounts to the gremios?

Mr. Waymouth. The secretary of the treasury. .

Dr. Carroll. Is the amount, as between the gremios, equitably
apportioned?

Mr. Waymouth. Not generally. The Government is only concerned
with getting the money and does not care whether the apportionment
is equitable or otherwise. The apportionment is changed from year
to year.

Dr. Carroll. Was there any tendency on the part of the Govern-
ment to discriminate?

Mr. Waymouth. No; they got the money where they could, but
there was a tendency among the gremios to squeeze each other.

Dr. Carroll. How was the collection of the amounts made — was
it farmed out?

Mr. Waymouth. After agreeing upon the amounts in the gremios
the collection was made by the Spanish Bank.

Dr. Carroll. There were revenues that were farmed out.

Mr. Waymouth. Yes; stamp revenues.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not a fact that a tax is collected on all produce
f every kind brought into the city?

440

Mr. Waymouth. Yes; that was another tax. I would like to speak
of another matter. I refer to the port charges which are collected
here under the new order of things. These charges are extremely
heavy. They collect at the rate of 20 cents on each net registered
ton; that is, 20 cents on vessels arriving from a foreign port and 2
cents on vessels arriving from any other port of the island. Vessels
coming here to take on cargo — usually tramp vessels — run all around
the island wherever there is coffee, sugar, or other cargo, and pick it
up at the different ports. But if each vessel has to pay 20 cents a ton
at the first port and 2 cents a ton at the others they will not be able
to come to the island to look for cargo.

■ Dr. Carroll. As a matter of fact, how do you ship your exports of
coffee?

Mr. Waymouth. There are several lines of steamers. There is a
German line, and there is also a French line, of which our firm are
agents here in Porto Rico. But these steamers won't be able to come
to Porto Rico if these duties continue. This port charge is new.
Formerly vessels arriving at any port in Porto Rico paid $1 a ton on
the cargo discharged.

Dr. Carroll. Was that too heavy a charge, in your judgment?

Mr. Waymouth. That was not complained of. If a vessel dis-
charged, say, 100 tons, the charge would be $100, but the steamship
companies generally protected themselves by laying that duty on the
importer of the goods. Consequently the vessel did not really pay
that duty. For instance, a French vessel seldom brings more than 50
tons for Porto Rico. That would mean $50 distributed among all
the importers. But if a vessel of that kind had to pay 20 cents on its
net tonnage — which is usually about 3,000 tons — the charge would be
excessive. This 20-cent charge is new and is in substitution of the
$1 charge on cargo discharged.

Dr. Carroll. Is it your opinion that there should be free trade
between Porto Rico and the United States?

Mr. Waymouth. Yes, absolutely free. I am an Englishman and
am in favor of free trade altogether.

Dr. Carroll. You believe that on principle; but aside from that
do you regard it as proper and desirable that there should be no
imposts on exports or imports between the United States and its own
possessions? You are aware that Canada levies a duty on goods
received from England.

Mr. Waymouth. That is the Canadian idea. They do it- in order
that they may develop their industries side by side with the United
States.

CHANGES DESIRED.

Statement by Senor Miguel L. Arsuaga, of the firm of Sobrinos
de Esquiga, San Juan.

The customs tariff and regulations for ports in Porto Rico, issued
by order of the United States, contains this regulation :

Trade between ports of the United States and all ports or places in Porto Rico
in control of the United States, and trade between ports and places in Porto Rico
in control of the United States, shall be carried on in registered vessels of the
United States and in no others.

For every passenger transported and landed in violation of this regulation the
transporting vessel shall be subject to a penalty of $800.

By the Spanish regulations all foreign Aressels might take passen-
gers to all ports of the island, as in some periods few steamers pass

441

by, and when rainy weather comes on the roads become almost impass-
able, making- traveling over land very difficult and troublesome. For
this reason facilities for travel by sea are important.

ENTRANCE AND CLEARANCE OF VESSELS.

Should any packages or articles named on the manifest be missing on the
arrival of the vessel, the latter shall pay a penalty of $1 per ton measurement,
unless such deficiency shall be satisfactorily explained or accounted for.

It is rather strange that a big vessel should pay more penalty than
a small one for the same fault. I think it ought to be even. A large
ship may get more freight than a small one, but the proportion of
missing goods is larger. There is the same question about the deliv-
ery of the manifests twenty-four hours after the arrival of the vessel.

TONNAGE DUES.

On each entry of a vessel from a port or place, except from another port or
place in Porto Rico in possession of the United States. 20 cents per net ton..

On each entry of a vessel from another port or place in Porto Rico in possession
of the United States, 2 cents.

Under this tariff all vessels have to pay according to their net reg-
istries, whether they bring much or little cargo. Formerly this charge
was more reasonable. Then we paid $1 on each ton of merchandise
imported or exported, but now we have to pay generally or always
more than what it should be, for vessels never discharge here half a
cargo nor take half a load.

Besides, most of the steamers, or nearly all of them, with cargo for
the island of Porto Rico call first at San Juan. Therefore we have to
pay always 20 cents, and only 2 cents at the other ports. This is not
equitable. We would be the losers if these regulations were carried
out for any length of time.

Also some vessels come here in ballast for orders, they being cleared
in like manner for another place in the island. However, they have
to pay half of the said tariff, though they would have had nothing to
pay under the old "landing charges."

CUSTOMS TARIFF.

This tariff is rather high in general, especially for a good many
articles which we were accustomed to receive at a very low rate of
duties, viz, 10 per cent for goods coming from Spain. This sudden
and extensive change will affect very much the prices of the articles
in the market and necessarily the consumers. A good many of them
can not stand it very well, especially the poorer classes, and some of
those a little better off. Most of the articles are necessary articles
here, such as Spanish rice, onions, garlic, olive oil, beans and pease
(garbanzos), potatoes, chestnuts, nuts and filberts, fruits, water-
melons, grapes, raisins, wines, cider, dry goods, hardware, etc., and
no doubt a reduction of the tariff by 50 per cent would have a very
good effect on general trade and the people in the island. Otherwise
they will suffer very severe consequences, for commerce is light and
living will be high if goods must be sold at enormous prices. If we
have to pay these high, duties, workmen will require more wages.
Consequently, it will make everything higher, contrary to the interest
of all concerned. Most of the articles imported here can not stand
an increase in price, for few people can pajr more; and our exports are

442

so burdened with charges and meet so much competition in the mar-
kets that they can not bear anymore expenses of production. I refer
to sugar, coffee, tobacco, molasses, etc. On the contrary, it is recom-
mended that charges on the same be reduced, so that we may compete
favorably in the produce markets abroad, instead of obtaining very
small profits or even suffering losses on most of the articles exported
for consumxDtion in America and Europe.

TAXES COLLECTED BY THE CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION.
CONSUMPTION TAX ON BEVERAGES.

The consumption tax on beverages has been increased so much now
that hardly anybody can take a drop of any liquid, especially of com-
mon wines, red or white, to which drink our people have been accus-
tomed at meal times, however small the quantity. In future they
will be deprived of these drinks. Beer is high, so also are other
liquors, such as gin and hollands, cognac, brandy, etc.

Formerly the Spanish wines paid 10 per cent of the current duties,
and the consumption tax on Spanish beverages was smaller than now;
consequently selling prices were low and equitable. As a rule there
is no excess committed in drinking in this island by any class of
people.

Export tariff for the island of Porto Rico.

Coffee _ per 100 kilograms-. SI. 00

Wood do .15

Tobacco .... .do .22

These articles and sugar are the principal productions of the colony,
besides molasses, rum, etc., and though their exporting dues are not
heavy, still it would be convenient to reduce them as much as possible
or make them free, so that their exportation may be increased con-
siderably, with great benefit to our agriculturists, tradesmen, etc.

MANUFACTORIES.

Besides the sugar, coffee, rum, and tobacco works, we have in the
island some match factories, ice, electric-light, and gas works, etc. Also
we have an oil refinery, which was built in 1890 and was very much
helped by the Spanish tariff as an important industry in the country,
the same as the match works, for it employs many workmen. All the
materials of this oil refinery have been imported from the United
States of America, also the engineers for erecting same, besides the
coal required every year — about 1,000 tons — all the crude oil, acids,
all necessaiy things for running the refinery, and thus giving employ-
ment to American vessels. In landing and taking to the refinery
some benefit is afforded to lighters and lighter men. Labor is also
required to ship the refined oil to the different ports of the island.
Therefore it would be well to pay particular attention to the welfare
of all these industries on which so many people live.

This oil refinery is called the " West India Oil Refining Company"
and belongs to the " Standard Oil Company," of New York City, where
all the capital invested is American. Consequently we hope it may
continue working under tariff protection as heretofore, viz, fourteen-
fif teenths of a cent (gold) per gallon on crude oil less than on refined oil.

In case the refinery should be obliged to close for want of tariff pro-
tection very few refined-oil importing houses would be benefited by
it, and for each person benefited fifty would be the losers.

443

Formerly the prices of oil were higher, but owing to the erection of
the refinery they went down, the consumers getting the benefit. It is
very important to keep up the refinery.

PORTO RICO PRODUCE EXPORTS.

SUGAR.

It is a very important question for our agriculturists that sugar,
molasses, and rum should be admitted free of duties in the United
States, for the prices obtained for these articles for some years past
have been so poor, after deducting the dues, freight, and charges,
that very little or no margin is left for the producer. Any help in
this way would be very much appreciated by all parties concerned.

The prospects of our coffee going to the States are poor, on account
of competition with the Brazilian grades, which are much inferior to
and cheaper than ours; therefore it is desirable to have some pro-
tection for our article in the United States against other foreign
coffees.

Porto Rico has been in the habit of supplying the Cuban markets
with various kinds of coffee, but especially with the common or
inferior qualities, and now we hear from Havana that they will be
unable to buy our low grades if prices are not lowered a great deal;
otherwise they will import from the United States and Mexico.

Our molasses goes to the United States and Canada, but prices
obtained are not so good as they ought to be, considering the cost of
production and charges. The reduction of duty is solicited as a good
measure for this country.

Some bay rum is exported to the United States and other countries.

RUM.

No white rum is exported to the United States. If customs dues
over there were not so high, it would be a good thing to make some
shipments, as it is produced in fair quantities, but nothing profitable
can be done under the present tariff. Most of the good grades of
molasses are exported from this island and the balance is kept here
for rum-making purposes, for the consumption of the colony.

The production of tobacco is an important industry. The leaf has
been exported until now to Spain, Cuba, and Germany. For the future
it is necessary to secure some good markets in order to avoid a heavy
loss to this territory.

MAIZE.

We produce, too, a fair quantity of corn, which is sent to Cuba, the
balance being used here for horses and mules. There are also some
other productions in the island of less importance.

COASTING VESSELS.

It would be well, we think, to change the registry of coasting ves-
sels and schooners from the Spanish to the American flag quite free,

444

without having- to pay any customs duty for this change, as this island
has become an American possession. For such an allowance by the
Government at Washington small shipowners here would be exceed-
ingly obliged.

SPANISH TARIFF NOT BASED ON SOUND ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 4, 1898.
Mr. Manuel Fernandez Juncos, a resident of the island forty
years :

Dr. Carroll. Have you any suggestions to offer regarding the
tariff?

Mr. Juncos. It is very necessary to institute a new customs tariff.
The present one does not follow any economic or scientific rule what-
ever. It puts a heavy duty on articles of food of the kind most required
for the island's consumption and on the drugs most necessary in this
island for the preservation of health. For example, the sulphate of
quinine — without which 20 per cent of foreigners would die in this coun-
try before a great while, and many of us also, it being the principal
medicine here — is subject to a duty of $12 per kilo, and other useful
medicines pay duty in proportion. A larger dutj^ is levied on maps
and educational appliances than on playing cards, which are instru-
ments of vice. This tariff, it is fair to say, is our old tariff, which
has been adopted by the new government.

I think that articles of everyday consumption should be placed at
a much lower rate than they are at present, and articles of luxury
should have a correspondingly heavy rate of duty. Under the Spanish
tariff silk and diamonds paid a very heavy duty, but for seven years
not a cent has been collected under these heads ; every piece has been
imported contraband. This also shows the unscientific provisions of
the tariff. If the duty had been made reasonably low, people would
not have been tempted to smuggle those articles, and their importa-
tion would have brought into the custom-house a substantial sum of
money each year.

SPANISH TARIFF DUTIES EXCESSIVE.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R,, October 31, 1898.
Mr. Andres Crosas, an American citizen, for many years engaged
in business in Porto Rico :

Dr. Carroll. Have you any fault to find with the present tariff
and the new port charges?

Mr. Crosas. Yes. ^Ye are as bad off as in the time of the Spaniards
or worse, though I am positive that the Government of the United
States will eventually fix the matter right. I have not lost hope. The
Government is situated like a man who has moved into a new house.
It always takes a couple of months before eveiything can be put in
order.

In the matter of dry goods, for instance, all of it that came here
from Spain paid little or no duty; the rest came from England and

445

France. When I was a boy I commenced life here as a clerk. I used
to import American shoes here, and I was making money. When
they found it out they put a high duty on American shoes.

You can not heat a Spaniard in some things. He won't invent for
you a telegraph or a sewing machine or an electric battery; but a
Spaniard will beat anybody inventing red tape to serve him in the
accomplishment of some end. Spaniards have a great deal of diplo-
macy. When they really want to do a thing they will go over the
Rocky Mountains to do it, and when they don't want to do it a little
straw will stop their progress.

Dr. Carroll. It has been suggested to me that about a 50 per cent
reduction of the tariff would be a wise thing as a present measure of
relief.

Mr. Crosas. I think it would be.

Dr. Carroll. General Brooke said he thought such a reduction
might greatly reduce the revenues; but would it not increase the
amount imported?

Mr. Crosas. It would greatly increase the imports, and so make up
the deficiency, and at the same time be a benefit to American manu-
facturers. I think, if we are admitted as a Territory, everything from
the United States should be admitted, here as domestic goods. That
is another thing I happened to hear about that I want to mention to
you. It appears that Nova Scotia has proposed to the United States
to allow American vessels to fish and bait in Nova Scotia waters if the
United States will allow the free introduction of her fish in Porto
Rico. Well, allow me to inform you that the best market for codfish
is the island of Porto Rico, and the people of Nova Scotia don't want
to lose it. I can not but think it would be well to collect a small duty
on Nova Scotia codfish, mackerel, and hake.

FAVORABLE TARIFF ON IMPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES.
STATEMENT OF SENOR ALKIZU, OF PONCE, P. E.

The tariff on imports from the United States should be 25 per cent
of that levied on foreign imports. This measure is necessary in order
to provide cheap food for our laboring classes.

The best producing lands of the island are taken by sugar and cof-
fee plantations, thus leaving the poor lands to raise corn and vegeta-
bles for home consumption. Until the country gets roads to the
interior, which will afford means of transporting cheaply articles of
food produced there to the coast cities, the laboring classes must
depend on imports for their food supply. Therefore the reduction
recommended is a just and politic measure.

A WORKINGMANS OPINION ON THE TARIFF.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 4, 1898.
Mr. Santiago Iglesias. I think the Government should impose
heavy duties on all luxuries, such as wines, and everything conducive
to pleasure and vice, by way of recompense for low duties on food
products imported for the benefit of the working classes.

446

Dr. Carroll. Do you include tobacco among the articles of luxury?

Mr. Iglesias. Yes. I think the Government should impose pro-
tective duties on all manufactured articles so as to protect the embry-
onic industries which exist here at present for at least a certain term
of years. After these industries are in shape to look after them-
selves the}7 could enter into competition with other markets. I think,
regarding custom-house matters, that the Government should allow
the introduction of food stuffs at a very small duty to lower prices
for the laboring man.

MEASURES PROPOSED.
STATEMENT OF MERCHANTS AND BANKEES OF MAYAGUEZ.

To abolish all export duties levied now on coffee and other products
of the island. (This refers especially to coffee, because the coffee
planters will not be favored by the high duties existing in the United
States on foreign sugar and tobacco; also, the only markets for the
lower classes of our coffeee, Spain and Cuba, are probably lost forever,
and any measures taken to support the coffee planters would certainly
be highly appreciated.) To allow the manufacturers themselves to
import their raw materials. (Under the Spanish law nobody could
import unless he paid taxes to this effect, and the petition is made
that all manufacturers shall be allowed to introduce raw materials,
even if they are not licensed as importers. )

The foregoing proposals represent the views of 32 firms of Maya-
guez, comprising all the large firms and most of the smaller ones.

LOWER DUTIES ON FOODSTUFFS.
STATEMENT OF ENRIQUE DELGADO, SAN JTJAN.

The tariff should receive careful study. It must be remembered
that the custom-house still produces a large income here; but as the
budget will be greatly reduced, the tariff should be made to corre-
spond so as not to burden the country uselessly. So as to cheapen
living for the working classes, such articles as flour, lard, bacon, cod-
fish, and others should receive all the reduction possible. Spanish
products, such as are not produced in the United States, should also
have consideration, as this would not prejudice commerce in the Union,
and large quantities of Spanish goods are consumed here. Wines
should not pay so heavy a duty as imposed under the provisional
tariff, which imposes a heavy consumoduty as well as a duty of import.
The consumo duty should be abolished and a duty imposed which
would leave a margin of protection for the wines of the United States.
Export duties, which bear ultimately on agriculturists, who are in need
of help, should be totally abolished. On modifying the tariff to meet
requirements of the budget it may be necessary to impose some dutj7
on articles of prime necessity, in which case products of Porto Rico
should be allowed free entry into the United States; or, if that is impos-
sible, then sugar and tobacco should be favored as much as possible
and other produce and products of the island allowed free entry.

The tonnage due of 20 cents on other than American ships is too
high, especially as there is a lack of bottoms, and foreign ships can

447

not carry freight or passengers from here to the States or Cuba. If
there were sufficient American shipping this tax would be natural and
logical, but as it is it is only a hindrance to commerce, which is free in
all countries, and especially in the American Union.

Attention should also be given to the heavy licenses under which
merchants are suffering, which should be abolished. No other taxes
should be imposed in the island but custom-house duties and taxes
on urban and rural property.

THE TARIFF REVISED.

The Porto Rican tariff was revised by the Hon. Robert P. Porter,
special commissioner to Cuba and Porto Rico, in accordance with
the preceding recommendations, and promulgated by an Executive
order issued January 20, 1899. Mr. Porter stated in his report accom-
panying the revision that the new rates were framed on a revenue-
yielding basis of 15 per cent ad valorem, although it must not be
inferred that all the schedules were uniformly 15 per cent.

SPECIAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER ON THE NEW TARIFF.

San Juan, P. R. , February 17, 1899.
The Secretary of the Treasury.

Sir: The reduced rates of the new tariff, Class XII, comprising
food stuffs, are recognized as of great benefit to the poor people. Rice
and flour, two indispensable articles on every table, now pay low
duties compared with those levied heretofore. Rice, on the gold
basis at the rate of $2 to $1, paid $1.85; it now pays 60 cents, a reduc-
tion of about 68 per cent. The old rate on flour, in gold, was $2; it
is now $1, a decrease of 50 per cent. Pork comes in at upward of
40 per cent less; cheese at 60 per cent less; beans and pease at 56
per cent less; lard at about 25 per cent less. On the other hand,
hams are increased from $1.85 to $3.50; bacon from $2.25 to $2.40,
and butter from $3.37 to $4.20. The increase in building materials
is a disappointment. It was hoped that a reduction would be made
in these articles in order that the building of good houses might
be stimulated. Cement, which is a very necessary article here, pays
60 cents now where it paid 25 cents. Galvanized iron pays 20
cents more; cast iron, in ordinary manufactures, 65 cents more, and
other building materials have been slightly advanced, considering the
change in the money rates. The removal of the duty of 55 centavos
on native crude oil, and the increased duty on the refined oil from $1.55
to $4, calls forth some comment- It is believed, however, that the
prices of oil will not be advanced. On the contrary, the agency of
the oil refinery here has issued a circular announcing a reduction in
price of oil from 1 to 17 centavos on 8-gallon, of from 10 to 18 on 9-
gallon, and of from 20 to 40 on 10-gallon packages, according to qual-
ity. It is said that the oil refined here is not as good as that imported.
The reduction in cotton goods is especially welcome. The great
majority of the people wear cotton fabrics of a cheap class, and the
decrease in price will be a boon. Woolen and silk goods will prob-
ably come more freely into use as the result of the cutting down of
duties on them.

448

Following is a translation of some observations in a mercantile bul-
letin, prepared by one of the leading importing houses here, on the
new tariff:

Business is not moving with the rapidity desirable, and we do not think there
will be any real improvement until military government ceases and until a civil
administration shall give a stable government and the legislation so necessary to
inspire capital with confidence. The solution given to the money question,
although incomplete, improves the situation as tending to introduce the gold
standard in private transactions, already existing in State transactions, and help-
ing to give stability to exchange.

The new tariff reducing, considering the duties on articles of prime necessity,
betters the conditions of the poorer classes, who form the majority of our popula-
tion, and the cheapening augments the consumption, thus increasing the volume
of business.

The suppression of export duties is another of the improvements of the new
tariff whose benefit requires no demonstration, and will relieve somewhat the
losses suffered by the low price of coffee and the want of markets for our tobacco.

The maritime traffic in our ports has increased somewhat lately, owing mainly
to the number of transports which enter and leave with troops and effects for the
Government more than to merchant shipping, the amount of which has been
reduced.

We miss very much by the consumption of goods by the troops and civil employees
under the last Government. These are now supplied by the United States and
pay no duty whatever, establishing an improper competition with merchants to
their prejudice. For this reason the market is fully stocked.

Henry K. Carroll,

Commissioner.

FURTHER REVISION DESIRED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 2, 1899.

Mr. Doria (mayor). I have a lumber yard and wood-working fac-
tory. I am very much astonished to see that free entry has not been
granted in the new tariff for machinery coming from the United States.

Dr. Carroll. It was not asked that agricultural machinery be free.
We reduced it a great deal. We did not make it free, but we made
agricultural implements free.

Mr. Doria. Yes; but it is necessary that all kinds of machines
should be free.

Dr. Carroll. The duty on them has been reduced a good deal.

Mr. Doria. This country especially needs to build up its industries.

Dr. Carroll. The revision of the tariff was with that object par-
ticularly in view, and also to favor the poor classes with cheaper food
stuffs and cheaper cotton goods, and of course we have had regard to
the necessity of income from customs, so as not to cut off too much.
We cut off the consumption tax; we cut off the export tax, the cargo
tax, and we reduced the duty on food stuffs and on most of the neces-
saries of life; but we had to retain a tax on machinery and other
things, enough for the necessary revenue.

Mr. Doria. In my opinion — and I don't wish to criticise the persons
who drew up the tariff — the best way to assist the poor is to allow fac-
tories to spring up, as they give employment to a large number of
people.

Dr. Carroll. There is no question about that.

Mr. Doria. I have been studying the tariff, and I think some items
might have been retained ; but on machinery the duty could have
been cut off. Some items pay more than they did before ; for instance,
cement, which is indispensable.

449

Dr. Carroll. I made representation about cement. It was not
according to my recommendation that it was increased, but we found
various conflicting interests to consider. For instance, the carriage
makers wanted everything going into the construction of carriages
brought in free, and at the same time they wanted the old duties on
carriages increased, although the duty on berlins was $350. If we
had done what they asked we would have given enormous advantage
to the carriage makers at the expense of the people. These things
must be held in equilibrium.

Mr. Doria. That is not protection. Protection means protecting
the whole people.

Dr. Carroll. The shoemakers and the carriage makers wanted us
to let in leather free of duty and levy an embargo on the exportation
of hides. You see they did not care anything about the interests of
the tanners. So we had to decide between those conflicting interests.

Mr. Doria. I have a shop in which there is considerable machinery,
costing a great deal of money; and while it would not be an advan-
tage to me to have machinery brought in free, I nevertheless would
like to see it brought in free to enable people to start industries.

TARIFF.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 7, 1899. -

Mr. Felici. There is a question in regard to the surcharges in the
tariff that I want to speak of. I refer to paragraphs 117 to 174.
Under the old tariff white cloths or calicoes or muslins or, in fact, any
textile fabric was charged by weight, with a surcharge for print of
colors and for manufactured articles made from these textiles. Under
the new tariff these goods are paying an ad valorem duty, and the value
taken for the basis of imposing duty would include the matter of
printed, colored, or manufactured textiles; the surcharge really is a
double charge and is not, therefore, proper.

Dr. Carroll. Do they so rule in the custom-house on importations
of that kind, as a matter of fact?

Mr. Felici. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Then you pay more for printed muslins than you did
before?

Mr. Felici. The actual amount is less; but we pay a double sur-
charge and too much in proportion for the printed textiles. I think
that in the condition in which the country now is the duty on flour
should be removed altogether — on that one article only.

Dr. Carroll. The price of bread has come down immensely; it is
down to 4 cents in some parts of the islands where formerly it was 8
and 9 cents.

THE MONEY QUESTION.

PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER.

In submitting the accompanying papers and interviews, I must
explain that they were gathered upon a somewhat brief visit to Porto
Rico, during which several other very important subjects were inves-
tigated. Ail classes are represented.

1125 -29

450

The metallic money now in circulation, according to the estimate of
the Spanish Bank of Porto Rico, consists of about 86,000,000. "When
the exchange of Mexicans for the colonial peso was made in 1895 the
amount paid out was:

In pesos $5,561,000

In fractional silver . _ .. 1,015,000

In copper coins - 70, 000

Total 6,646,000

It is estimated that upward of $600,000 in coin was taken to Spain
by Spanish soldiers when they left the island, the Government at
Madrid promising to receive these pesos at par.

The fractional silver consists of 40, 20, 10, and 5 centavo pieces;
the copper coins of 1 and 2 cent pieces.

The volume of paper money in use it is difficult to ascertain. For-
merly the Spanish Bank of Porto Rico, which has a monopoly in the
issuing of notes, had between $2,500,000 and $3,000,000 in circulation.
But it is stated that recently the greater part of this has been retired.
If $1,500,000 be taken as representing this form of currency, we have
a total of $7,546,000 of native money in the island. It is impossible
to sajr how much American currency is in circulation. It is intimated
that the old dies for the pesos and 40-centavo pieces have been
brought into use, and that new coins of these denominations are being-
manufactured and introduced as money. Evidently such a business
would be profitable at the present price of silver bullion, with the
peso bringing about 60 cents American.

The manner of exchanging the Mexican for the provincial system
in 1895 was this: The Government fixed upon a date in December
when it would receive at various convenient places in the island the
Mexican dollars. The exchange was made by means of a "billete de
canje," or exchange note, pi-ovided by the colonial minister of Madrid.
To these notes were attached coupons. Each note and coupon bore
the same number. As many of the notes were given out as Mexican
dollars were offered, the coupons being retained. When these notes
were presented they were paid with the new colonial pesos. A series
(in my possession) of these notes, with coupons attached, showing
that they were never used, are variously numbered from 4,729,378 to
4,729,514. Evidently considerably less than five millions of these
notes were required. So little did the Government know of the
amount of money in circulation in the island in 1895 that it was sup-
posed that some $20,000,000 or $25,000,000 of new coins would be
required to make the exchange.

Opinions on the currency question in Porto Rico are naturally
divided into two classes, those favoring a high valuation of the peso
and those favoring a low valuation. Tho'se who have considerable
amounts of cash or of credits feel it to be a matter of simple justice
that the rate of exchange should not be fixed at a figure which would
rob them of their capital and at the same time reduce the volume of
money in circulation below the needs of the island. The managers of
the Spanish Bank of Porto Rico, the only bank in the island permit-
ted to issue paper money, asks for a high valuation for the peso, hold-
ing that an American dollar is worth only 33^ per cent premium over
native money, and that the peso should be valued at 75 cents.

The Territorial and Agricultural Bank of Porto Rico, which loans
money on mortgages by issuing bonds, mainly to agriculturists,
agrees to this rate. As the peso is not redeemable in gold and is a

451

legal tender only in Porto Rico, and is therefore worth ultimately only
its value as silver bullion, which is at present less than 40 cents, this
proposition fixes its commercial rating at nearly twice its intrinsic
value, and fixes it higher, too, than the average rate of exchange for
the seven years ending with 1897. The average for those years,
according to the table given by the bank, was 45.45. This period, it
should be noticed, included three years when the exchange was very
low, at a lower point than it has touched since. In 1895, the last year
of the Mexican dollars, the average rate had risen from a little more
than 21 in 1891 to nearly 68. Moreover, the colonial peso is of less
weight and fineness than the Mexican peso, which it superseded. It
would seem, therefore, that 75 cents is an extreme value to place on
the colonial money, even with the prospect of an early fall in exchange,
which is confidently predicted by some of the bankers.

It will be observed that the bankers, merchants, and agriculturists
of Ponce and Mayaguez, large and prosperous cities on the south and
west coast, have agreed with substantial unanimity on $1.50 for $1
American as an equitable rate. They unquestionably represent exten-
sive money and business interests, though the capital is the financial
center of the island. They propose that the peso shall be received for
retirement at the value of 66f cents American.

The borrowers, among whom the agriculturists must be considered
as the chief class, ask for a low valuation of the peso for various rea-
sons. The money they have borrowed has cost them dearly. The
rate of interest has been high, ranging from 9 up to 24 per cent, and
in many cases they have not really seen the money, but got the values
in machinery, stores, and credits on debts. Those who borrowed of
the Agricultural Bank got bonds, or cedulas, which brought from 80
to 90 per cent of their face value. The way of the borrower has been
hard, unquestionably, particularly in the past two or three years. If,
for example, he borrowed to pay for purchases made abroad, he not only
paid a high rate of interest and had to submit to a discount of 10 per
cent or more to get cash on his cedulas, but he had to pay a high rate
for exchange. United States Consul Hanna refers to an instance
where, in June last, when exchange rates were phenomenally high,
owing to the war, a planter borrowed 10,000 pesos to save his estate.
He agreed to pay 12 per cent interest on the mortgage, which is to run
for five years. Mr. Hanna says that, according to the rate of exchange
at that time, he only received in value from the bank about $4,000.
This is true, undoubtedly, if he was compelled to buy exchange;
but if he used the sum to pay debts or make purchases in the island
there could have been no such large percentage of loss, for insular
prices were not increased to any very great extent during the brief
war. If the money was used to pay debts, it Avas as valuable as it
would have been in the previous year, when exchange was considera-
bly less than half as high. If the money was used to pay for pur-
chases abroad, the transaction was a ruinous one and must be set
down as one of the hardships which war imposes upon a people the
ultimate value of whose silver currency in the markets of the world
is the price it will bring as bullion. The commercial value of the
peso in the business affairs of the island has, it is claimed, been rea-
sonably stable.

Those who ask that the peso be allowed a value of only 50 cents
emphasize the disadvantages under which the borrower labors as an
argument in support of their proposition. This disadvantage is due
in part to the small volume of money, in part to the extremely limited

452

banking facilities, and doubtless, also, in some degree, to the risks
which lenders assume in accommodating agriculturists. It would be
hardly fair to charge all these disadvantages to the lending class.
The colonial money has an ascertainable value apart from these con-
siderations. If, for example, a banker lends to-day 10,000 pesos, no
matter what rate of interest he bargains for, is he not entitled to have
the 10,000 pesos back when the mortgage falls due? Suppose this sum
to have been lent in 1896. The average rate then was SI. 56^ to $1.
Make it $2 to $1 now, and you take away from the lender 81,410. It
can not be right to rob, under process of law, by way of correcting
abuses in private transactions. It is undoubtedly true that it would
be unjust to compel those who have borrowed cheap pesos to pay in
dear dollars, but it would also be an injustice to compel lenders to
submit to the scaling-down process. The money of Porto Rico was
worth to Porto Ricans in 1896 or 1897, or any other year, just what
it would bring. On the one hand, the annual average of the peso
never rose to $1 American; on the other, it never fell to 50 cents. It
will not be possible to find any rate which will not do more or less
injustice to individuals, but an average can be reached which will do
substantial justice to all classes.

The following table shows the equivalent values in Porto Rican
and American money of the various rates proposed :

Equiva-

Porto

lent of 1

Rican

Porto

pesos

Premium.

Rican

for SI

peso in

American.

American
money.

Per cen t.

100

SO. 50

.57

66f

.60

.66$

33i

.75

.80

1.00

The effect of the several rates proposed on the volume of circula-
tion is indicated by this table, on the assumption that the amount of
coin is $6,000,000:

Ratio.

Percent-
age of
reduction.

Volume of
money.

Loss in

volume of
money.

Porto
Rican.

American.

$2.00
1.75
1.66|
1.50
1.33J
1.25
1.00

SI. 00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00

33|

S3, 000, 000
3.420.000
3,600,000
4,000,000
4,500,000
4, 800. 000
6,000,000

S3, 000. 000
8,580,000

2, 400, 000
2,000,000
1,500,000
1,200,000

The need of banking facilities, so as to bring borrowers in various
parts of the island into closer connection with the lenders, is a mani-
fest necessity. Capital is concentrated in San Juan, where the only
two banks in Porto Rico engaged in regular banking business are
established, and most of those who would borrow must make their
way thither. If a system of banks similar to those which exist in all

453

parts of the United States could be introduced in the leading cities
and towns of Porto Rico, facilities for getting money would be afforded
to those compelled to borrow, the number of lenders would be
increased, business transactions would be made easier, and money
could be moved when and where it is needed with the least possible
difficulty and delay. The use of drafts and checks and other forms
of financial paper would also lessen the inconveniences of the limited
volume of monej" in circulation.

Respectfully submitted.

Henry K. Carroll,

Commissioner.

Washington, December 25, 1898.

THE CURRENCY OF PORTO RICO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 26, 1898.
Mr. T. G. J. Waymouth, of banking house of J. T. Silva & Co.,
San Juan:

Dr. Carroll. Will you please state as clearly and succinctly as pos-
sible the condition of the currency question with special reference to
the inconvenience and inconsistency of the two standards which at
present exist in Porto Rico?

Mr. Waymouth. Well, I think at present, owing to the introduction
of American specie into this country, the state of affairs in the respect
you mention is bewildering.

Dr. Carroll. By specie do you mean gold?

Mr. Waymouth. I mean all the American currency which has been
imported and is continuing to be imported by American visitors to the
country. Former conditions were bad enough, but we could then
always calculate our exchange by the business that was done in the
island and the competition between the bankers; but now every vis-
itor is a banker, and if he can not sell his monej7 at one price he sells
it at another, and inasmuch as they are selling specie in some places
at the rate of II, American currency, for $1.75, Porto Rican currency,
and in other places in the island $1, American currency, for $1.60 or
even $1.50, Porto Rican currency, it is impossible to calculate any
exchange.

Dr. Carroll. The rates of exchange vary from day to day, do they
not?

Mr. Waymouth. Yes; and the change is against the American
money.

Dr. Carroll. What is the cause of this change, in your opinion?

Mr. Waymouth. I think it is caused by the fact that everywhere
throughout the island Americans are offering their gold and other
American currency in exchange for money of the country, so that the
rate of exchange is falling.

Dr. Carroll. What will be the outcome of this condition in money
matters if it is continued for some time without remedial legislation?
Will it drive the United States currency out of the market, on the princi-
ple that where two kinds of money circulate side by side the cheaper
will prevail and the more valuable be driven out of circulation?

Mr. Waymouth. I think the general result will be that the bette
money will exclude the worse money. There is no doubt about it.

454

Dr. Carroll. But it is an axiom of financiers in the United States
that where two moneys are in circulation, of different values, the
poorer money will obtain the market, on the principle that the money
of greater value will be hoarded or go out of the country, while people
who have debts to pay will pay in the cheaper money.

Mr. Waymouth. That is true; but the conditions are peculiar here.
This is an island. Americans are coming here and bringing their
money with them, so that the amount of American money in the island
is increasing constantly. The Porto Rican currency — it must be taken
into account — can not be driven out of the island, for the reason that
it does not circulate anywhere else, unless it is given circulation in the
United States or in Spain. If given circulation in the United States
it will be remitted there, doubtless.

Dr. Carroll. I will ask you if, in your opinion, it would not be
well to have United States currency substituted for Porto Rican cur-
rency? You will be brought into closer relations with the United
States in trade and otherwise, and would it not be convenient to have
one medium of exchange only?

Mr. Waymouth. I think so, decidedly.

Dr. Carroll. Do j^ou believe that your trade relations and finan-
cial relations with Spain will be less and less important as time goes on?

Mr. Waymouth. Yes; I think so.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think that your merchants will be likely to
import more and more from the United States?

Mr. Waymouth. I think the United States will eventually be our
only market for imports. There is no doubt about it. Everything will
come from the United States except cloth, perhaps, and some kinds of
dry goods, which will continue to be imported from England; except
also ribbons and haberdashery, which will likely be imported from
France. But the majority of articles for wear and food stuffs will all
come from the United States.

Dr. Carroll. The customs of your people here, the Porto Ricans,
are pretty well fixed and have been for centuries. Will they take
kindly to a different kind of goods coming from the United States or
will it rather be the province of the merchants and manufacturers of
the United States to produce the kind of goods that are used here?

Mr. Waymouth. The law of fashion, as you know, has a great deal
to do with that. Americans come here and wear certain kinds of
goods. That will set the style and everybody will want the same
kinds of goods in order to conform to the fashion. It is not the mer-
chant who puts the goods on the market; it is the people who deter-
mine what he will have for sale. When I first came to Porto Rico,
years ago, I could not get a pair of boots here, and there were no hats
used bjT- the ladies. Instead of hats the ladies had 011I3- what are
called mantillas; but in course of time hats were introduced in the
island, and that rule of change in styles holds good in everything.

Dr. Carroll. Will you kindly describe the kinds and denomina-
tions of money you have?

Mr. Waymouth. In Ponce they use a considerable amount of paper
money of the Caja de Ahorros (savings bank). They are not exactly
notes; they are in the nature of bills payable at a certain date, with
coupons paying interest, but they are received the same as notes by
merchants and others. They do not circulate in other parts of the
island, however, and are unknown except in Ponce. In the interior
of the island only silver and some copper are in circulation. The sil-
ver is in the form of pesos, -40-cent pieces, 20-cent pieces, 10-cent pieces,

455

and 5-cent pieces, and the copper is in the form of 2-cent pieces and
1-cent pieces.

I should explain that the bank here is not the same institution as
the Bank of Spain in Madrid, but a different institution entirely.
The Spanish Bank here has two branches, one in Mayaguez and one
in Ponce.

Dr. Carroll. I have been informed that paper money circulates
only here in San Juan and in places where the Spanish Bank has
established branches. Is that the case?

Mr. Waymouth. No; paper money circulates, I think, all over the
island, but it is not a legal tender. It is only good where a person is
willing to receive it in payment.

Dr.* Carroll. On what basis is that paper issued by the bank — on
its assets, on its silver, or what?

Mr. Waymouth. They have $2,500,000 in paper in circulation.
They redeem that with silver. I think that their calculation is that
they have in cash and bills payable (at not more than one hundred
and twenty days) an amount equal to the deposits and to the bills in
circulation. I will get for you a copy of the balance sheet issued by
the bank on October 1, which, as I recall, shows substantially the con-
dition of its finances respecting its paper money as I have' stated it.

Dr. Carroll. Suppose a merchant here had an account of 8500, for
example, to settle with a merchant in Aibonito, would he send bank
notes by post or would he ship the amount in silver?

Mr. Waymouth. He would not do either. This capital is generally
the bank of the whole island. People prefer, even in Ponce and
Mayaguez, to have their money in San Juan, and the bulk of the large
transactions is carried on by drafts at short sight, usually from three
to fifteen days. The coffee and tobacco crops of the island are large
and worth a great deal of money, and when the season comes on for
the movement of these crops kegs of specie, each containing about
$5,000, are sent to different parts of the island where needed for that
purpose.

Dr. Carroll. How is it shipped — by express?

Mr. Waymouth. No; we ship it by steamer in kegs, and there is
considerable money moved in that way. Formerly — that is, up to
1895 — we had Mexican silver, and it was the currency of Porto Rico.
There were many different opinions prevailing here as to what was
then necessary to be done, everybody asking to have that money
redeemed. They tried to change the Mexican money into gold, and
my idea was that Spain would never give us a gold dollar for the
Mexican dollar,, as she would lose about 50 per cent at that time, and
she was not in a condition to lose that amount on this island. My
idea was to raise the exchange to the par value of the Mexican money,
which would have been sufficient to reduce the Mexican money to the
value of gold, because you could not induce these people to pay out
a dollar for 50 cents. If in reality my pound sterling is worth in
London ten of the Mexican dollars, I would not be willing to sell it
here for seven of them. Consequently, if the exchange were raised
to the par value of the Mexican dollar, an equilibrium would have
been established.

Dr. Carroll. The ideal system, then, would be the system we have
in the United States, all money resting on a gold basis, which would
result in bringing this market into close relations with all the gold
countries of the world.

Mr. Waymouth. That is my idea about it.

456

Dr. Carroll. The great problem here is how to change the Porto
Rican system to the basis of the United States so as to do justice as
nearly as possible to both debtors and creditors.

Mr. Waymouth. "Well, I think the best way is to take the middle
course ; that is, to take the figure in between the extremes of 2 for 1
and the least figure proposed. That would be about \\ for 1. That
is what the people in the southern part of the island seem to desire.

Dr. Carroll. If that figure were decided upon, what act or order
could accomplish that purpose with the least difficulty? It is evident
that the order which has been given to the collectors of customs does
not settle the matter, and the process of introducing money of the
United States through visitors is going to be slow and will acid to the
confusion as the rate of exchange rises and falls.

Mr. Waymouth. I will state how the Spanish Government accom-
plished the change. When they retired the Mexican money, they
sent out a remittance of these dollars and named commissions all
over the island who were directed to make the exchange, commencing
at a certain day, 1 for 1; that is, to collect the Mexican and pay
out the provincial. Spain made a great deal by that operation. She
gave us an inferior money and deducted 5 per cent. We lost about
15 per cent of the purchasing value of the island's money.

Dr. Carroll. Should the loss incident to the change be borne by
the United States or in some way by the island? It would hardly be
a matter of justice for the United States to have to bear it.

Mr. Waymouth. Well, I don't think the loss would be great, because
the amount of specie in the island is not very much. It was 6,000,000
pesos, but much has been taken away by the Spanish troops, and I
don't believe there is more than $5,000,000 of silver (Porto Rican cur-
rency) here now.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much gold here?

Mr. Waymouth. Very little. " The little gold that is here consists
mainly of Spanish five-dollar pieces, but there is very little of that.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be wise for the United States in converting
money to receive the pesos and subsidiary coin and stamp them so as
to correspond to the dollar and subsidiaiy coin of the United States?

Mr. Waymouth. No; I don't think it should be stamped. It should
be taken to the United States and deposited in the Treasuiy, and sil-
ver certificates given just the same as if it came from California. I
think that would be the best way. After all, there is not a great dif-
ference between the Porto Rican and American dollars.

Dr. Carroll. But the American dollar rests upon the gold basis,
which makes a great difference. Suppose we received your silver at
its intrinsic value and issued our money on that basis, would that be
satisfactory to the people of the island?

Mr. Waymouth. I think it would be ■ unsatisfactory. That would
be to commit the same error we committed with Spain.

Dr. Carroll. How do you settle your balances with Spain?

Mr. Waymouth. That varies. They would not receive our silver.
We generally calculate exchange in such cases on the value of gold in
Madrid.

Dr. Carroll. If you owed a balance to merchants in Spain, on
what basis would you settle it?

Mr. Waymouth. On the basis of Spanish silver in Madrid, because,
in reality, Spain has no gold.

Dr. Carroll. What about the value of silver in the two countries —
Spain and Porto Rico — are the values the same?

457

Mr. Waymouth. No; there is to-day a difference of 10 per cent,
and a fortnight ago it was 16 per cent. In that time, therefore, it has
fluctuated 6 per cent. The fluctuation was against Porto Rican
money.

Dr. Carroll. Now as to savings banks. How many are there in
the island?

Mr. Waymouth. The only one is the one in Ponce, so far as I now
remember. I believe there is a small savings bank in this city among
the common people, but I am not acquainted with it. They receive
small amounts on deposit and pay a small rate of interest, the same
as in the United States. I don't remember what the rate of interest
is which they pay. They issue a sort of paper currency — I am refer-
ring now to the one at Ponce. They issue notes payable in twenty
years, for instance; they are a kind of bonds.

Dr. Carroll (producing a paper peso). Will you please explain
when this paper was issued and for what purpose?

Mr. Waymouth. This note was issued when the canje (exchange)
was made by replacing the Mexican by the provincial money. This
was a provisional uote and is worth nothing now. It was issued by
Spain and delivered here. It was never of value in Spain and was
never in circulation. It was in the nature of a receipt which could
be redeemed in Porto Rican money up to a certain date only. There
were many who kept some of it as curiosities, but it has no other
value now. After the date fixed they refused to receive it.

THE EXCHANGE OF THE CURRENCY.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 27, 1898.
Seiior Pedro J. Arsuaga, of the firm of Sobrinos de Esquiaga.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that the really burning question here
now is the currency question. It seems very inconsistent and incon-
venient that there should be two standards of money, the relation of
which is constantly changing in value, and I want to ask what in
your judgment would be the best, quickest, and fairest way of set-
tling this financial difficulty?

Mr. Arsuaga. Having as a basis the provincial nioney, merchants
are much upset in their calculations, exchange rising and falling 10
and 15 points a day, and they are unable to reckon with any certainty.
The change from the old system to the present system of coinage was
made in 1895. The Spanish Government thought at that time that
there was about $25,000,000 in circulation in the island, but they
found on making the change that there was only about $6,000,000.
The general opinion here is that the colonial currencj^ should be taken
out of circulation, although there are some who think otherwise. My
opinion is that to leave it in circulation would give rise to specula-
tive dealing in money and to the false coinage of money.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think it should be retired as the Mexican
money was retired in 1895?

Mr. Arsuaga. It could be done in two ways : By emitting bills in the
form of certificates of deposit, which should afterwards be exchanged
for gold or American silver coinage, or by bringing such currency
here in anticipation and exchanging it, as the Spanish Government

458

did, through the custom-houses in the various districts assisted by the
Spanish Bank of Porto Rico. The greater part of the currency of the
island is in this city (San Juan). There is some of it in the coast
towns, but very little in the interior. As soon as money is taken to
the interior for any purpose, it is usually brought back to the coast
towns in payment of accounts with the merchants there.

Dr. Carroll. In what shape is money taken to distant places; in
kegs, or is paper money sent?

Mr. Arsuaga. It is usually sent in kegs containing $5,000 each.

Dr. Carroll. How are these kegs shipped?

Mr. Arsuaga. They are shipped by steamer to the nearest sea-
port, and from there the money is taken to the interior by carts or by
horseback in small quantities as needed. The planters have their
accounts in the seaport town most convenient of access and deposit
their money there.

Dr. Carroll. Is the cart in which the money is being transported
guarded?

Mr. Arsuaga. There is no necessity for that. We have a sugar
estate in Carolina and send money to Cayey every Saturday to pay
off our men, and we send it openly in a coach without fear of robbery.
As regards the actual rate of exchange at which the substitution of
one coinage should be made for that of another, as the amount in
circulation is small, it is unimportant whether it is a little higher or
lower. The importance of the question comes in with respect to out-
standing liabilities. There are from forty to fifty millions of dollars
of liabilities to be settled under old contracts, and the rate at which
the exchange shall be made will greatly affect the creditor or debtor
class, and that is what most interests the merchants here.

Dr. Carroll. The Secretary of the Treasury told me that the rate
that had been most recommended to him from Porto Rico had been
2 to 1 and that those who proposed that rate said that, while it would
do some injustice probably to both classes, it would be fair to the
largest number.

Mr. Arsuaga. That, I think, would be too unjust to the capitalist
and would be more than the debtor has a right to expect. On the
other hand, I do not agree with the proposition made by some of the
Ponce newspapers that the exchange be made dollar for dollar.

Dr. Carroll. What is your opinion as to a fair ratio? Would 1 to
1.75 or 1 to 1,50 be equitable?

Mr. Arsuaga. I think it should be $1 gold for $1.33 of our cur-
rency.

Dr. Carroll. Who constitute the debtor class mostly in this
island?

Mr. Arsuaga. The real debtor is the agriculturist, who is indebted
to the small storekeeper, who in turn is indebted to the larger mer-
chants. By the agriculturist I mean the farmer.

Dr. Carroll. If the exchange were made at 11.50 or $1.75 would
it contract the currency so that it would not meet the needs of the
island?

Mr. Arsuaga. It certainly would contract the currency and the
lending power of all the capitalists, because they would only have a
proportionate amount of what they now have.

Dr. Carroll. Has there been much fluctuation in the purchasing
power of silver here?

Mr. Arsuaga. In the five years previous to 1S98 exchange averaged
45 per cent premium; in this year everything has gone up — the prices
of merchandise and exchange.

459

Dr. Carroll. Since the war?

Mr. Arsuaga. Since the beginning of the war.

Dr. Carroll. To what is that fluctuation due? Is it due to the
market price of silver as a commodity in the markets of the world, or
to what other possible cause?

Mr. Arsuaga. Owing to peculiar local causes, and not to the fluc-
tuation of silver in the markets of the world. Imports lately have
been much in excess of our exports and people have been making use
of their credits, especially country storekeepers and the agriculturists.
Consequently the balance against the country has had to be settled,
and that has sent exchange up.

Dr. Carroll. Does the money rest on anything else than its intrin-
sic value?

Mr. Arsuaga. The money does not owe its fluctuations really to
any condition of the money market, because it is not guaranteed by
Spain and is not received in Spain, but is a purely local money imposed
by Spain, and circulates merely because we must have some medium
of exchange.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much gold used in this country?

Mr. Arsuaga. No ; except the gold being brought in by the Ameri-
cans.

Dr. Carroll. How much paper money is issued, and who issues it?

Mr. Arsuaga. The Spanish Bank of Porto Rico had the sole right
of emitting paper money. They had in circulation usually from
$2,500,000 to $3,000,000, but lately they have retired the greater part
of that.

Dr. Carroll. Is that money accepted in all parts of the island?

Mr. Arsuaga. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be convenient for merchants to remit
to different parts of the island in that form rather than in silver?

Mr. Arsuaga. Yes; they have done so.

Dr. Carroll. An English civil engineer, now in this city, says that
only those notes which have ' ' Mayaguez " stamped on them in red ink
circulate in Mayaguez.

Mr. Arsuaga. That grew out of special circumstances. The Spanish
Bank of Porto Rico has a branch in Mayaguez. When the American
forces landed at Ponce, these bank notes went to the nearest point for
exchange, which was Mayaguez, and the bank there, finding that it
would not have sufficient metal to take up these notes with, if there
was a very heavy run on the bank, provided against it by stamping
some of the notes and announcing that it would not accept any notes
not bearing the stamp "Mayoquez."

Dr. Carroll. Would our fractional currency be convenient here?

Mr. ARSUAGA. It would be perfectly convenient and very desirable,
especially in paying the laborers in the interior.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be well to fix upon some date when the ex-
change shall be made in the money system — that is, when it shall com-
mence and when it must be completed?

Mr. Arsuaga. Twenty days were given for the last exchange. I
think it highly important to fix a short term in which the exchange
shall be made. The Spanish Government fixed a date when no one
was expecting it, so as to prevent speculation as far as possible.

Dr. Carroll. Was there speculation in spite of that precaution?

Mr. Arsuaga. There was speculation. The importation of Mexican
dollars was forbidden, but they were imported clandestinely.

460

Dr. Carroll. Would the system of national banks which exists in
the United States be suitable for this island?

Mr. Arsuaga. I think it would be suitable and convenient, but I
am inclined to doubt whether large capitalists would come here. I
think the chief difficulty, however, in establishing such a system here
is that, owing to the risk of loans in the island, which is much greater
than that incident to loans in the United States, people would not be
satisfied with the rate of interest which could be demanded under the
laws of the United States. The Spanish Bank of Porto Rico last year
paid a dividend of 15 per cent, but the reason that this bank was able
to pay such a large dividend is that it has very little capital and issues
about three times as much in notes as its capital. In other words, it
operates on fictitious capital.

Dr. Carroll. I understand the Spanish Bank of Porto Rico has a
monopoly here.

Mr. Arsuaga. Yes; in the matter of issuing paper money. I id re-
sume under the new state of things that monopoly will cease. If the
Government does purpose bringing the monopoly to an end it should
not hurry it; the bank should have a chance to call in its notes.

THE MONEY OF PORTO RICO SINCE 1800.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner. ]

San Juan, P. R., October SI, 1898.
Mr. Andres Crosas, an American citizen, long in business in Porto
Rico:

Dr. Carroll. I suppose you have definite ideas on the currency
question.

Mr. Crosas. I have some ideas on that question; perhaps I am not
in the right. This country has been cursed by currency sj'stems from
time immemorial. It appears that the Spaniards introduced here in
the year 1800 a regular Spanish silver dollar; but this would always be
remitted away from the island, resulting in a constant scarcity of
change, until, in 1814, they established a paper currency. There was
nobody responsible for this currency, which was called small hand-
bills; and there was even a mutiny of the troops here because they
were paid in this paper money, owing to which the captain-general
then here promised to pay in regular Spanish silver, but very little of
it was ever paid. Finding that the difficulty caused by the exporta-
tion of this Spanish silver continued, they deposited here a coin used
in South America, made in a very rough way, and they made it oblig-
atory by law to receive this coin, and at the custom-house they used
to receive half in Spanish money and half in this macuquino coin.
That was all that circulated here. This state of things continued
until merchants and others got to be too smart. They would go to the
United States, counterfeit this macuquino coin, and import it here
through the custom-house as nails. I myself was a clerk in the custom-
house in 1855, and I remember one day handling a keg of "nails"
from the United States and the head of the keg broke out and out
came the macuquino coin. It finally got to be so that people did not
care much about collecting this money. It used to give them much
trouble. Then there was an industry established by the jewelers here

461

in connection with this coin. They used to shear it off so as to make
a certain percentage, and when a person would come to collect and be
tendered some of these recently-trimmed coins he would say, "Your
coins are bleeding yet." This practice finally reached such a stage
that merchants would rather accept a "vale," which was a sort of
promissory note, for so many dollars, and they used to exchange paper
of this kind.

In 1857, without any notice whatever, the Spanish Government sent
here a man-of-war with $1,250,000 in gold and silver, and announced
that within four days exchange had to be made at 12-^ per cent dis-
count. Consequently the island lost by this operation one-eighth of
its capital. The exchange was made, but on the third day there was
not sufficient Spanish money to change what remained, and then they
forced us to take any kind of foreign gold, giving us American five-dollar
pieces, Mexican gold at $16, and pounds sterling at $5. I was at that
time a young boy and I had to collect some rent. I was offered pay-
ment in this money, and I said, "No; that is not Spanish money." I
was trying to collect from a lady; she was not a saintly lady, and she
had considerable influence. She sued me in order to compel me to
accept the foreign money in which she wanted to pay the rent. I went
to the court and tried to defend the suit, but I could soon see that she
was getting the better of the argument, and I made a saucy remark
to the effect that "ladies gained all lawsuits," and the judge promptly
decided in her favor, so that I had to accept what she wanted to pay
me. She paid me in American silver. As Spanish coin continued to
go out of the country, American silver was being introduced, until
finally the only coin current here was American silver with some Mex-
ican and British gold — no Mexican silver.

The Spanish Government, which was always inventing some scheme
by which to make money, decided not to accept this foreign silver
except at a discount of 5 per cent. Consequently in paying the treas-
ury an American silver dollar was worth only 95 cents.

This continued, I believe, until the year 1879, when, seeing that
there was money in it, they decreed that the Mexican silver should be
received here dollar for dollar for American silver, although I read
in the price current in New York that the Mexican silver was worth
only 80 per cent. They introduced a lot of Mexican silver here and
exported the American silver, with the result that shortly American
silver paid 1 per cent premium and gold from 2 per cent to 3 per cent.
Mexican silver, which was nicknamed "galvanized iron," continued
to come into the island until we got so much of it that it caused
exchange to rise. This went on for some time, without any measure
of relief being taken, until finally, all at once, the Government decreed
the prohibition of the importation of any Mexican silver, contrary
to the provisions of the tariff. At the same time it was decreed that
all the silver in the island, in order to circulate here, must have a
fleur-de-lis stamped on it. The result of this was that a great many
people here got fleur-de-lis stamps made and stamped their money.
I had a few dollars without the fleur-de-lis marked on them, and I
mentioned the fact to a friend one day, and he said, "I have a die
and will fix them for you." There were many dollars stamped that
way. Then they passed a law that from and after that year — I think
it was 1889 — no coins of later date should be received, so that when a
person collected a bill in Mexican dollars he would have to look at
the date on each coin. It would take a person all day to collect,
$5,000.

462

This state of things continued until, all at once, without consulting
the people here, Spain decided to give us a new coin — this coin we
have here at present, called the provincial dollar — at 5 per cent dis-
count, although the provincial dollar is of less weight and fineness
than the Mexican. There is now about $5,000,000 of this coin in the
island.

If this money is exchanged at a heavy discount, it will be a lash on
those who have monej^. It would not make any difference to the
laborer, because he will earn the same salary in gold and will buy on
a gold basis; and it will make no difference to the property holder,
because. if he has a house renting for $50, for instance, he would pass
through one exchange, but the next month he would get $50 gold.
But to a merchant who has $90,000 of this provincial money, as I
have, an exchange at a heavy discount would be a severe lash. The
last exchange in the money system here cost me $14,000. That was a
hard stroke.

I have thought of different ways in which the monej^ system here
might be changed to that of the United States, and I am of the opinion
that a way in which it would not be hard would be the creation of a
sinking debt. The exchange could be made dollar for dollar and then
let the island pay annually interest on the difference between the value
of the provincial money as thus fixed and what it would really produce.
Let the people bear it as we have had to bear the expense of freeing
the slaves here and manjr other things.

Dr. Carroll-. It does not seem, from your recital of the monetary
history of the island, that Spain has lost very much from her
transactions.

Mr. Crosas. Spain had a nose that could always scent gold or silver.
In the last exchange, in 1895, they made $1,200,000 between the min-
isters. We were bound hand and foot; it was useless to complain.

Dr. Carroll. It has been suggested by some importers here that a
fair basis for the change in the currency here for that of the United
States would be obtained by taking the average cost of exchange for
the past eight or ten years; that is, about 66 per cent or 70 per cent.

Mr. Crosas. But that would come pretty heavy on those who have
money. It would suit those who are in debt, who are anxious to get
out as well as possible. There are many who are in debt, and they
are all for a big discount.

Dr. Carroll. Have the Americans not brought in a great deal of
money?

Mr. Crosas. Yes, and I wish they had brought more — enough to
"swamp" the provincial money; but it has not come in sufficient
quantity for that.

Dr. Carroll. Are business interests suffering much now on account
of the fluctuations of the money standards?

Mr. Crosas. Yes; in part because of these fluctuations, and in
part because we do not know what is to be the policy of the United
States toward the island. The ambition of the whole country is to
become a Territory of the United States. They have no desire to be
independent of the United States. They know well enough that they
can not expand under a military government. They know that at
present they can not be a sovereign State, and until they are far
enough advanced to petition to become a State, they want to be a
Territory. They are making strides in learning English, and the
young people especially are all studying it.

463

IMPORTATION OF SPANISH COIN.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.

Mr. Sasteria Francesa. I desire to make some suggestions in
regard to the money question. The whole money question depends
only on two kinds of persons. The question would have been settled
long ago if it were not for the agriculturists, who believed they would
lose an indirect premium by way of paying their laborers in silver
money, which is not guaranteed by gold reserve on the part of the
government, and have to sell their products afterwards to New York
and Boston and Philadelphia for gold. Every merchant here and
every private party wants the gold basis ; that is the only genuine way
for straight business. Those from the sugar estates are indirectly
fomenting a genuine social movement here, because the Liberal party
of Porto Rico is pretty well upset with this 50 cents a day matter.
These laborers are paid in silver; they have to pay it out in buying
what they want at gold rates ; they see that they can make no living
out of the money they earn, so they improve every opportunity for
rows. ISTow, if these sugar estates in defending the silver question
here to keep the money just as it is made a profit and put in their
pockets the difference between the silver they pay out and the gold
they receive, there would be at least one reason for explaining the posi-
tion they take; but that is not the case, and the proof of it is simply
this, that every time exchange has gone up here prices for refining
sugar in New York have gone down, and every time exchange has
gone down here prices for refining in New York have gone up. In
other words, the sugar-estate owners in fighting for the stay of the
unguaranteed silver are only doing a business profitable to the sugar
trust in New York, which is the only one that profits by it, as its quo-
tations are always in relation to the exchange of the island, by which
means thej^ can keep the culture of cane in the island in a state between
living and dying. That is one side of it.

To make the money here a sound money, if the United States Gov-
ernment should announce that on the 1st of May every dollar of Porto
Rican money would be taken in exchange for an American dollar, the
exchange being paid up in installments of one-half American dollar a
year for interest and principal by the island, all payments to be com-
pleted in four years, the island would pay the cost of the exchange
from silver to gold without anyone suffering by it. The island has
no debt whatever. Moreover, $75,000, dedicated for many years to the
payment of the silver bonds, is still in the treasury, notwithstanding
that the silver bonds were all redeemed over six years ago. Moreover,
there is no legal rate of exchange now established here. It all depends on
a dozen houses who are endeavoring to keep the exchange up as high as
possible, and if it were known that on a fixed day every dollar would
be called in, exchange at New York would not exceed 25 per cent,
which proves that the exorbitant rates now quoted here on New York
are only fictitious and artificial.

There should be, if this course is pursued, a prohibition laid on the
importations of any Porto Rican coin into the island until the exchange
is made, this prohibition carrying with it a term of imprisonment and
fine. This would prevent smuggling of Porto Rican coin into the
island. The Spanish silver dollar differs from the Porto Rican dol-
lar only in the words "Porto Rico" instead of "Spain," and a close

464

examination would be required to distinguish them. And, of course,
if the Spanish dollar could be exchanged for the American dollar it
would be a paying business. When the Spaniards were in control of
the island and similar changes were made in the currency as is pro-
posed in the case of the United States, Spanish merchants who were
in favor with the Government could import prohibited coins with
impunity. In fact, the Government here is said to have imported
large quantities, so that the Spanish prohibition in such cases was a
dead letter.

A PLEA FOR THE RATE OF 200 TO 100.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.
Mr. Felix Matos Bernier, editor:

Dr. Carroll. What should be the policy of the United States
■respecting the currency question?

Mr. Bernier. The money question is a very perplexing one, because
ever since the island was discovered its money system has been upside
down and every aspect of it presents a vexed question.

Regarding the exchange of the present money for the money of the
United States, opinions vary very much. There are some who think
the exchange should be effected at the rate of 2 for 1; others who
think it should be made at a premium of 50 per cent or 60 per cent,
and others still who think that the colonial peso should be regarded
as merchandise and an arbitrary value put upon it by the American
Government. The merchants desire to give the colonial money as
high a value as possible. The agriculturists, on the other hand, are
desirous of fixing as low a value as possible, and these are the two
chief classes who represent opposing interests in this matter of exchang-
ing our colonial currency for that of the United States. My opinion
is that the exchange should be made at $2 colonial for $1 American,
and that is the opinion also prevailing among the agriculturists.

This question of exchange derives its importance chiefly from the
consideration that there is a large amount of outstanding debts which
will have to be liquidated at a more or less remote period in the future.
I think that these ought to be settled at the rate I have suggested.
The agriculturists, who constitute the debtor class, have been oppressed
for years by the mercantile classes. The latter have already made
their profit out of the agriculturists, and if the agriculturists are forced
to pay their debts in gold which they have contracted in silver, as
some have been suggesting, they will be completely ruined, and it will
be years before the agricultural industry of the island can hold up its
head again.

Dr. Carroll. What proportion of the population of the island —
900,000 — do the agriculturists constitute?

Mr. Bernier. I can not give you that in figures without first study-
ing the matter, but they form an immense majority, as the land is
divided among small owners.

Dr. Carroll. The majority of the debts contracted in the island,
I suppose, have been contracted in the last ten years?

Mr. Bernier. Yes; nearly all of them in that time.

Dr. Carroll. Then, in making the exchange at 2 for 1, it would be
charging a rate for exchange of about 100 per cent premium. Has

465

'the rate of exchange, as a matter of fact, ever risen to that amount
since these debts were contracted?
Mr. Bernier. No.

Dr. Carroll. Would it then be fair to the money class to make
he exchange at that rate?

Mr.. Bernier. I think it would be completely just, because these
merchants have not made loans to the agriculturists in cash, but in
the form of goods, machinery, etc., and the profits on these transac-
tions have been large, because the terms of credit in such cases have
always been favorable to the merchants.

Dr. Carroll. I do not ask these questions to express any opinion
of my own, but to get at the basis of your opinion. I have been
informed that every change in the currency of the country of the last
hundred years has brought a heavy loss upon those who had money
in large amounts and large credits.

Mr. Bernier. You have been badly informed. The capitalists of

the country have never suffered; it has been apparent but not real.

Dr. Carroll. Who suffered the loss when the Mexican pesos were

substituted by the provincial pesos? Spain is said to have made 5 per

cent; who lost that 5 per cent?

Mr. Bernier. The merchants did not lose, because they had made
their preparations and made big speculations to offset the change.
Those who lost were the working classes.

Dr. Carroll. How did the loss fall on them? Did they get less or
did what they got buy less afterwards?

Mr. Bernier. The* reason the poor classes suffered was because,

when the exchange was made of colonial for Mexican silver, provisions

rose in value. They earned the same salary, but that salary would

not buy as much.

Dr. Carroll. How was it that provisions rose?

Mr. Bernier. Because the mercantile class has no conscience or

honor. I do not feel competent to discuss that question, however, but

I will mention the following incident in order that you may appreci-

«+- nething of the mercantile life in this island. When the Ameri-

ook possession of Ponce I came over to Rio Piedras to await

he fall of the capital. I found on my way across the island

i the district occupied by the Spaniards, where they had no

to outside markets, rice was selling at 14 cents a pound, while

>;ice it was selling at 40 cents a pound. Kerosene oil and other

were selling in the same proportion as compared with Ponce.

Carroll. During war times in our own country we frequently

lose tremendous fluctuations in prices. It seems to be human

that men everywhere will get all they can for what they have

.ernier. The merchants here have always formed a sort of
>rporation. There has never been any real competition in
, ind for that reason they have imposed the prices of their goods
people.

arroll. Whom do you include in the class of merchants —
lo have retail stores as well as those who have wholesale?
ernier. I refer to wholesale merchants only, because retail
its are only dependencies of the wholesale dealers.
arroll. On what terms do retail merchants get their goods?
ernier. Most of the retailers pay cash for their goods or buy
i time, seldom longer than four months' credit being given.
_125 30

466

Some have current accounts, but the longer terms are from retailers
to consumers.

Dr. Carroll. Then retailers must have considerable capital with
which to carry on business?

Mr. Bernier. Not necessarily; because the retail stores here carry
only a small stock of goods and are not of great importance. They
are important as a class, but not individually.

Dr. Carroll. Would that class of retail merchants not suffer by the
adoption of the ratio you propose, of 2 for 1?

Mr. Bernier. I don't think so; because they are not people who
hold large amounts of money.

Dr. Carroll. Then you think the class who would suffer most com-
prises the wholesale merchants, shippers, and bankers'?

Mr. Bernier. I do not think they will have any ground for com-
plaint, because they can not expect that the nominal capital they have
on their books will be changed into a capital good all over the world.

Dr. Carroll. In the case of a man who has $10,000 in silver, with
which he can buy $8,000 in gold, if the Government makes the
exchange at the rate of 2 for 1, would he not lose $3,000 outright?

Mr. Bernier. Out of that question springs another aspect. If the
Government should say, "We do not recognize any money but our
national money," what would the merchant do with his silver which
circulates only here in the island?

Dr. Carroll. I should say that silver is worth what it will bring.
If it will bring so much gold, I should say it was worth that much.

Mr. Bernier. But the colonial money to-day has no standing any-
where outside of this island; it belongs to no nationality, and I think
the American Government has been generous to give it recognition as
money. They do not accept it even in Spain.

THE AVERAGE OF EXCHANGE.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 8, 1898.

Ramon B. Lopez, editor of the Correspondencia, a daily newspaper
of San Juan, P. R. :

Mr. Lopez. Turning to the money question, with your permission ,
I understand that the idea of the Americans is to establish the rat" d
of exchange at 2 to 1 with the idea of ruining the Spaniards, who w ill
receive, in that case, on one-half of their outstanding credits. I thimk
that the rate of 2 to 1 would be unreasonable. A rate between 60- and
70 per cent premium would be a just medium. I am neither a creditor
nor a debtor, but let me add that this is a very important qu estion
and should have your first attention on arriving in Washington:. The
present uncertainty has paralyzed business. Merchants are not" plac-
ing orders, because they don't know what they will have to paj^ uor
their goods.

Dr. Carroll. Why do you suggest a rate between 1.60 and 1.70?

Mr. Lopez. Because it corresponds to the average of exchange for
the past ten years. I got the result by finding the actual average
from the data. I hope the United States will grant to the ports of

467

this island the same privileges as to domestic ports. This is very
important, as shown by the following considerations: Printing ink
costs 5 cents a pound in New York, but with the freight and duty ii
costs me over 20 cents a pound ; another item, printing paper costs in
the United States about 2 cents a pound, at which rate a hundred
kilos would cost $4.30 or $4.40. That amount of paper in Spain costs
$9.60, and yet Spanish paper costs less laid down here than American
paper. Why was that? Because Spanish paper costs 36 cents per 100
kilos as against $3.75 for American paper.

Dr. Carroll. You pay the same to-day on Spanish and American
paper.

Mr. Lopez. To-day American paper is cheaper, laid down here,
than Spanish paper, but if we had free trade with the United States
the rate would be still more favorable.

TIME OF EFFECTING CHANGE IN THE CURRENCY.

[Hearing before the United States Conimissioner.]

San Juan, P. R. , November 5, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. What is your opinion with regard to the currency,
and how it' should be settled?

Mr. Manuel Egozcue, vice-president provincial deputation. As
regards the financial question, I am not one of those who think the
exchange should be made at par; neither do I think at as high a rate
as some propose. I don't think it is just that the agriculturist and
country debtor should have to pay in gold the debts he has contracted
in silver. On the other hand, I do not think that those who are able
to collect their debts by reason of priority of the debts when they fall
due should be in a better position than those who have to wait a longer
time, and the due debts of whose outstanding accounts do not accrue
until after the exchange of standards. There is such a variety of
opinion in regard to the matter that it is difficult to arrive at a fixed
statement. It is not so much a question of five or six million dollars
of currency in the island as of the sixty or seventy millions of out-
standing liabilities due to us merchants by persons in the interior.

Dr. Carroll. A number of persons here have fixed the amount of
outstanding liabilities at fifty millions.

Mr. Egozcue. From fifty to sixty millions of dollars, perhaps, is
right.

Dr. Carroll. Who are the debtors?

Mr. Egozcue. The agriculturists.

Dr. Carroll. And the creditors are the bankers?

Mr. Egozcue. Largely, perhaps chiefly; the merchants and private
money lenders.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the money of the United States should
be substituted for the colonial money? Do you consider the change
necessary?

Mr. Egozcue. I think it is necessary, but I think it should not be
effected until after the forthcoming crop has been gotten in. This
will take place in February, March, and April.

Dr. Carroll. Why do you think it should be postponed until that
time? The majority of the people who have been here seem to regard
it as the most urgent question before the authorities at Washington

468

and think it should be given immediate attention. I should like to
have your reasons in detail for recommending a delay in the exchange.

Mr. Egozcue. The reason I think the substitution of the currency
should not be effected until the end of April is that the agricultural
interests will be able to pay what they owe to the commercial interests
without any difficulty as matters now stand, but if the substitution is
made before that time they will be in very great stress to make the
payments. Once that period is past, the American coinage can be
safely introduced.

Dr. Carroll. Then any time after February it would be safe to
make this change?

Mr. Egozcue. Yes ; because the accounts not collected then can not
be collected until the next harvest.

Dr. Carroll. Are these amounts large.

Mr. Egozcue. Quite large relative to the small affairs of the island.

EXCHANGE AND FREE TRADE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arecibo, P. R., January lJf, 1899.
Mr. Adolf Bahr and Mr. Bernardo Huicy, members of the
municipal council of Arecibo :

Mr. Huicy. I think that the question of the exchange should be
left until it can be introduced at the same time with the question of
free coasting trade.

Dr. Carroll. I have a great many complaints that the two stand-
ards of exchange are paratyzing all business, and that everything
will be at a standstill until the money question is settled.

Mr. Bahr. As regards the unstable value of the money, we have
been passing through that all our lives. The merchant does not
suffer from it because he regulates the prices of goods according to
exchange. The difference is borne by the consumer, but the vital
point is that the sugar and coffee producers who give employment to
most of the laborers of the island would have to shut down if the
change of money were effected without a free market in the United
States being given at the same time.

Dr. Carroll. How will it affect the coffee producers? They intro-
duce their coffee now free into the United States. I can see how the
sugar men would be benefited. The whole difficulty with the sugar
producers, I understand, is that if the island goes to a gold basis
they will have to pay their laboring men the same in gold as they
have been paying in silver.

Mr. Bahr. Not having free coasting trade with the United States,
they will not be able to get their provisions and stores at a less price
than they pay now.

Dr. Carroll. But the tariff has been greatly reduced.

Mr. Bahr. The planters can not count much on that. It will mean
very little more than an increased margin for the merchant.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think that you will not be able to induce
3^our peons to continue their work by explaining to them that they
can buy as much with the gold as they could with the nominally
laraer amount of silver?

469

Mr. Huicy. We will have to try it, but the chances are that it will
not succeed and they will strike, and strikes mean fires. There have
been two instances here of that. On two estates they cut down wages
10 cents, and that same day the two estates were burned.

Dr. Carroll. I can see the difficulty under which the sugar planters
labor, and it is important because they employ more labor than any
other industry in the island.

Mr. Bahr. Yes ; they use 75 per cent of the labor, and they spend
their money in the island.

Dr. Carroll. What are the prices for sugar now?

Mr. Bahr. Three dollars and seventy-five cents for 46 kilograms at
the ports of shipment for centrifugal sugar, and from $2.90 to $3 for
muscovado sugar. The duty on the centrifugal in the United States
is $1.65 for a hundredweight of 96 degrees test, and on the muscovado,
$1.44.

Dr. Carroll. Then, if duty were taken off the sugar, you would
have a margin which would enable you to pay your employees in gold
what you now pay them in silver?

Mr. Bahr. Yes; exactly.

THE INTERESTS AFFECTED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

* Coamo, P. R., February 6, 1899.

A Merchant. We think the form in which the exchange of money
has been made is prejudicial.

Dr. Carroll. To the planters, do you mean?

A Merchant. For the whole island.

A Planter. I don't think so.

Dr. Carroll. Let us hear the merchant. Why do you think it
prejudicial for the island?

The Merchant. I haven't facility for speaking.

Colonel Santiago. I will answer, if you like. It is a question in which
there are divided interests, and naturally there are divided opinions.
I understand it would be convenient for some coffee planters that the
rate should be as low as possible and also for some merchants, but I
don't think it should be higher than from 60 to 70 per cent. I think
agriculture will be benefited by the exchange at that rate, but mer-
chants will suffer a certain amount of injury from it for the reason that
several years ago their capital was in gold, and now they are coming
back to gold again and will lose what they made in the meantime.

Dr. Carroll. How do you make that out?

Colonel Santiago. For instance, if a few years ago I had $50,000
gold, that gold was exchanged into $80,000 silver by edict of the Gov-
ernment. To-day it is brought back to $50,000, and we have lost what
we made meanwhile.

Dr. Carroll. But the $80,000 only represented $50,000 gold.

Colonel Santiago. The idea is that when I possessed the $50,000
gold some years ago silver was at a premium, and to obtain silver I
had to let the gold go. The gold left the country, and silver remained
at par value with gold. But to-day gold is brought back and has a
higher value. I am not blaming anybody; I am simply trying to
explain why the merchant is the sufferer. The merchant is now bound
to buy back gold with a depreciated silver.

470

Dr. Careoll. What do yon think the rate should be?

Colonel Santiago. The lower the exchange is made in Porto Rico
the less money there will be in Porto Rico, and consequently capital
will be reduced in quantity.

Dr. Carroll. There will be a less number of dollars, but more
money when the purchasing- power is considered.

Colonel Santiago. We have about $5,000,000 circulating medium.
I understand from what I have read that a country requires about $16
per head; that a dollar passes from hand to hand several times in a
day. Under the present circumstances capital will come from the
outside more to our prejudice than to our benefit.

Dr. Carroll. What rate of interest did lenders of money get when
the country was on a gold basis'?

Colonel Santiago. The same as now.

Dr. Carroll. At what rate?

Colonel Santiago. I have never charged more than 1 per cent.

Dr. Ca'rroll. What was the average per cent on the gold basis?

Colonel Santiago. One per cent.

Dr. Carroll. That is, 12 per cent a year. What has been the
average rate of interest since 1895?

Colonel Santiago. I can only speak for mj^ house; we have charged
from 12 per cent down as low as 8 per cent.

Dr. Carroll. I think a very large percentage of the debts of the
island have paid about 18 per cent.

Colonel Santiago. They are so careless here about money matters
that if I wished to give out $100,000 in loans to-day, I could easily do
it at 2 per cent. I don't do it because my conscience won't allow me
to do it.

CHANGE OF THE MONEY SYSTEM.
OPINION OF THE SPANISH BANK OF POKTO RICO.

By Senor Carlos M. Soler, Subgovernor of the Bank.

The volume of metallic currency in Porto Rico is about 6,046,000
pesos.

Mortgages and private indebtedness amount to 16,000,000 to
18,000,000 pesos.

Acceptances, drafts, and other unpaid mercantile transactions reach
20,000,000 or 25,000,000 pesos. Aggregate, 36,000,000 to 43,000,000
pesos; six to seven times the amount of currency in circulation.

The peso has 1.730 more grams of silver of equal fineness than the
American dollar, the important difference being that the latter rests
on a gold basis.

The commercial rather than the intrinsic value of the peso should
be taken as the basis of settlement.

The remarkable fluctuation in exchange has been due chiefly to the
large amounts of money sent to Spain, causing a mercantile balance
to appear against the island, notwithstanding the excess of exports
over imports. ,

The average rate of exchange on New York in the last seven years
was 45.45.

The unusual rates of 1897 and 1898 will be followed by a consider-
able fall in prospect of large crops.

471

In consideration of the interests of the island, which have suffered
much, and of the limited circulation, which can not stand further
reduction, the rate of exchange should be fixed at 75 cents American
for the peso, or 33^ per cent premium.

The change of currency should take place by December or January,
and the American dollar should be substituted for the peso.

The retention of the peso at a fixed value in relation to the dollar
would be inefficacious and dangerous, giving rise to variations between
the official and commercial value and stimulating false coinage.

The exchange should be made in a brief period to prevent specula-
tion, and the pesos should be retired, to be recoinedor demonetized.

Without doubt one of the most difficult problems waiting for prompt
solution is that of the change of the system of moneys in this island,
if, as is to be supposed, the American Government wishes to find a
solution which will harmonize with the interests of Porto Rico and
the new metropolis and will prevent at all hazards disturbance of the
equilibrium and economic arrangement sure to be brought about by
the adoption of a hasty and ill-considered resolution.

The problem is difficult because of the impossibility of resolving it
in such a manner as to satisfy the interests and aspirations of every-
one. An exchange at par, for instance, of our money for the Ameri-
can dollar would assuredly benefit capital (above all, capital in actual
cash) as represented by the creditor class, but would be prejudicial to
the debtor class, who have contracted their liabilities in the money
now circulating (represented mostly by the agriculturists), and would
facilitate the removal of fortunes from the island, greatly to its detri-
ment.

On the other hand, an exchange effected at a low rate — such as 30
or 40 cents American for a Porto Rican peso — would benefit unduly
the debtor class of the interior, to the grave and unjustifiable preju-
dice of capitalists and creditors. This benefit to debtors, at first sight
real, would really be inoperative, as the loss suffered by capital would
necessarily cause a great contraction of capital and would to a great
extent prevent the further granting of loans to the agriculturists, to
our incipient manufactories, and to commerce.

If, then, a just and equitable solution be sought which will injure in
the least possible degree vested interests, it becomes necessary to
avoid extremes, such as a substitution at par or at a rate unpropor-
tionately low.

The fact should not for a moment be lost sight of that the gravity
of the situation does not consist precisely in the exchange of the
actual stock of money in circulation, as our circulation is an extremely
limited one, as was proved when the present peso in circulation was
brought here to replace the Mexican dollar which formerly was the
money of the island. This fact was brought out when this introduc-
tion just referred to did not require a larger sum than $5,561,000 in
silver peso pieces, $1,015,000 in fractional silver monej^, and $70,000
in bronze; a total sum of $6,646,000.

As this sum must still further be reduced by about $600,000 pesos
taken back to Spain by the Spanish troops, it will be readily under-
stood that the mere substitution of the sum remaining, $6,046,000,
would not in itself constitute a serious difficulty in the resolution of
the monetary problem. The difficulty of the question and the danger
of serious prejudices which might arise from the system that may be
finally adopted lie chiefly in the fact that the rate to be decided on
will have an immediate and necessary influence on pending obligations.

472

The special conditions which have affected Porto Rico since the
beginning of 1897 have had the effect of reducing credits on the island
itself, and although this fact and the special well-known events of
the present year have not had a little influence in reducing the amount
of imports for 1898, we do not fear to state without exaggeration that
existing mortgages and private indebtedness amount to sixteen to
eighteen millions of pesos, besides twenty to twenty- five millions of
pesos representing acceptances, drafts, and other unsatisfied mercan-
tile transactions. These sums, representing a large quantity in pro-
portion to the general wealth of the island, must not be lost sight of
in the settlement of the question under consideration, especially when
it is remembered that the disbursements they represent were made in
colonial or Mexican money and, as regards the private and commer-
cial obligations, wrere incurred during the last year or eighteen months,
while, as regards the mortgages, they date from eight, ten, fifteen, or
more years back, when exchange on New York fluctuated between 20
to 70 per cent premium, but never higher.

Having so far ascertained in what consist the difficulties of the prob-
lem, let us find how to resolve it.

The Porto Rican peso is of the same weight and fineness as the
Spanish "duro," according to the decree of December 6, 1895, and as
the Spanish duro, according to decree of October 19, 1868, is of 25 grams
weight and 900 fineness, it results that the peso as silver bullion is
superior to the American standard dollar, which is of the same fine-
ness, but only weighs 23.730 grams.

As to intrinsic value, then, it is undeniable that the peso is worth
more than the dollar. The real difference is that while the peso is
and represents silver only, the American dollar is a fiduciary coin,
because, being of silver only, it represents gold — thanks to the dis-
position ruling in the United States.

To resolve the problem on this basis would perhaps be defensible,
but in our opinion would not be just, because it must be granted that
the legal value of money is largely a conventional matter, especially
when the greater part of the value depends on the stamp and not on
the intrinsic value of the coin.

For this reason, without pretending to state that the intrinsic value
of the money should not have some consideration, we consider that at
the same time its mercantile value should be duly considered. And
in our opinion this commercial value should be taken as the basis for
the settlement of the question, as by mutual concessions on the part
of debtors and creditors, capitalists, and agriculturists much could
be done to effect a settlement without bringing on the island a
frightful economic disturbance, which would result in the enrichment
of one class, with the unjust pauperizing or ruining of the others.

It is true that Porto Rico has been an exceptional country with
regard to its experiences of exchange. It is hardly possible to
name any other land where oscillations so great and sudden have
almost prevented foresight and calculation to such an extent that
operations in exchange have resembled gambling rather than banking
transactions. But as economic laws are as undefinable as are natural
laws, the abnormal condition must be in part attributed to, firstly,
the Mexican coinage; secondly, the colonial currency; and always to
what may be termed absentee officialdom, which was represented by
salaries, savings, and pensions, and which withdrew annually from the
island in the form of bills of exchange a portion of the value of the
production of the island, causing the "mercantile balance" to be

473

against us, when really it was in our favor, owing to the excess of
exportation over importation.

Rates of exchange on Netv Yor~k.

Month.

Year.

1891.

1892.

1893.

1894.

1895.

1896.

1897.

Pesos. 1
21*
21*
20*
20
20*
31|
21*
31*
21*
21f

21*

Pesos.1
2L
33
33

36*

28"

31i

32*

Pesos. 1
30

33*.

42*

41*

41"

42*

Pesos. J
41
44
49
50J
49*
50*
52*
60
61
54*
55-1
56*

Pesos. 1
57f
82
62
63
66*
71
72*
73
70*
71
66
58

Pesos*
50
48
49
49
57
60
59
61
60*
57"
61
63

Pesos.2

58*

May

21*

26|

36|

52A

67H

56*

67&

1 Mexican.

Colonial.

In this resume of rates of exchange those of 1898 have not been
included, as those rules from April to September were, owing to the
existence of war, merely nominal and at the same time capricious
and arbitrary.

It will here be seen that in the period of the last seven years the
average rate of exchange never exceeded 67J per cent premium, and
that in 1891 the rate did not exceed 21-^-, payable in Mexican dollars;
without going back many years, it will be seen that the rate dimin-
ished by degrees, showing palpably how unjust it would be to fix the
exchange at 2 for 1, as some people claim should be done. To give
$1 American for 2 pesos would be as unjust in its way as to require
$1 American for 1 peso.

The rate should therefore be found between these two extremes in
order to be just and reasonable. The value of our peso can neither
reach 100 cents American nor can it be worth less than 50 cents. In
seeking this just limit, it should be observed that the average rate of
exchange on New York was during the last seven years 45.45 per
cent premium, as shown by the above figures. It should also be
understood that the last year and the present one, owing to abnormal
exceptions, have caused the rate to be higher.

According to the statistics of our custom-houses, the imports have
diminished considerably, and this, in conjunction with the fact that
the promising appearance of large crops of coffee and sugar, our two
principal productions, makes it patent that our exchange market will
soon be flooded by offerings of drafts on New York and London.
These offerings not being counterbalanced, as in previous years, by
the demand for drafts, the exchange market, following its natural
course, would not be long in falling to rates perhaps lower than those
of 1891 to 1897.

Still more. Always taking into account the statement made at the
beginning of this volume, that the problem of the substitution of this
money is a very complex one, in the treatment of which neither extreme
should be touched, it may be added that our stock of circulating
medium is extremely small and that after the blow received when the
Mexican coin was taken out of circulation at a discount of 5 per cent,
for which the country has never seen any return, the country can not

474

see with indifference another change nor suffer another and more seri-
ous mutilation of the capital in circulation.

For this reason it was stated that if in the exchange our money were
received at too low a value, capital would receive a heavy blow, and
although for the moment debtors would appear to be favored in pro-
portion, this would be imaginary only — simply the contraction of capi-
tal— and lenders would no longer be able to continue loaning to agri-
culturists or business men to anything like the extent they had for-
merly done. Although we have no doubt that later on capital from
outside will undoubtedly flow into the island and help reestablish our
equilibrium, we are not among those who think that this help will
come immediately nor, much less, free from the evils which absentee-
ism brings in its train.

For these and other considerations this bank considers that the
valuation of our peso at 75 cents American gold, which is equivalent
to a premium of 33^ per cent, is a rate harmonious to both interests,
and will be found conciliatory to the different elements of our
economical local life.

Once the rate fixed in a manner, to our way of thinking, precise and
clear, it remains for us to express an opinion as to how the operation
should be carried into effect, without any intention on our part of
entering into details, the arrangement of which will be the duty of
the Government.

In this matter we declare ourselves frankly partisans of a change
quick and radical. We say immediate because of the damage to
business caused by the paralyzation induced by the uncertainty of
the present state of affairs, and to signify that in our judgment the
settlement should not be delayed beyond December or January next,
the period coincident with that of low-priced exchange, and radical
because we wish the real effective substitution for once and forever
of the American dollar for the colonial peso.

This last observation was suggested by an article seen by us in a
New York paper, which states that perhaps the United States Gov-
ernment will limit itself to fixing an invariable relation of value
between the dollar and the peso, keeping the last named in circula-
tion at the prefixed rate. This solution, in our opinion, would be
both inefficacious and dangerous — inefficacious, because this fixed rate
would after a time become official onty and conventional, and would
soon be at variance with the commercial value of the rnone}7, giving
rise to mercantile speculations; and dangerous, because as soon as
the commercial and official rates differed, the latter being higher than
the former, this difference would stimulate false coining even of
pieces of the same weight and fineness.

We, therefore, are of the opinion that this question should only be
settled after the most careful study, but that study should not be put
off and delayed. Once the rate be settled, the exchange should be
immediately effected; a short time only be given to retire from cir-
culation the nioney now in use, to be either recoined or entirely
demonetized.

As regards the effecting of the exchange by the simple means of
never returning into circulation the pesos received through the custom-
houses and other Government offices, the same being sent to the United
States and substituted by American dollars, this plan would only
increase our ills by diminishing our circulation and leaving uncared
for the principal part of the problem, which is relative to the settle-
ment of pending debits and credits.

475

So absurd does this proceeding appear to us that we will not even
give it the honor of study or refutation.
San Juan, P. R., October ££, 1898.

THE MOST EQUITABLE PLAN.
By L. M. Cintron, merchant and sugar planter.

Fajardo, P. R., October 28, 1898.

In view of the great discord existing between the various cities of
this island as regards the value of American money, the premium on
which fluctuates from 50 per cent to 100 per cent, and the value con-
ceded to colonial money by the custom-house, the want of equilibrium
constitutes great prejudice for some merchants and is the basis of
enormous speculations by banking houses and importers of this island.
The banking houses buy American money at 60 per cent and sell
their drafts at 75 per cent, whereas importers buy American money at
the same price and have it accepted in the custom-house at 100 per
cent.

I think the most equitable and just plan which can be adopted is
the following: Taking it for granted that existing obligations date
back about five years, and that the rate of exchange during that
period has fluctuated between 70 per cent and 125 per cent premium,
at which, and sometimes a greater, rate commerce has mostly made its
calculations, it would be equitable to fix the rate of 75 per cent for
the liquidation of pending obligations and for the exchange of the
circulating provincial money.

AMOUNT OF SILVER IN PORTO RICO.
By Carlos M. Soler, subgovernor of the Spanish Bank of Porto Rico.

The amount of coin in circulation in this country is notoriously too
small in proportion to the number of its inhabitants and the amount
of business transacted. This shortage can, of course, not be remedied
artificially, but will tend to correct itself when the causes producing
it have been removed. In spite of the fact that exports from the
island have been of greater amount than its imports, there has not
been the consequent influx of money which naturally might have
been expected. On the contrary, the opposite has always been the
case. The amounts collected for royal dues (derechos reales) and
other forms of taxation have been remitted to the treasury in Spain.
A force of about 5,000 soldiers has been paid from amounts collected
in Porto' Rico, and of these salaries a portion was always remitted
both by soldiers and officers to their families in the Peninsula. Mer-
chants in Porto Rico, the great majority of whom are Spaniards,
have almost invariably returned to their native country when suffi-
ciently enriched, taking with them their entire fortunes. I consider
that the new regime will tend naturally to alleviate the scarcity of
circulating medium, but some years will elapse before a just equilibrium
can be established.

When in 1895 the central Government decided to retire from circu-
lation in Porto Rico the Mexican dollar and substitute therefor the

476

colonial peso, which could only circulate in the island, it was estimated
that at least ^30,01)0,000 would have to be coined to provide for the
substitution. The finances of Spain at that time were not in a position
to obtain and coin sufficient silver to effect the substitution, so a plan
was decided on under which provisional certificates were issued against
Mexican dollars paid in, which certificates should be redeemed as the
colonial currency might be melted up and recoined. All importation
of Mexican dollars was from that date made contraband, but a large
quantity was smuggled in by prominent merchants. The exchange
was effected at dollar for dollar, less 5 per cent on the Mexican dollar,
and to the great astonishment of everyone only about $7,000,000 were
offered for exchange, this being apparently the amount of coin in cir-
culation. The provisional certificates were therefore at once redeemed,
and the new currency became legal tender.

The exact amounts of colonial silver employed in this operation were
as follows: $5,561,000 in dollar pieces, $1,015,000 in fractional silver,
in addition to which 170,000 in Spanish copper coin was introduced.
It being cheaper to export this copper coin than to buy drafts, about
120,000 of it was at once remitted by merchants to Spain before the
authorities became aware of the fact. To avoid the complete deple-
tion of the island of its copper currency, the remaining copper coins
were punched, making them illegal tender in Spain, thus stopping
their exportation.

The amount of coin has been further reduced by the estimated
quantity of $600,000, taken by the evacuating troops to Spain under
special permission of the Spanish Government which will redeem
them at par for Spanish currency.

I estimate the amount owing by merchants in this island to their
creditors in Europe at not more than $30,000,000. This is quite a
liberal estimate, and is much less than in former years.

As regards rates of interest formerly prevailing, when this bank
took over the business of its predecessors several years ago, the rate
was 12 per cent minimum and 18 per cent maximum per annum. This
rate lasted until 1878, but even now is frequent among private money
lenders. Our official rate is now from 8 per cent to 9 per cent
annually and private bankers' rates from 9 per cent to 10 per cent.

Our statutes allow us to advance money for terms of six months,
but we have limited loans and discounts to a period of three months
during these abnormal times.

I wish to press the following point, which should greatly influence
legislation respecting the settlement of outstanding liabilities. Mer-
cantile credits for goods have been given for periods of as long as two
years. Some private loans on mortgage will not fall due for four, six,
and even ten years.

The Hypothecary Bank has loans which will not mature for ten,
fifteen, and twenty years.

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1898.

San Juan, P. R., October 29, 1898.

STATEMENT OF ME. KORBER, OF THE BANKING FIRM OF MtJLLENHOF & KORBER.

The substitution of United States coinage for the present colonial
currency should be effected at the rate of 66 cents gold for $1 Porto
Rican. He bases his opinion on the average gold value of the colonial

477

peso since its introduction in 1895, ascertained by consulting the rates
of exchange on the United States since that date until the beginning
of the war or shortly before. Immediately before the war exchange
rose violently, but that was caused by the lack of confidence of mer-
chants in local banks, and all who could remitted their money to
Europe, thus causing an immense demand for drafts. This fact should
have no part in determining at what rate the money is to be exchanged
for United States currency, being purely fortuitous and temporary.
He thinks that existing obligations between debtor and creditor should
be liquidated in gold, at the gold equivalent — as shown by the rate of
exchange on the United States — of the amount in pesos owing at the
date of contracting the obligation. Thus the debtor would not be
called on to pay, neither would the creditor receive, a larger amount
in gold than could have been purchased with the amount of the obli-
gation at the date of incurring said obligation.

The question of settling outstanding obligations is of far more impor-
tance than the mere exchange of the 5,000,000 pesos of circulating cur-
rency, as unliquidated obligations between debtor and creditor are
certainly not less in amount than 30,000,000 pesos, and do not exceed
50,000,000 pesos.

The substitution should be made as soon as possible, and, once deter-
mined on, only a short time should be allowed for the exchange to be
made, to prevent speculation or hoarding of colonial money. Although
as a private individual I should like at least fifteen days' notice before
the exchange is intended to be made, and should also like to know in
anticipation at what rate this will be effected, I think perhaps it would
be wiser not to make the rate known until the actual moment occurs
for making the exchange, although it maybe said that everyone would
be in receipt of the same information and theoretically no one would
be favored thereby. On no account must any compromise in the
character of the new coinage to be substituted be made — no coin
with one face, as in the States, and the reverse some special design,
but straightout American money. Otherwise exchange on foreign
markets will continue a matter of speculation in the hands of bankers,
as the coin would not be acceptable in the markets of the world in
settlements of balances. Neither do I consider it desirable to intro-
duce gold coin, as such w.ould be exported by merchants to Spain to
cover speculations in the rise and fall of that precious metal in the
Peninsula. The money introduced should be silver and bills, which
would serve the purpose of establishing the gold basis of the United
States in this island, and, having the same guaranty as enjoyed in
the United States, would of course pass for their full value, while not
lending themselves conveniently for purposes of export specie specu-
lations. Also a certain amount of subsidiary copper money must be
introduced for the purposes of small traders and purchasers.

It is evident to every merchant here that exchange must soon fall
greatly, thus appreciating the local and purchasing value of the peso
and making more necessary the prompt substitution of United States
currency. The reasons are threefold :

First. Merchants do not owe as much money in Europe as in former
years, their credits having been curtailed since difficulties began to
be anticipated between Spain and the United States, and also owing
to the fact that they have been urged by their European creditors to
cover their liabilities as much as possible. This they have done, and
as a consequence are not such heavy buyers of exchange as formerly.

Second. The amount of exchange offering will shortly be greatly

478

augmented by drafts drawn against the sugar and coffee crops which
will soon be harvested.

Third. The amount of merchandise imported has greatly decreased
during 1898, owing to the war and its anticipation, making the balance
against the island much smaller than in other years, and furnishing
another reason for the small demand for exchange.

POINTS TO BE CONSIDERED.
STATEMENT OF FRITZE, LUNDT & CO., BANKERS, OF MAYAGTJEZ.

Since 1885, when the importation of "Mexicans" was prohibited,
exchange has been governed exclusively by the law of supply and
demand.

The substitution of provincial pesos in 1895 was followed by a rise
of exchange, due partly to a large issue of paper money and partly
to the Cuban war and war in the United States.

A table of exchange on New York for the past nine years shows an
increase in the yearly average from 21 in 1891 to (38-J- in 1895.

The average in 1896 was 52i; in 1897, 67£; the highest, in-1898, was
125, in May.

The outstanding debts were contracted at various times, some when
exchange was 10 to 20 per cent, and the latest when it was 40 to 60
per cent, scarcely any having been contracted at a higher rate than
60 per cent.

To reach a just basis the average exchange of eight or ten years
should be taken.

If the change were made at 75 per cent or 100 per cent premium it
would work the ruin of many firms and families.

All sales of property, all mortgages, and all business transactions
have been based on values ranging from 20 to 60 per cent.

The currency in Porto Rico has been the Mexican dollar, with free
import and export until 1885. In the said year import was positively
prohibited, owing to the depreciation of silver abroad and with the
intention of keeping exchange down. But the frequent and more or
less important attempts at smuggling alwajTs influenced exchange to
a certain extent. From this date our exchange was exclusively gov-
erned by demand or supply of money and drafts.

In February, 1895, exchange rose suddenly and fully 30 per cent
within a few days, owing to the smuggling of 8600,000 Mexican silver;
but it dropped down almost as fast when the momentary requirement
of drafts was covered.

In December, 1895, our money was changed into the actual " peso
provincial " or Porto Rico dollar, which is coined with the very same
weight and fineness as the Spanish dollar and in actual silver value is
worth about 1 cent less than the United States silver dollar.

This dollar was made with the intention of giving it free admission
to Spain at a later date. It was not admitted at once, because it was
not known what quantity of money existed in Porto Rico. Exagger-
ated estimates were the cause of this resolution. The value of this
dollar for payments to the treasury, as compared with Spanish gold,
was stipulated at 20 per cent.

After the Porto Rico money was put in circulation exchange con-
tinued very steady at about 50 per cent premium on New York, and

479

the scarcity of coined money justified the hope that exchange would
gradually go down to 20 per cent; but the Banco Espanol of Porto
Rico commenced to issue an unreasonable amount of paper money,
which of course increased and deteriorated the actual money stock.
The issue of this paper money, circulating with and not instead of
actual silver, amounted up to $2,580,000, and the silver to about five
and a half or six millions. Thus the increase of our money stock
amounted to 50 or 60 per cent.

Another reason for the upward tendency of our rates of exchange
was the war in Cuba and the decrease of confidence resulting there-
from, culminating in a panic during the war with the United States.

As soon as peace had been declared confidence returned, both in
Spain and Porto Rico, and furthermore, as the paper money will
probably be withdrawn, its issue not being in harmony with American
laws, our money will be much more solid, and exchange lower in con-
sequence.

The following gives an exact statement of all quotations of exchange
on the 1st of every month for sight drafts on New York since 1890 :

Month.

1890.

1891.

1892.

1893.

1894.

1895.

1896.

1897.

1898.

Per ct.
31
24
23
24
27
28
26
20
14
16
16
18

Per ct.
21
20
30
19
30
21
23
23
23
32
31
20

Per ct.
33

254

27"

Per ct.
31
284
284-
324
33
40

434;

43
42
41

42
42

Per ct.
43
43
49
52
62
51
53
54
64
61
53
56

Per ct.

58
83
64
64
67
72
73
73
71
71
67
58

Per ct.
51
49
50
49

484;

60
58
61
61
57
61
62

Per ct.

584;

61"
63
69

67
67
69
75

74
72
64
68

Per ct.

March

May

June

July-..

August

125
119
119
115
80

December

Average

21*

274,-

37J

534

684,

554

674;

Note.— Mexican dollars, 1890-1895; provincial money, 1898-1898.

It is almost unnecessary to add that the intrinsic value of a silver
dollar has nothing or very little to do with its trade value, the best
proof of this being a comparison between the United States dollar and
the Spanish and ours. They are all of the same intrinsic value, but
one is backed by a powerful nation and the others by a poor one.

The question of the change, of course, not only affects the coined
money, but all floating debts, contracts, and mortgages are equally
affected and must be liquidated at the same rate when they become
due. It may be taken as certain that a great number of these were
made when exchange ranged from 10 to 20 per cent, some when it was
20 to 40 per cent, some, the latest, when it was 40 to 60 per cent, and
none or almost none at a higher rate of exchange than 60 per cent.

All those who owe large amounts claim the highest possible rate, in
order to reduce their debts accordingly, and those who possess money
or property of course wish to lose as little as possible and demand a
low rate.

It will be difficult to find a basis to satisfy all concerned, and in
order to prejudice as little as possible the interest of one and another
the average of eight or ten years ought to be taken.

If the change were made at 75 or 100 per cent premium, many firms
and families would be siniply ruined, and this would be a very sad
commencement of American legislation in our country.

All sales of property, mortgages, and business transactions are based

480

on the value of our money, ranging from 20 to 60 per cent. The rate of
100 per cent has never existed. Even during the war months almost
no transactions were made at this rate, and the financial position of a
country can not be judged by what occurs in the months of danger
and panic.
Mayaguez, P. R., November 3, 1898.

THE RATE SHOULD BE TWO FOR ONE.
By the successors to A. J. Alcaide.

This, we understand, is the most important of all questions, and the
changing of our provincial silver currency for American currency
must be done at once.

Till this is done everything will be in a state of disturbance com-
mercially, the value of gold quoted at any price.

We propose that the change be made at 100 per cent premium —
that is to say, what is commonly called two for one; for every Porto
Rican dollar the holder to be given fifty cents American coin.

Fifty cents represents the average value between the intrinsic worth
of the coin and the value it has reached here in the commercial trans-
actions.

We also propose this measure for the easiness of the operation,
which could be understood better by the working classes. It would
settle the labor question, for bringing in this way the country to a
gold basis the high exchange disappears, and of course everything
will be sold cheaper — at almost half the prices of to-day for the nec-
essaries of life. Labor will naturally come down to its gold equivalent
from the silver rates of to-day.

As between those who want the money to be taken only for its
intrinsic value and the others, who want it to be changed at higher
rates, we stand in the middle way, and recommend this solution of
changing our currency for United States currency at what is com-
monly called two for one.

The operation of the exchange could be done in a week in all the
island, and the difference resulting between the 50 cents value given
to our coin and the net sales result of the silver in the United States
could be charged to our budget, to be paid in five years — one-fifth each
year.

We believe 100 per cent is a just and equitable rate.

Our foreign exchange has fluctuated in the last five years between
50 and 140 per cent premium. You will plainly see that 100 per cent
premium is an average, and by it the solution of the problem is
clearer and easier, and for that reason we take the liberty to pro-
pose it.

Arroyo, P. R., November 4, 1898.

OPINION IN MAYAGUEZ.

PROPOSAL OF THE BANKERS, MERCHANTS, AND PROPRIETORS OF MAYAGUEZ, P. R.,
NOVEMBER 5, 1898, THIRTY-TWO FIRMS BEING REPRESENTED.

To exchange our provincial money for American money at the pre-
mium of 50 per cent on same — i. e. , to give a value of 66f cents, United
States currency, to 1 peso — according to the resolution of the Creditoy

481

Ahorro Panceno. Against this proposal only voted Mr. Martinez and
Mr. Primitivo and Pedro Grau, who are of the opinion that the change
should be effected without any more loss to the holder of our money
than the real expenses for melting, recoining, etc. We would there-
fore recommend that the greater amount of nioney "be in gold and
silver coin, because the great majority of the poor and laboring classes
can not read, and besides, not being used in the interior to paper
money, great difficulty would arise, especially at the beginning.

OPINION IN PONCE.

The bankers, merchants, and agriculturists of Ponce, at a meeting
held November 5, b}^ a vote of 14 to 2, favored the adoption of the
rate of $1.50 to $1 in exchange of Porto Rican money for United States
currency, allowing the peso to be worth 66f cents American. One of
the dissidents wanted the exchange made at par, the other at $2 for $1.

THE AGRICULTURAL INTEREST.
STATEMENT OF J. C. M'CORMICK.

Arroyo, P. R., November 7, 1898.

I have been for many years engaged in. mercantile pursuits in this
pai*t of the island and have a thorough knowledge of what in reality
the greater part of the inhabitants desire.

The mainstay of this island is its agriculture, sugar, coffee, tobacco,
and cattle; and if a personal canvass were taken, you would find them
as a class opposed to the absurd propositions of half a dozen banks,
money brokers, and exchange and wholesale merchants" regarding the
change of our Porto Rico dollars.

These' parties, the holders of the Porto Rico dollars, are not peti-
tioning for the public good, but for their sole personal benefit, and
there is as much reason to change dollar for dollar as to change, as
they desire, at 85 cents gold for each Porto Rico dollar, or 70 cents
gold, or for any other rate that is not for its intrinsic value. Their
wish is that the difference between the intrinsic value and 85 cents,
that they wish the money to be changed to, should be paid by a tax to
be levied on the island. For what reason should the island be taxed
in order that two or three dozen men or mercantile firms who hold
the Porto Rico dollars should be enriched? This would not be equi^
table nor just. It can not be that the whole island should be taxed
and a burden laid on it in order that speculators who have worked
for these ends should be enriched.

For months before the United States Army arrived in Porto Rico
exchange on New York was from 100 per cent to 150 per cent premium.
The sugar, coffee, tobacco, and cattle dealers, and, in fact, the whole
island, bought their supplies on credit from the merchants at prices
which covered these rates of exchange ; and now that the coffee and
sugar crop is coming in, the merchants, brokers, and banks have com-
bined to depreciate exchange and get it down to as low a point as
possible, so as to get back from all these planters their nioney which
1125 31

482

they had put out at 100 per cent to 150 per cent; exchange at 50 per
cent and even 40 per cent.

The greater part of the taxpayers in this island are the agricul-
turists, and it would be an outrage to change Porto Rico dollars at
85 cents or 70 cents United States currency and charge the loss to the
island budget, as it would, in fact, make the agriculturist, who has
paid or bought his goods at 150 per cent, pay again the difference of
those dollars from their intrinsic value to 85 cents or 70 cents United
States currency.

Another matter which should not be overlooked is that nothing is
easier for unscrupulous people than to coin in Spain or some other
foreign country the Porto Rico dollars, and what the profits would be
if these dollars are given a value above their intrinsic one can not be
calculated. It is an open secret that firms in this island were engaged
in the smuggling of Mexican dollars when their importation was pro-
hibited in 1885. So if a higher value is given to the Porto Rico dollar
than its intrinsic one, we run the risk of the island being flooded with
them, to the profit of unscrupulous people.

Lastly, it is against the principles of the United States Government
to give a false value to a base silver dollar unrecognized by any gov-
ernment, and if Ave are Americans to-day we must be judged and
governed by American ways and laws, and no juggling should be
permitted with our Porto Rico dollars to the benefit of a clique.

EXCHANGE OF PORTO RIG AN MONEY.
By Messrs. A. Hartman & Co.

We think it would be a most equitable course if the United States
took up at once the Porto Rican currencj' at the rate of 50 cents United
States currency for the Porto Rican peso, for this represents the aver-
age value between the intrinsic value of the coin' and the value it has
reached in commercial transactions. The loss entailed on the United
States by this operation of giving 50 cents for a coin worth about 39
cents should be charged to the Porto Rican budget, payable in a cer-
tain number of years, say four years. This would also settle the labor
question, as the working classess would then know what they are get-
ting, which at present they can not know, owing to the constant fluc-
tuations of the money markets. The peso should be taken up at once,
so as not to give time for operations, like those of 1886, when the impor-
tation of Mexican silver was prohibited and when it was smuggled into
the island in large quantities. This would happen now if the United
States recognized the Rorto Rican peso for anything over its actual
intrinsic value and did not take it out of circulation at once. The
dies for said coin still exist in Spain, and coinage is a very profitable
business. Certainly the Spaniards have no love for the Americans
and thej7 would not hesitate to coin large quantities of Porto Rican
pesos, in full weight and fineness, when by that operation they would
gain 10 to 11 cents gold per peso. There are certainly lots of Spanish
firms in the island that would help their friends to carry on such a
profitable business.

Arroyo, P. R., November 7, 1898.

483

THE RATE OF EXCHANGE.
By Eustoquio Torres, Mayor of Guayanilla.

One of the problems most affecting the country's welfare is without
doubt the money question. ,

Although everyone recognizes the necessity of changing the circu-
lating currency for another system which will remove the inconven-
iences presented by the present system, the form or manner of the
"canje" is the subject of much discussion. Many are the formulas
presented, Avhich claim not to satisfy one party at the expense of
another, but up to date none has been accepted as satisfying all
interests. The generality of agriculturists of medium means, which
class is the most numerous, and the small cultivators, all of whom, with
but rare exceptions, have lived on credit, are in debt for large amounts.
These see that if the "canje" is to be made at par, and they have to
liquidate their obligations on this basis, they and the entire agricul-
tural interests would be ruined. This being the principal source of
wealth of the island, it is clear that its future should not be viewed
with indifference, but should be well considered in the settlement of
this most important problem.

After having heard and analyzed the different opinions offered on
this subject, I think the solution most in harmony with all interests
would be the exchange for gold at 70 per cent, demonetizing the
provincial currency and recoining it with the American stamp and
design.

Guayanilla, P. R., November 8, 1898.

THE AMERICAN DOLLAR FOR THE ISLAND.

San JuAn, P. P., November 8, 1898.

STATEMENT OF UNITED STATES CONSUL PHILIP C. HANNA.

It is my opinion that as soon as possible the American dollar should
be made the basis of trade for this group of islands. For years past
the constant fluctuation of the monetary unit of this country has
greatly interfered with all internal and foreign commercial transac-
tions among the merchants and people of Porto Rico. The peso, which
is now the basis of trade, is a very uncertain quantity, and as long
as the commerce of the island is builded upon so uncertain a founda-
tion no commercial enterprise can be considered solid or substantial.

The wholesale merchant who buys his goods in the United States or
Europe and is compelled to pay for them in gold or the equivalent
thereof must sell these goods to the retail merchant for a much higher
price than he could sell them for if there was a fixed and stable cur-
rency for the island. The term of credit has usually been six months
in buying goods in foreign countries. During those six months no
dealer can tell how much the peso will fluctuate. Since I have been
in Porto Rico I have known the peso within the period of six months
to have a value, as compared with American gold, of 74 cents and
also of 37 cents — that is, at one time within the six months 1.35 pesos
would purchase an American dollar, and at another time within the
six months 2.70 pesos were required to purchase the same dollar. It
is therefore plainly seen that merchants selling goods on long credits

484

must, in order to protect themselves against bankruptcy and ruin,
provide for these great changes in the value of the peso. This
country can never become American in the true sense of the term
until the basis of trade is regular and fixed. It appears to be the
unanimous cry from every part of this group of islands and from all
classes of people that the American dollar should be made the basis
of trade.

However, the old debts of the island must be taken into considera-
tion. All mortgages, notes, and debts of the past in other forms are
represented by pesos, and it would be an injustice to that class of
people who are bearing the heavy burdens of debt which rest upon a
very large part of the- sugar planters and estate owners of the island,
and who haVe borrowed cheap pesos, giving mortgages upon their
estates as security therefor, if, when these debts become due, they
were compelled to cancel them with a more valuable money than they
received at the time the loan was made and the mortgage given. For
instance, I have in mind a sugar planter who, in the month of June,
was compelled to borrow 10,000 pesos in order to save his estate. The
peso at that time had a value of about 40 cents as compared with
American gold. He gave a mortgage upon his plantation for 10,000
pesos, payable in five years, at 12 per cent interest. It is plainly seen
that the true value of what he received from the bank amounted to
only about $4,000, American money. There is a desire and a scheme
on foot among the bankers and money lenders of the island to compel
these men who are in debt to pay their debts in dollars when their
debts become due. In the case of this sugar planter, in addition to
his paying 12 per cent for five years, he would be compelled at the
end of that period to pay 110,000 for the $4,000 he received, which
would mean ruin to the planter and fatness to the banker.

I am of the opinion that the Government of the United States, in
dealing with the financial question of this island, should carefully
take into consideration the average value of the peso and should
determine by law how much in American money a peso should repre-
sent as a debt-paying medium, and that all debts of the past which
have been made in pesos should be canceled in pesos, even though
pesos should not be continued to be coined and circulated hereafter.
A very large number of the plantation owners are in debt and it
would be an utter impossibility for them to cancel their peso debts
with the same number of dollars or even with the same number of
pesos if the peso should be allowed to be exalted and have a fictitious
value of, say, from 85 cents to 95 cents American money, as the
bankers of the island are suggesting. Debts made at a time when
the peso only represented 40 cents American money should be can-
celed with 40 cents American money. I do not believe it to be to the
interest of the island or of the United States to pay more for the Porto
Rican peso than its actual bullion value. The only class who would
receive a benefit by the United States declaring the peso to be worth
80 or 90 cents or more would be the rich men of the island, who have
large amounts of money on deposit, and they are few in number and
consist almost entirely of bankers Avho have grown rich in gambling
upon the fluctuation of Porto Rican money.

If the United States should see fit to allow more than the actual
bullion value for these silver pesos of Porto Rico, it is highly impor-
tant that this coin be redeemed immediately, for should it become
known that the United States had a purpose to pay more than the
actual bullion value for the silver of Porto Rico, I see no reason why

485

millions of Porto Rican pesos could not be coined and shipped to this
country from every part of the world; There are parties in Europe,
undoubtedly, in possession of the same dies and minting machinery,
and if they could sell these pesos in Porto Rico for 75 or 80 cents,
which contain less than 40 cents' worth of silver, the temptation would
be very great for them to engage in such a transaction. Similar
things have occurred in South America with the coin of regular gov-
ernments. At one time the Venezuelan peso, which circulated at par
with Venezuelan gold and was considered the best silver coin of any of
the South American republics, was counterfeited by European firms
and the whole West India Islands were filled with Venezuelan silver
money until the situation became so bad that the Venezuelan Gov-
ernment had to pass a law refusing the importation of Venezuelan
silver coin, and even the coin which had been minted at their own
mints was prohibited from entering the country. I apprehend that
the temptation would be much greater in the case of Porto Rican coin,
which is not the coin of any nation, but a special coin for the island
of Porto Rico, and I doubt whether it would be held to be a crime for
persons to mint Porto Rican pesos, provided they contained the same
amount of silver.

I believe that the United States could take up the silver coin of
Porto Rico, which at present appears to amount to less than 6,000,000
pesos, and remit these pesos for the special use of the island. On
one side of the coin let it read, " One Porto Rican peso," and let that
peso stand good for the debts of the past contracted in pesos; then,
having determined the proper and true relation of this coin to Amer-
ican money, stamp on the other side of the coin the number of cents
that this coin is worth in the money of the United States. For exam-
ple, " United States of America, fortj<-five cents," or "fifty-five cents,"
or whatever amount the Government sees fit to pay for the coin.
This would fix the relation of the peso to the American dollar and
put a final stop, to the fluctuation of the peso, and, at the same time;
there would be in existence a kind of money with which to pay the
old debts of the past.

For the temporary relief of the island I believe it important that)
the Government should order that all customs and other dues qf
whatever nature be collectible in American money only. This will
greatly add to the volume of circulation in the island and will raise
the American dollar to the place which it rightfully should fill. At
the present time duties are collected in Porto Rican money instead or
American money, which has the effect of making Porto Rican money
first and American money second in the island. Since duties, under
the existing order, must be paid in Porto Rican money, the supply of
which is limited, it becomes an easy matter for the bankers of the
island to corner the money market and charge the merchants what-
ever they may feel disposed to demand. If our Government should
order that all duties be paid in American money, the supply of Amer-
ican money being unlimited, the American money market could not
be cornered by the bankers ; the American dollar would immediately
be in demand, and there being no longer • a special demand for the
Porto Rican peso, the bankers would cease tying it up in their vaults
and it would find its way into circulation and be employed in the
local business of the island at its proper value, and, in my opinion,
its rapid fluctuations would cease. This suggestion, however, is only
made for temporary relief, my former suggestion being intended for
permanent relief.

486

PORTO RICAN MONEY SHOULD BE RECALLED.
STATEMENT OF SENOR J. D. ABRIL.

Aguadilla, P. R., November 10, 1898.

There is one question of great interest for the country whose solu-
tion is eagerly awaited and which is producing great disturbance in
commerce, the artery of life in the towns. I refer to the exchange of
our provincial money now in circulation, whose valuation with respect
to the United States coinage is a matter which should be promptly
settled. . The meeting held in San Juan the 30th of October purposely
abstained from passing resolutions on this matter, it being without
doubt one of the most delicate questions, perhaps the most complex,
among those whose immediate solution is necessary for the existence
and future of Porto Rico. A sc rupulous analysis of the question
should be made in order not to disregard the many interests and so as
not to induce a general crisis which could envelop Porto Rico in
external bankruptcy, resulting not only to the grave prejudice of inter-
ests here, but in the United States and Europe, wherever our commer-
cial relations extend.

The complexity of the question is not only in the material exchange
of our six or seven millions of pesos now in circulation; if that were
all, the problem would be simple and practicable. The real difficulty
consists in the fact that the rate fixed for the exchange will form the
base of the liquidation of the floating debt, or obligations due or falling
due, balances of accounts current, and other similar and analogous
acts and contracts which commerce and institutions of credit main-
tain with agriculturists and the people in general, and whose amount
is estimated at about seventy to eighty millions.

The simple enunciation of these facts is sufficient to make under-
stood the antagonisms which will immediately arise between creditors
and debtors when the money question is broached. The first would
like to see the exchange made at par or at a low rate, so as to leave
his capital intact; the second would prefer the exchange to be made
at as great a discount, so as to see reduced their obligations and unpaid
contracts. For this reason agricultural interests, generally in a state
of indebtedness and in numbers far exceeding the mercantile class,
are crying out for exchange at a very high rate, while towns, where
interests are inverse, sustain the theory that it should be effected at
par or at a slight discount.

Congress in Washington should seek an equitable formula between
these two antagonistic factions, so as to prevent discord and lawsuits.

When in 1879 Mexican dollars were imported here the gold basis
was established ipso facto, and although that metal complete^ disap-
peared from circulation as a monetary unit, giving place to the Mexi-
can dollar, all operations have been based on the gold standard. The
two social classes, agriculture and commerce, who are the chief han-
dlers of public wealth, have suffered or enjoyed equally the advan-
tages or losses produced by the system; and while the importing mer-
chant has had to pay his merchandise in Europe or in the United
States at whatever rate of exchange was ruling, the agriculturist, on
selling his produce, has obtained the benefit of the higher or lower
rate quoted when making the sale. Therefore, neither of the two
classes, to-day so antagonistic, can pretend to find in past rates of
exchange a reason justifying the establishment of a rate for the
"canje" prejudicial to the other.

487

Most persons studying this important problem take their stand on
the rates of exchange in Porto Rico which have been quoted for
American money, and some have taken an average rate covering a
certain number of years. We think that those commit a great error,
as the special nature of our money, which can only circulate in the
island, prevents it being quoted in any of the markets of the United
States or Europe, and it is clear that there can be no exact basis for
determining the difference of commercial value of our money with
that of the American which has to take its place.

On the other hand, the rates of exchange, former and present, for
United States money have never been based on the value of our colo-
nial money, but have obeyed only and solely the oscillations caused by
demand and supply. Thus, for example, during the Spanish- American
war, when our commercial relations were interrupted, exchange
reached 140 per cent; whereas to-day, in spite of there being no
exports to the United States and of the fact that the custom-houses
admit American bank notes at 100 per cent for payment of import
duties, there are houses drawing exchange on New York and other
American centers at 66 per cent. What influence, then, does our
money, which enjoys here a fixed and invariable commercial value,
exert? Doubtless none at all.

The considerations above mentioned make it appear logical and
just to call in the Porto Rican money and replace it by United States
silver money, charging the difference existing in the intrinsic value
of both to the general estimates of the island and adding likewise
thereto the cost of transport and coinage.

It is certain that the antagonism existing between the two classes,
creditors and debtors, would then disappear, as pending obligations
would be liquidated at par without discount and without prejudice to
any of the classes holding public wealth. The danger of a crisis, which
an unconsidered solution, reducing by 50 per cent the value of our
money with all the losses such would occasion, and whose scope it is
difficult to predict, would also be overcome.

THE GOLD STANDARD.
' STATEMENT OF ESCOTASTICO PEREZ.

Cidra, P. R., November 10, 1898.

The system to be introduced should be that which, while not con-
flicting with the rights of the Union, should care for agricultural inter-
ests. The gold standard has been our dream for a long time.

It is very lamentable, especially among the agriculturists, owing to
want of credit and means of support for their plantations [original
says " refaccion," which means the advances made by merchants to be
paid for at harvest] . This shows the necessity for the establishment
of banks with branches in the departments to offer facilities to agri-
culture, the prime source of public wealth.

Unforeseen disasters of war and the death of credit make necessary
an extension of time for payment of debts — by law, if not otherwise
obtainable — in favor of country merchants, who were harder hit than
those in the capital. This appears to be a measure of strict justice,
and I do not understand why the merchants in San Juan have not
already taken initiative in the matter.

488

OPINION OF THE BOARD OF COMMERCE.

San Juan, P. R., December 6, 1899.

Ramon Garcia Saenz, secretary of the board of agriculture, manu-
facture, and commerce of Porto Rico, certifies that at the session
held on the 6th of December, 1898, with the object of studying the
best methods of effecting the substitution of coinage in circulation
and the emitting of an opinion as regards the formation and applica-
tion of a new tariff, after a full and fair discussion it was unani-
mously voted that the gold standard should be introduced immediately
and a value of 75 Cents United States currency given to the colonial
peso, as that is the value of the coin, according to the opinion of this
board. The substitution should be made without any charge what-
ever to the island.

The secretary of the interior, Dr. Salvador Carbonell, dissented and
thought the value should be fixed at 65 per cent and the difference
charged to the insular treasury, the difference being calculated on
the bullion value Of the peso, or say 41 cents gold.

UNIFICATION OF THE MONEY SYSTEM.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR CELESTINO DOMINGTJEZ.

Guayana, P. R., January, 1899.

The first and perhaps the most important of the modifications to be
introduced into Porto Rico is the unification of the money system with
that of the new country by establishing the gold basis. As this is the
foundation on which the prosperity of the island has to be built up,
it must be done immediately, after which other economic problems
can easily be solved, as living will be cheapened by one-half, and nat-
urally the country will be freer to undertake all sorts of enterprises.

Many plans can be adopted for the purpose of carrying out this
change, but it would be prolix to enumerate them. If it be taken
into account that our provincial peso has, in commerce, a purchasing
power of 100 centavos and that the government offices have also given
it that value, it will be seen that its sudden reduction to the value of
bullion would severely punish holders of the coin and that the banks
would suffer. It must be remembered that pur peso is equal in weight
to the silver coin of the United States and superior in fineness ; there-
fore it would not be just to make us accept the inferior coin at face
value and the superior one at bullion value. I do not think that the
new Government will follow the example of the late one, as gr^at and
wise nations do not make a speculation of their possessions, neither
will a generous nation like the United States add another misfortune
to our already long list.

My opinion is that there being so small an amount in circulation
here, the Government could recoin it and charge the difference and
expense to the funds of the insular treasury. One drop of water does
not increase the size of the ocean, so our insignificant coinage would
be lost in the enormous mass of American money like that drop in the '
ocean.

489

THE QUESTION OF EXCHANGE.

STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE TERRITORIAL AND AGRICUL-
TURAL BANK.

San Juan, P. R., October, 1899.

When the Spanish Government fixed the value of the Mexican dol-
lar in relation to that of the national money of Spain and changed it
for the provincial peso, it incurred the obligation under the decree of
1895 of assimilating later on the colonial currencj^ into the national
currency. This obligation, made in good faith, could liot have been
avoided. In virtue of this assimilation it would have been j>ossible
at any time to convert the colonial currency into gold at a premium
of 25 per cent or 30 per cent under normal circumstances, and this was
the original and natural solution of our monetary problem, to be given
effect later on. Having severed the relations with the old metropolis
and forming now part of another nation, making necessary constant
and important commercial relations, it is necessary to adopt one mon-
etary system for both countries, so that business can be established
and carried on without let or hindrance.

The necessity of the change of our monetary system being recog-
nized, it would be well to see under what conditions it could be
effected. If it were only necessary to make the material exchange of
the small amount of money in circulation, we would advise that
American money be substituted therefor, dollar for dollar, covering
the resultant difference by means of paper money, which would enter
into circulation at its full nominal value and would be taken up in a
certain number Of years by a charge on the budget of the island. By
this means the country would be saved from a diminution of its cir-
culating currency and would hold a greater amount of coinage with
which to attend to the almost numberless undertakings necessary for
the growth of its riches.

But besides the 4,500,000 or 5,000,000 pesos which exist in actual
cash there are perhaps 30,000,000 pesos Of debts, mortgages, etc.,
which have been contracted within the last ten years, and it would
not be just to make the change at par, because this would oblige the
debtor to pay in court the integral sum which he had received in sil-
ver and which was worth less with relation to gold at that time. It
would not be just, either, to lessen the fortune of those who are
holding actual cash, which would be done if the exchange were made as
the intrinsic value of the peso, because this money, thanks to its special
condition and the limited quantity of it coined, has always had a
commercial value far above its intrinsic value as silver. With the
object, then, of harmonizing the interests of the one with the interest
Of the other it appears just and equitable and convenient that the
value of provincial money should be fixed with relation to the Ameri-
can money according to the commercial and not the intrinsic value
of the first named as ascertained during the last ten years by refer-
ence to official exchange. The following will show the average rate
of premium of gold over silver in the last ten years :

Per cent.

In 1889 ..... 14

Inl890 9

In 1891 10

Inl892. 17

In 1893 27

Per cent.

In 1894 43

In 1895 57

In 1896 _.' 46

In 1897... 56

In 1898..... 63

Which gives an average for the ten years of $34.20 for
approximate value Of the provincial dollar of 75 cents gold.

or an
It should

490

be taken into account that exchange has been much higher since the
year 1875, at which time the Cuban revolution broke out and when
many fortunes were removed from this country, owing to the unsettled
state of affairs. Once accept this rate for the exchange of American
for Porto Rican money, and it should be carried out in the following
manner:

The 6,000,000 pesos in circulation to-day represent, at the rate of 75
cents gold, 4,500,000 American dollars. As at least 2,000,000 pesos of
silver money is necessary for our small transactions, we would have this
amount coined from the money at present in circulation, converting
it into American money. We would then be left with 4,000,000 pesos
to compensate for 3,000,000, which would have to be given in exchange
for American gold. The 4,000,000 pesos sold at 40 cents would give
$1,600,000 gold. There would then be a deficit of 1,400,000 pesos, or,
say, 1,500,000 pesos with the expense incurred in the operation.

This sum might be covered by means of a loan to the treasury,
redeemable in a certain number of years. Outstanding debts would
have a corresponding reduction made of 25 per cent of their value.
The exchange should be made as soon as the Americans have posses-
sion of the country, for while this matter is left in abeyance business
will be completely paralyzed, to the prejudice of everybody. The
American Government should take note that any steps taken toward
the settlement of the money questions of the island should be fol-
lowed by other measures protecting its agricultural interests, sugar
principally, which for many years has been suffering from a great
crisis from artificial causes, which unfortunately will take a long time
to disappear, and owes its continuance in Porto Rico to the premium
put on its production by the silver currency, without which its culti-
vation could not have been carried on.

The freedom from duty in the markets of the new metropolis, the
limitation of local taxation, good banking organization, which will
offer the agricultural interests money at a moderate rate of interest —
which measures, if adopted quickly, may still preserve the agricultural
interests from ruin, which the change of coinage would otherwise
produce.

UNIFORMITY OF MONEY SYSTEM.
STATEMENT OF RTJCABADO & CO.

Cayey, P. R., November, 1898.
The uniformity of the monetary system between this country and
the metropolis is an urgent necessity. Perhaps, if there is a long
delay in the substitution of money, we shall be subject to the intro-
duction of more silver of the same coinage which is to-day in circula-
tion, making much more difficult the operation which, under present
circumstances, .owing to the small amount of money in circulation, is
comparatively easy.

THE AMERICAN DOLLAR PREFERRED.
By SeSor Alrizu, of Pome, P. R.

The legal tender of Porto Rico should be the American dollar. A
law should be enacted at once establishing this, and the peso should
be exchanged at 2 for 1 in the treasury of each department. All

491

existing* debts should be settled at that ratio. The exchange should
be made in one month at the chief custom-house of each department,
at the expiration of which time the circulation of the peso should be
prohibited.

RATES OF EXCHANGE ON LONDON FOR BILLS FOR NINETY DAYS.

[Furnished by Mullenhoff & Korber, San Juan, P. R.]

Month.

1896.

1897

January _-.
February ..

March

April.

May

June ..

July

August

September .
October

November
December

$7.75, $7.30, $7.25

$7.25, $7,231, $7-37, $7.35

$7.371.

$7.25, $7.30, $7.331

$7.30

$7 70

$7! 75, $7"30," $7.731

$7.85, $7.90.. -

$7.77*, $7.60.

$7,573-, $7.70

$7,731, $7.60, $7.80, $7.85
$7.80, $7,771, $7.75, $7.70

$7.70, $7.67*, $7.65, $7.70, $7.80.

$7.70, $7.80," $7,871.

$7.90. $0.92*, $0.95, $8.00.

$8.07*, $8.10, $8.15.

$8.15, $8.10.

$8.10, $8,15.

$8.30.

$8.40, $8.50, $8.45, $8.40.

S8.40.

$8.20, $8.10,

30, $8,371, $5
58.05.

.971, $7.80,
$0.80, $8.00.
.90, $7.95, $8.

D.831, $0,871,

Fixed value,

.75 consequently equal to 55 per cent.

THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.
By Nine Residents op the Island of Vieques.

[Translation.]

The financial state of the island is highly precarious. Porto Rico
has passed through several severe economical crises, from which she
has suffered most painfully.

The monopoly exercised formerly, and still exercised by the whole-
sale merchants over the dawning agriculture of the country, has never
permitted its development and prosperity.

These merchants, in their greed for lucre and insatiable avarice, mis-
took the road they should have followed in order to obtain the positive
gains they wished, for.

Agriculture, which is our principal source of wealth and livelihood,
languished in the ratio that the merchant exploiters, absorbing and
weakening it in its growth, filled their coffers with large sums of
money, product of iniquitous speculations.

But the moment arrives where, prostrated and played out, without
recuperative force, it was no longer a profitable victim for commerce;
and then the crisis began to become more general.

Various other causes of not less importance have helped to bring
the country to its present condition of prostration and downfall —
before all, the fatal administration of the Spanish Government, which
taxed landowners and industries heavily, with the object of maintain-
ing vicious bodies of unnecessary bureaucrats, who stifled all initiative
and stopped and impeded all generous and active impulses.

Again, the substitution of Mexican currency by that sent us in an
evil hour by our old government — a currency which had no commer-
cial value and is not current in anj^ foreign market.

492

Add to this, among other causes which we omit, the heavy import
duties formerly and still paid by our most important products in our
principal market, the United States — duties which did and still do
diminish the narrow profits obtained by our poor industries.

To better this afflicted situation a powerful lever is necessary —
money; and above all, the establishment of banks.

The Agricultural and Territorial Bank of Porto Rico does not,
neither can it, respond to the needs of the agricultural interests of the
island, owing to want of funds. There is a need of banking estab-
lishments offering the guaranties and cash necessary to raise agricul-
ture from its prostration and offering help to the agriculturists at a
moderate interest. These banks, which would doubtless soon become
the motive power of our wealth, would of a certainty earn large
profits.

The establishment of agricultural syndicates would be a splendid
help to the growth of the material interests of this country.

Establish banks and syndicates, implant modern and scientific
methods, and Porto Rico, with its natural gifts and fertile soil, will
become an emporium of wealth, offering a healthy livelihood to all
social classes.

Our concrete opinion about the change of Spanish colonial money
and substitution by United States currency is that it should be done
as soon as possible and at 100 per cent premium. The colonial cur-
rency now in circulation should be called in at once in order to stop
the speculation caused by the rate of 2 for 1 officially exacted, and
that rate capriciously established by merchants for the admission of
American bills.

But it is necessary to remember, as being of vital importance and
interest, that the exchange of mone}^ systems and free coasting trade
should be decreed at one and the same time by the American Govern-
ment. The reason is simple. If the exchange preceded the free
coasting trade, the small profits obtained by agriculture would disap-
pear and the further ruin of this industry would follow.

Leopold Venega. A. V. Rieelsely.

Regalado Benitez. J. Benitez.

Antonio de Aldkey. Chas. Le Brun.

E. Benitez. (2 illegible names.)

Island of Vieques, P. R., November IS, 1898.

OPINION OF AGRICULTURISTS.

San Juan, P. R., November I, 1898.

We, the undersigned, sugar and coffee growers, cattle raisers, capi-
talists, agriculturists in general, owners of city property, merchants,
and workmen, respectfully set forth :

That at the time of the occupation of this territory by the United
States Army, commanded by General Miles, on the glorious 28th of
July, the rate of exchange on New York was 150 per cent premium.
In order to regulate administrative business the government issued
the wise order that American currency should be admitted at the
custom-house and in all official transactions at the rate of 2 for 1, or
100 per cent premium, with relation to the provincial money of Porto
Rico, which rate of 100 per cent continues in force for all official
transactions.

493

The banking houses and merchant money lenders, with insatiable
greed and with their accustomed system of exploitation, without con-
sidering the disturbances of every class which might occur, and which
unfortunately have occurred; without respecting the just indications
of General Miles, and ignoring the general welfare of the country, did
not hesitate in getting together, with often rare and honorable excep-
tions, to force a fall in the rate df exchange, and succeeded in pro-
ducing a disorderly drop, until in a general meeting of shareholders
of the Ponce Credit and Savings Bank, which institution is the mer-
cantile barometer of that district, besides influencing mercantile mat-
ters in other districts of the island, they resolved, in connivance with
the Spanish Bank and the Agricola Bank of San Juan, to impose the
rate of only 50 per cent premium as between the two moneys.

This unjust and inequitable resolution, this disproportion between
the rate established by commerce and that ruling in governmental
offices, the only tendency of which, at first, was to exploit the people
shamefully, produced the fatal effects feared, and has been the cause
of strikes, tumults, disorders, and several cases of conflict between
the peasantry and some members of the troops, culminating in the
shameful spectacle of a part of the press, either from gross ignorance
or acting in accord with our eternal enemies, vilifjdng, unjustly, a
whole army, toward which this country should feel nothing but eternal
gratitude.

The wholesale merchants of Porto Rico, who, in miserable conniv-
ance with the previous governors of this land, were accustomed by
every means in their power to impose their exclusive views to the
prejudice of the producing classes, would like to follow the same
paths during the new era, introducing disturbances and having in
view solely the filling of their coffers. At this moment they have
their agents out buying American money at 55 or 60 per cent premium,
with the object of paying it into the governmental offices when it is
received at 100 per cent.

The wholesale trade, which does not possess sufficient circulating
medium to move the crops of the country and has for many years had
recourse to the system of depreciating its own drafts so as to crimi-
nally lower the value of exchange offered to agriculturists (every 10
per cent drop in exchange represents approximately a loss to the
coffee planter of 12 per hundredweight, and to the sugar growers 37^-
cents per kilogram — hundredweight), would not possess the vast out-
standings which it does, but would rather appear as a debtor class if
the number of years in which this accumulated loss has been pressing
on the agriculturists (a debit not incurred in cash, but in supplies, sold
at exorbitant prices ; in some cases qualifiable only as usurious) were
taken into account.

When the general economical disaster occasioned by speculative
combinations, and not by the small amount of colonial currency in
circulation, but by the iniquitous pretensions looking toward being
paid in American gold the sums advanced by them with such enor-
mous profits, aided, by the depreciation of the money in which they
should be paid, this wholesale trade, we repeat, wishes to-day to
incline public opinion toward the change of provincial money for
American gold, a currency which not three mdnths ago they were
clamoring to purchase at a 150 per cent premium.

But the Government of the Union, and especially its enlightened
representatives in this island, will not permit that the working classes
be longer victimized nor sacrifice the noble army of occupation. It

494

will be necessary to take steps for salvation, and for this purpose we
submit the following solution for your consideration:

To beg the Government at Washington by cable to declare demone-
tized the Spanish provincial coinage of Porto Rico, making obliga-
tory the payment of all official transactions, such as customs dues
and taxes of all descriptions, in the United States currency with a
corresponding reduction, deferring' the date for the liquidation of all
private debts incurred before the date of this decree until the Con-
gress of the United States shall fix the ratio which shall rule between
the provincial money in which the debts were incurred and of the
legal currency of the United States.

We counsel the demonetization of this silver, as the laws of the
United States prohibit its Government from acquiring new stock of
this metal, and the resolution which we propose is urgent, as delay in
the settlement of this question until Congress can definitely settle it
would occasion serious difficulties which might produce conflicts in
the island.

IMPORTANCE OF IMMEDIATE ACTION.
By Antonio Secola, Salinas, P. R.

The monetary system of to-day should disappear at once, not only
as a measure of nationalization, but also because it is causing a pro-
found disturbance in our economic life. The fluctuations of exchange
are such that no contracts for future liquidation can be attempted.
Without this we can not obtain assistance in other markets, and our
economic existence must be languid and dragging. It is expedient to
change at once our money for American currencjr. Everyone is agreed
on this point, but all are not agreed on the rate at which the conver-
sion should be made. Different ideas born of different interests con-
tend, some for the change at par, others at 50 per cent. The gener-
osity of the American Government, without serious prejudice to its
Treasury, could adopt a mean conciliatory to all interests.

RATES OF EXCHANGE.

Senor Felipe Cuebas, collector of customs at Mayaguez, stated
that although he was born in the island, he was an American citizen,
becoming such in 1869. He was appointed to his present position by the
insular government and was reappointed by General Brooke. He has
a sugar estate near Mayaguez, called Hacienda Carmelita.

He expressed the opinion that the change in the currency should be
made as soon as possible, though, undoubtedly, there was merit in
the argument that it should be postponed until March next to allow
the crops to be gathered and the returns used to pay obligations. He
considered the rate of 2 to 1 too high; it would do injustice to the
creditor and the capitalist classes. One and sixty-five one-hundredths
or 1.75 to 1 he deemed much more just; it would be fair both to debtors
and to creditors.

There had always been trouble in the island with silver money, and
the change from Mexican to colonial pesos did not solve the difficulty.
It was necessary, in his opinion, to establish the currency on. the gold

495

basis. If sugar growers could get their sugar into the United States
market free of duty they could afford to pay the laborer the same on
the gold basis as they now pay him on the silver basis. An increased
demand for sugar would result in increased production, and increased
production would require more labor; the natural tendency of the
laborer would be to demand his 50 cents a day on the new basis, and
Mr. Cuebas believed that he would get it.

EXCHANGE ON THE BASIS OF INTRINSIC VALUE OF THE PESO.

Senor Enrique Delgado, San Juan:

The country is suffering greatly by reason of its silver basis for
coinage ruling since some years back. Each time a change was con-
templated formerly, opinions based on self-interest were heard, and
nothing practical was adopted, the change usually prejudicing every-
body. Owing to the lack of disinterested advice the Spanish Govern-
ment in perplexity ordered the introduction of the colonial coin, the
object being doubtless to know exactly the amount of floating cur-
rency. The amount exchanged did not reach seven millions, which
shows that the national coin could have been introduced at once with-
out causing great disturbance. Now that about one and one-half
millions have left the country, the stock is reduced to about five and
one-half millions. Now, as always, everyone has a distinct opinion
as to the rate of exchange which should be adopted ; one party thinks
that 100 per cent premium for gold is the right figure.

It must be remembered that our exchange has never been in rela-
tion to the bullion value of the coin in circulation, but has been reg-
ulated by the demand for gold with which to pay debts outside the
island. When war was declared exchange rose and continued rising
as the blockade became effective and lasting, because we could not
export our produce and merchants had to make their payments abroad
even by cable. When the war ended and things became normalized
again exchange fell in spite of our limited exports, and when things
become really settled we shall see heavy fluctuations daily, and
exchange will continue falling. For this reason it would not be
right to give our peso its intrinsic value only. If the substitution is
to be made at once an average of exchange must be sought during the
last ten years, and it will be found not to pass 40 per cent premium,
making a just rate of exchange 70 cents gold for 1 peso. The exchange
can also be made by introducing American silver, which reduces the
question to one of recoinage only, by giving an American dollar for a
Porto Rican peso and charging the cost of coinage to the insular
budget, to be paid in a period extending over five or ten years.

This would still leave the difficult question of obligations incurred
to be dealt with. As some debts were incurred as far back as ten
years, and others, such as agricultural mortgages, do not fall due
until fifteen years, if the rate fixed is 100 per cent this would be to
the debtor's benefit and would put a premium on nonpayment,
whereas exchange at par would be an injustice to debtors and the
working classes. In my opinion the rate of 70 cents per peso, the
average of the last ten years' exchange, is the happy medium.

496

PRESIDENTS ORDER ON THE MONEY QUESTION.

Executive Mansion, January 20, 1899.
It is hereby ordered that on and after February 1, 18991, and until
otherwise provided, all customs, taxes, public and postal dues in the
island of Porto Rico shall be paid in United States money, or in for-
eign gold coins, such as the Spanish alphonsinos (centen) and the
French louis, which will be accepted in payment of such customs,
taxes, public and postal dues, at the following rates:

Alphonsinos (25-peseta piece) . $4. 82

Louis (20-franc piece) .... 3.86

It is further ordered that on and after Februaiy 1, 1899, and until
further provided, the following Porto Rican or Spanish silver coins
now in circulation in the island of Porto Rico shall be received for
customs, taxes, public and postal dues, at the following fixed rates in
United States money:

The peso §0.60

The medio peso _. .30

The peseta _ ' .12

The real 06

The medio real . _ .03

It is further ordered and directed that out of the Porto Rican coins
so received a convenient supply shall be retained and carried for
exchange for United States money at the rate hereinbefore enumer-
ated, namety, $0.60 United States money for one Porto Rican silver
peso.

It is further ordered that all existing contracts for the payment of!
money in the currency of Porto Rico may be discharged and paid in
that money in accordance with the contracts, or in United States
money at the relative value set forth in the above table, namely, for
each $100 United States currency, 166f Porto Rican pesos.

Bronze and copper coins now current in the island of Porto Rico
will be received at their face value for fractional parts of a dollar, in
a single payment to an amount not exceeding 12 cents (1 peseta).

William McKinley.

EFFECT OF THE PRESIDENTS ORDER— REPORT OF THE

■ COMMISSIONER.

San Juan, P. R., February 17, 1899.
The Secretary of the Treasury.

Sir: The order fixing the value of the coins of Porto Rico has now
been in operation long enough to indicate what its result is likely to
be. The promise at first was that the hoarding of money, which had
made it so difficult to borrow except on exorbitant rates of interest,
would cease and exchange would vary little from the rate fixed in the
order, but there seem to be powerful influences at work to keep the
native money locked up. Drafts on the United States, for which there
is always a demand, bring about $1.64, but United States currency
can not be exchanged at a better rate than $1. 60 to $1. 62. This makes
a large margin for the operations of money dealers. I am informed
at the custom-house here that very little of the native money is offered
in payment of duties. So far only about $300 in pesos has been paid
in. Captain Buchanan sajTs that importers purchase American cur-

497

rency in the market at $1.60 to $1.62, Porto Rican, and make a con-
siderable margin of profit. There is still speculation, therefore, but
the range is much more limited.

The small amount of money available for the uses of business is a
serious obstacle to enterprise. All sections of the islaud, except two
or three money centers, have an insufficient amount of cash. For
example, it has been brought to my attention that a flourishing city
and port, commanding a good deal of wealth, is unable to raise $20,000
for its needs, though it has no debt, and all the city property was
offered as security, together with the property of twenty of the
wealthiest men. The native money is hoarded; this is the statement
everybody makes.

One explanation advanced is that the banks are drawing in their
notes in preparation for liquidation. The Spanish Bank of Porto Rico
has been gradually contracting its paper currency, having withdrawn
from circulation almost 50 per cent in the last six months. Formerly
it had between two and three millions in circulation. According to its
last report, dated January 14, it then had less than $2,000,000. The
insular treasury has a large surplus to its credit — about $500,000 — of
which not more than one-twentieth is in pesos. The fact of hoarding
is proved by the condition of the Savings Bank of Ponce, which has
sufficient in cash, mainly silver, to pay all its deposits.

The continuation of the native money pleases the planters, espe-
cially those who raise sugar. They will use it to pay the peons as
before, and believe that the labor question will not trouble them, for
the present at least. If they had to pay their men in gold what they
now pay them in silver, they say that the result would be a heavy loss
on the year's crop. They are more concerned than coffee or tobacco
growers because they are larger employers.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the laborers will or will not
take advantage of the situation to demand that their wages be paid in
United States money of the same amount. The peon has heard of the
" strike," and, under the freer conditions prevailing since American
occupation, may decide to see whether he can not use it to obtain larger
wages. He has been receiving from 50 to 75 centavos a day, the higher
price being paid for the more important positions in the mills.

The trades are everywhere overcrowded, and there are so many
carpenters, masons, bakers, shoemakers, etc., that in some places
they do not get more than six months' work a year, and for skilled
labor their wages are very low. There is not, however, a surplus of
peons, and planters often have to hold out inducements to keep men
enough on hand to plow the land, to sow and cultivate the cane, and
to harvest and grind it. Skilled workmen in the trades are forming
unions or gremios for the advancement of their interests; but the
peons do not seem to be ready for organization. They are more inde-
pendent than the artisan class, for they live in the country, where
fruit is plentiful, where fewer clothes suffice, and where they can put
up bark houses on the lands of their employers or get them at very
low rent.

Some of the coins described in the order fixing the rate of exchange
are not known in Porto Rico. There is no medio peso. In the daj^s
when United States and Mexican silver coins were in circulation
here the half dollar was so designated. "When the great depreciation
in silver began, these foreign coins disappeared and for some years
there have been no 50-centavo pieces in Porto Rico. The peseta was
the 25-cent Mexican or United States coin. The colonial 20-cent
1125 32

498

pieces are now known as pesetas. The real, valued at 12^ centavos,
is an imaginary coin, so far as Porto Rico is concerned. It is like the
New York shilling. Even yet old merchants in that State quote prices
in shillings, though the coin long since passed out of actual use.
The medio real, like the real, is a memory. The silver coins of the
island are the peso, the 40, 20, 10, and 5 centavo pieces. As to gold
pieces, there are only a very few, if any, in Porto Rico. They have
not been used in recent years, except by money changers to sell to
those wanting to go to Spain or France. When the Spanish Bank of
Porto Rico was founded, alfonsinos formed the basis of its capital.
As rapidly as they found their way into circulation they were exported,
and gold is seldom or never seen here.

" Very respectfully, Henry K. Carroll,

Co mrnssiioner.

BANKS AND BANKING.

THE BANKS OF PORTO RICO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 31, 1899.

Ricardo Nadal, of Mayaguez :

One difficulty which the coffee planter has labored under here has
been the high rate of interest which he has been compelled to pay
in order to obtain a loan. This rate has generally run from 1 to 1^
per cent a month, and much of this money loaned has been devoted
to the purchase of new lands and the improvement of the machinery
and outhouses for the laborers. The Spanish Government has left us
what we call the Spanish Bank of Porto Rico, the Agricultural Bank,
in the city of San Juan; the Caja-de-Horra, in Ponce, and the savings
bank in Mayaguez, which afford very limited facilities to the agri-
cultural classes, and which confine themselves in their transactions
to the business community in the island. The Spanish banking law
in force allows the free establishment of currency-issuing banks, with
the only restriction that such institutions shall be supervised by a
governor appointed by the Government, his compensation to be paid
by the institution, and that the issue of circulating notes shall not
exceed three times the amount of the paid-up capital. And yet,
under such an enormous margin of profit, which permits the Spanish
Bank, with a paid-up capital of $150,000, to have in circulation over
$2,000,000 of this paper, the rate of interest still keeps up at 1% cents
a month. What a field for American capital and enterprise !

The banks in Ponce and Mayaguez above referred to ought to have
the same right to issue circulating notes under the same general bank-
ing law, but owing to the perpetual privilege always enjoyed by the
Spanish residents in this island and in violation of the general law
the Spanish bank in San Juan has been the only bank allowed to issue
such notes. And it should be stated that the institution was estab-
lished with the stipulation in its charter that its cash capital was to
be in Spanish gold, and yet nothing but Mexican silver was deposited
as the cash capital of the bank, postponing the rights of the French
institution, that was ready to establish a bank with $2,000,000 in gold
specie, only to serve the interests of the privileged class of merchants
in San Juan. If this bank had lived up to its charter, the currency
of Porto Rico would lone; ago have been established on a erold basis

499

and the present trouble would have been avoided. There is a great
margin for enterprises of this kind, both as regards banks of issue
and trust and loan companies, for the benefit of the agricultural com-
munity, if such banks were willing to lend money at a reasonable
rate of interest and at long periods, which is a necessary condition,
for the improvement of present agricultural conditions. I believe the
amount of outstanding liabilities covered by mortgage in the island
is somewhere near $45,000,000, which might easily be converted into
long-period loans at easier rates of interest, greatly to the benefit both
of the American capitalist and the Porto Rican people. The moment
we have abundance of capital, easy transportation, and good and sub-
stantial laws, necessarily to come from the United States, the future
of Porto Rico is assured.

THE AGRICULTURAL AND TERRITORIAL BANK OF PORTO RICO.
By Vicente Antonetti, manager.

This bank was founded in September, 1894, on the model of the
Credit Foncier of France. Its nominal capital is $2,400,000, divided
into four series of 6,000 shares of $100 each. Only the first series of
shares has been sold, and therefore the bank has realized only the
fourth of its nominal capital. This bank has the power to undertake
all classes of operation, but principally its business consists in mak-
ing loans at long terms with guaranties of first mortgages on real
estate and emitting hypothecary bonds to represent these mortgages.
These bonds are redeemable by yearly drawings, and those put into
circulation up to this date have paid an interest of 7 per cent. The
bank is careful to have a scrupulous examination made of the values
of properties on which it lends money, and only advances up to 40 per
cent of their value, so that it may be said that the bonds in circula-
tion represent mortgages on assets which are two and one-half times
as much as their face value. If the bank were granted permission to
emit thirty times the amout of its paid-in capital of hypothecary bonds,
it could circulate bonds to the value of $18,000,000 on a paid-in capi-
tal of $600,000. This would be done gradually, as loans were effected.
Up to the present it has only emitted bonds to the extent of a million
dollars, but the fact must be taken into account that shortly after the
installation of this bank the Cuban revolution broke out and capital-
ists of this country retired what small amounts they had and were not
content with 7 per cent, which these bonds offered, for which reason a
free market was not created, and consequently the business of this
establishment was simply paralyzed.

As soon as our bonds shall obtain a favorable market in the United
States, this establishment will be able to attend to all the business
offered to it which it may consider it convenient to undertake, and it
will be a powerful help to the agriculturists of this country. These
bonds constitute a security of the first class, and this statement is
proven by the fact that, in spite of the crisis which this country has
passed through, the payment of the coupons and the redemption of
the bonds has not been neglected for one moment, but to its credit it
may even be said that the coupons have been paid in three months,
before they were due. The Spanish Government, understanding the
importance of this institution as an aid to agriculture, and being con-
vinced of the absolute guaranty of its bonds, admitted these bonds

500

as security for all classes of transactions. The American Government
will doubtless confer upon this institution the same favor, allowing
these bonds to be deposited as security against the emission of notes.
Estimating the present value of the property in Porto Rico at
$100,000,000 (it is really worth much more), the Agricultural Bank
can attend to operations to the extent of $40,000,000.

This establishment is without doubt one of the most important for
the future of the island, and therefore the attention of American capi-
talists should be called to its bonds. As a general rule, the bonds of
hypothecary banks rival in value those of the best state bonds.

San Juan, P. R.

NEED OF BANKING FACILITIES.

SAN Juan, P. R., October 31, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. What are the special difficulties under which the
agriculturists labor now in the island?

Dr. Santiago Veve, of Fajardo. In the first place, they are almost
without means, except a few rich ones, to give impulse to their busi-
ness. They need more capital, and they are therefore obliged to
incur liabilities secured by mortgages, and must pay high rates of
interest on the money they borrow.

Dr. Carroll. What is the minimum rate?

Dr. Veve. From 7 X3er cent to Si- per cent annually. Private money
lenders charge sometimes as high as 12, 15, and 18 per cent annually.
I know of one mortgage which carries interest at 24 per cent per annum.

Dr. Carroll. Why is it that capital commands so large a percent-
age? Is it due to the small amount of currency in the island or is it
due to taking capital out of the country to Spain, or to what other
possible causes?

Dr. Veve. The commercial houses here form guilds. Some of them
devote their attention to advancing money on sugar estates, some on
coffee, and some on cattle ranches, and it is an understood thing
between them, more or less, that such and such rates of interest shall
be required. Owing to the lack of competition and the small amount
of capital available the agriculturists are completely at the mercy of
these business houses.

Dr. Carroll. Would the establishment of banks in most of the
cities and larger towns of the island distribute the capital more gen-
erally and therefore lower the rate of interest?

Dr. Veve. Yes, naturally. Because at once there would be estab-
lished competition. There would be, also, an increase of capital,
because such banks would bring in new capital into the country.
This would tend to enhance the values of the estates themselves,
because a loan secured by a mortgage on the estate would not be so
serious an encumbrance, owing to the smaller rate of interest.

Dr. Carroll. Where a person desires to borrow money is it neces-
sary for him to go to San Juan to get it?

Dr. Veve. With the exception of two or three towns, in which
business houses have established themselves and do a banking busi-
ness (which houses do not lend money to agriculturists whose credit
is not thoroughly established), the people of the island have to go to
San Juan, borrow money from the banks or from the merchants, and
allow themselves to be bound down bv the onerous conditions of these

501

lenders, who usually lend money at two or three months. Loans of
this class are of practically no use to agriculturists, but they take
them sometimes to tide them over temporary difficulties.

SAVINGS BANKS.

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask you about savings banks. I
understand that savings banks issue notes payable at a certain date.

Mr. Arsuaga, of Sobrinos de Esquiaga. Such a bank exists in Ponce,
but it is a private affair and its notes are not obligatory, and they do
not circulate outside of the city of Ponce and that neighborhood.
The notes issued by this bank are called sestas.

There has always been in Ponce a certain amount of antagonism
against the Spanish Bank of Porto Rico. They Avanted a branch
established in Ponce, but the bank did not see its way clear to estab-
lish one there, because several merchants were engaged in private
banking business and they considered that their interests would not
be sufficiently attended to to make it pay. Owing to the feeling engen-
dered by this refusal on the part of the bank to have a branch at
Ponce, its notes have not had circulation there.

Dr. Carroll. What is meant here by hypothecary banks?

Mr. Arsuaga. It is an agricultural bank here in San Juan, and has
employed in its operations from two to two and one-half millions of
money.

Dr. Carroll. What kind of money?

Mr. Arsuaga. The bank, when it made a loan to an agriculturist,
paid half in money and half in cedillas, which were hypothecary notes
issued by the bank on the security of the mortgage taken from the ag-
riculturist himself. Consequently, an agriculturist borrowing $20,000
would get $10,000 in money and $10,000 in hypothecary notes. These
notes he had to sell in the open market at the fluctuating price, which
was usually about 90 per cent of their face value, so that on a loan of
$20,000 the agriculturist really receives only $19,000.

Dr. Carroll. What are the different kinds of money in circulation
in the island?

Mr. Arsuaga. In addition to the .silver, say about $6,000,000, there
are the bank *notes issued by the Spanish Bank of Porto Rico, the
promissory notes issued by the savings bank, and the cedulas issued
by the hypothecary banks. The hypothecary cedulas of the agricul-
tural bank do not circulate as money, however, and therefore have no
effect on the amount of money in circulation. They are simply bonds
secured by mortgage on the estate whose owner borrows the money,
and they do not pass from hand to hand. These cedulas are wOrth
to-day from 80 to 85 per cent of their face value.

Dr. Carroll. Have there been any abuses in connection with the
operation of such banks — any losses suffered by those who have given
mortgages?

Mr. Arsuaga. They opened accounts current with merchants and
used the money which was deposited in accounts current by making
loans at long periods, and when they were called on to settle their
accounts current they could not do so. The bank, however, was in a
solvent condition and resumed operations by mortgaging its building,
and confidence is beginning to reappear. Its shares are going up
again.

502

MORE BANKING FACILITIES NEEDED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arecibo, P. R., January lJf, 1899.
Mr. Adolf Bahr and Mr. Bernardo Huicy, members of the
municipal council of Arecibo:

Mr. Bernardo Huicy, councilman: Considering- that agriculture
is the principal source of our wealth, I think that if free coasting trade
is not given at the same time the money question is settled the agri-
cultural interests of the island will be ruined.

The question of roads is a most important one, as there are estates
in the center of the island which have to pay as high as 75 or 80 cents
a hundredweight over a distance of 20 miles.

Dr. Carroll. Is that to the railroads or by the railroads'?
' Mr. Huicy. To the railroads. The agricultural interests are in a
very precarious state. Most of them are under mortgage to merchants,
Who are not satisfied with collecting a heavy rate of interest — at least
from 12 to 15 per cent per annum — but stipulate in their mortgages that
the owner of the estate shall sell to the money lender his produce at
a price which is usually below the market price. It would be very
convenient if an American syndicate should come here and take over
these mortgages at a lower rate of interest. Their money would be
safely invested, because the estates offer ample security, and they
could grant longer terms than are being granted by the present money
lenders.

Dr. Carroll. Does the Agricultural Bank at San Juan make such
stipulations?

Mr. Huicy. The Agricultural Bank has no real capital that is worth
speaking of. If you wish to make a loan through that bank, they
don't give you a loan in cash, but require you to take what they call
cedulas, which have no fixed market value and have to be sold in
the market at such a price that the interest resulting is still higher
than that exacted bjT the money lenders.

I desire to urge the importance of some concession being granted
in the entrance of sugar into the United States. If we can not get
free entry, we shoula at least have some rebate made, especially as the
sugar industry is the most important one and gives employment to
labor from the 1st of January to the 31st of December. The sugar
planters manage to exist to-day, owing to the premium on gold, but
if they have to pay their labor in gold they will be irretrievably
ruined.

THE KIND OF BANKS REQUIRED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 17, 1899.

Don Lucas Amadeo, planter:

A mere inspection of this country will show you that it is weak in
economic forces, principally through want of means of communica-
tion. Its productions have not received the development that they
should have received, owing to the want of % credit establishments.
The agriculture of the country dates from the beginning of this cen-
tury only, although the island has been colonized four hundred years.

503

Its development took rise from the granting of free commerce, which
was denied before. Under the protection of these laws of free com-
merce there came into the island some foreign and also some Spanish
houses to undertake business enterprises. These houses had credits
in Europe, with which they were able to assist the agriculturists and
aid in the extension of agricultural interests. Owing to the high
quality of our sugar, which is superior to the Cuban sugar, the trade
of this country had a big impulse and our sugar found in the United
States a ready market, as a result of which the country went ahead
rapidly.

When the manufacture of sugar came to be better understood in
other countries — in Cuba, and the United States itself — our country lost-
its prestige, and the crisis began coincidently with that period. Since
that time our country has lived from one crisis to another, and it has
rapidly gone down hill. Latterly, owing to the good intentions of cer-
tain people, a few banks have been founded. Of these banks the
Spanish Bank of Porto Rico in the last few years has assisted con-
siderably the agriculture of this country. Later the Agricultural
Bank, which institution is called upon to play an important part in
this country, was established. This bank last named has not had the
results that should have been obtained from it. As a bank of agri-
culture is not really a bank, but an institution which borrows money
for the purpose of lending it, and that can only be carried into effect
when a perfect financial system exists in the country, and as such a
condition did not exist as yet in the country when this bank emitted
a certain portion of its cedulas and absorbed the small savings of the
country, it has to suspend its operations because there is no more
money in which to deal. With the Savings Bank of Ponce, it com-
pletes the list of banking institutions in the country.

It is to be understood that this country works with far too small a
circulating medium for its needs. It is supposed that $6,000,000 is
the amount of the circulation, but this is not the case, as private
hoards and money held in the vaults of the banks amount to more
than $2,000,000, reducing the circulating medium to between three
and four million dollars. This scarcity of actual coin has given rise
to the barter system, transactions being represented more or less by
goods, causing every little agriculturist to establish on his estate a
small store so that he can dispense with the need of money. The
country has been living in this condition since 1873, when foreign
credit was retired from the island, and the natural result is that the
small benefit derived by the agriculturist from this system has been
growing smaller and more dearly purchased, owing to the fact that
the merchants in the chief towns have to take into account the extra
risk that they are running in acting as bankers as well as merchants.
The low price of sugar has also contributed to the ruinous state of
our agriculture.

Dr. Carroll. May I ask one question at this point? Why is it
that the price of Porto Rican sugar has fallen, when Cuba, which pro-
duces so large an amount of sugar, has produced almost none during
the last few years, owing to the war?

Mr. Amadeo. The sugar crisis is a universal one. Europe has more
than supplied the deficiency caused by the Cuban war.

Another circumstance concurrent with the previous one is that a
series of bad coffee crops has served to accentuate the crisis. This is
attributed to climatic changes which you well know are taking place

504

all over the globe. Planters, drunk with the success of high prices
and large crops of former years, have doubled, trebled, or quadrupled
their plantings, but with the result that these estates, four times as
large as they previously were, have not given equal results to the
small estates.

Dr. Carroll. The establishment of banks in different parts of the
island would bring the borrower and lender together, and would make
possible the general use of checks, which would practically increase
the circulating medium.

Mr. Amadeo. I consider that the present banking laws of the United
States are the reason why money has never been so cheap in the United
States as in Europe. These laws curtail the power of the banks to
issue money. The banks there are not allowed to operate with a
larger amount of money than their actual capital, which is not advan-
tageous.

Dr. Carroll. There is not the elasticity in the system that there
should be, but there are plans to remedy this lack.

Mr. Amadeo. The want of elasticity — you have used the right word —
is what causes the frequent failures of the small banks of the United
States.

Dr. Carroll. We have not had many failures. When we have had
them, they have been of a disastrous character; but there is no loss to
those who hold the notes issued, because they are guaranteed.

Mr. Amadeo. You should modify the system so as to increase
elasticity.

Dr. Carroll. That is the opinion of our financiers in the Treasury
Department. More than one has called the attention of Congress to
the necessity of it.

Mr. Amadeo. If in the United States they think it necessary to
introduce an improvement, where there is great capital and facility
for obtaining money, how necessary it is to have a better system here.
I think the banks here should be allowed to circulate at least three
times the value of their capital.

Dr. Carroll. Then how would you secure these notes?

Mr. Amadeo. History has never given an instance where it has been
necessary to redeem notes to an amount which crippled the banking
institution, except in one instance, namely, the Bank of Glasgow,
which was ruined through gross mismanagement. That could happen
anywhere.

Dr. Carroll. But in the history of the United States, during and
before the civil war, when we had a system of State banks, there were
so many failures that it was hardly possible to circulate the notes of
any bank outside of the immediate neighborhood of that bank, and
every merchant needed to keep a bank-note directory, so that he would
know what banks had failed. The people of the United States are
very much afraid to go back to anything like that.

Mr. Amadeo. That can hardly be construed as an argument, because
it was an unusual time, because State bonds even were an uncertain
quantity. Greenbacks were worth nothing and State bonds were worth
but little more.

Dr. Carroll. There were no greenbacks then. They appeared
during the war.

Mr. Amadeo. History has shown us that the intervention of the state
in banking matters has, except for the purpose of merely protecting
the people, met with no beneficial results. These matters ought to be

505

left to private initiation, with a certain amount of protection and regu-
lation by the Government. This country being one of paupers, I
think banks should be allowed to increase their circulation beyond the
point at which Federal banks are allowed to go. Before the establish-
ment of the Federal banking system there was more freedom in the
banking laws of the United States, and that system proved beneficial
to the country. The United States is still in need of banks. It needs
Territorial and agricultural banks. There is one just starting in New
York. This lends money in the shape of bonds quotable in all the
money markets, and such banks ought to be established in all the cities
of the Union. That has helped the development of Germany very
much. The economic condition of this country is very good, but the
financial system is bad. There are immense values in property, but
there is little floating money to meet the debts which are owing there.
I consider that the Government of the United States ought to work to
get a place on the stock exchange for the cedulas which will represent
the landed property in Porto Rico, that they make the cedulas a me-
dium of exchange, the same as money, and they would not be subject
to much fluctuation.

Dr. Carroll. That seems to be hardly a matter for the Govern-
ment, but rather a matter for private enterprise, because the stock
exchange has the right to list or not list stocks and bonds as it desires.

Mr. Amadeo. I think there is just where the Government ought to
come in. In its beginning it had to assist small States to prosperity,
and it should do the same for us by bringing such a proposition to the
attention of the proper parties: Before this country was given its
autonomy, before the war, I had prepared a financial plan, which was
to borrow money on values in the island, and to facilitate the placing
of the securities which should represent these values. A portion of
them were to be placed with the banks here, so that they could assist
the agriculturist, these banks to have their financial representative in
New York, just as the French colonial banks have their agents in
Paris. These agents could attend to the leasing of these cedulas, and
the rest of the loan could be applied to the construction of roads all
over the island.

Dr. Carroll. Both States and municipalities in the United States
are accustomed to go into the market to raise money when they need
it. Municipalities of the far West bring their bonds to the New
York market and get what they can for them, and those bonds are
taken notwithstanding the fact that there are few municipalities in
the United States that have not already a heavy burden of debt.

Mr. Amadeo. That is all right in the United States, where there is
money, but the Territorial Bank requires immediately the loan of
$1,000,000, and where is it going to get it?

Dr. Carroll. When it becomes a part of the United States, why
should it not go into the New York market the same as municipali-
ties or States of the United States go into the market?

Mr. Amadeo. Before that time comes about it will die of hunger.

Dr. Carroll. I think there is a great deal of vitality in Porto
Rico yet.

Mr. Amadeo. Porto Rico, as you say, has considerable vitality,
but I will compare it, with the permission 'of Dr. Cordova here, to a
young man who has lost much of his blood and is in a state of paresis.
Suppose this were a meeting of Porto Ricans who had got together to
raise a loan, we should find the situation would be this : We would

506

know exactly what we wanted the loan for, but not one of us would
be able to say how we were to get the money. The world to-day is
only coming to understand the principles of cooperation, and what
Porto Rico needs is to bring into cooperation those forces and influ-
ences and measures which shall supply the things that are needed for
our advancement.

Once having realized the conversion of the money, money conditions
being properly regulated, and facility being given to the introduction
of capital here, judicial proceedings of foreclosure being suspended
for one year so as to enable agriculturists to make use of the capital
which would flow into the country, it would even be in order to take
certain measures, such as the assistance of the Agricultural Bank.
And if the Government should dispose of $1,000,000, more or less, col-
lected from the custom-house, I do not see any reason why it should
not facilitate or assist the Agricultural Bank with its money. If it
should do so, the bank would then be able to lend the agriculturists
sums of money up to the value of 40 per cent of their estates, and
establish in the United States an agent who could attend to the
quoting and leasing of their stock.

Dr. Carroll. Is 40 per. cent the limit set?

Mr. Amadeo. Yes; 40 per cent is the rate, and forty years is the
time. The Agricultural Bank, with another million dollars of capital,
could undertake these operations and could make the cedulas of
quotable value in the markets of New York and Europe, and I think
that the employment of public nionej^ in that direction would do the
country at this present moment more good than on roads, because it
would fortify the production of the country, and this production would
be the basis on which to levy for the construction of roads.

The proceeding that I am advocating now is not in any way a new
one. In the United States it has never been made use of, owing to the
powerful force of initiative which governs that country; but in Europe,
from the democratic Switzerland to the imperial Russia, the govern-
ments have created agricultural banks and endowed them with large
capital to carry on their business. I also see no reason why the Spanish
Bank should not be equally assisted by allowing it to continue its note
circulation.

Dr. Carroll. Would you continue the Spanish Bank as a monopoly?

Mr. Amadeo. No; I don't sanction any monopoly for any bank; but
it would be a good thing for the country, and until the arrival of new
capital if the bank were allowed to emit notes up to the limit which it
did previously some relief would be afforded.

Dr. Carroll. Could it do that without embarrassing confidence in
its solvency?

Mr. Amadeo. Up to the present the bank has always attended
punctually to the redemption of its notes. The circulation of paper
currency does not really depend upon the amount of money it repre-
sents. It depends upon the confidence with which the people accept
it, and as they have always accepted it up to the present, I see no
reason why it should not continue to be accepted with the same confi-
dence. These measures taken together would enable us to tide over
present difficulties until new capital should come in ; but if it did not
come, we would be able to go after it, because we would have some-
thing to offer for it. I recommend strongly that these measures be
taken, because we are in a state of crisis, and not only so, but on the
brink of a destructive liquidation.

507

AGRICULTURAL BANKS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 18, 1899.
Mr. Justo A. Mandez Martinez and Mr. Juan Vivo, a delegation
from Lares, the former second assistant alcalde of Lares and the latter
vice- judge of the same district; both are coffee planters.

Dr. Carroll. As you perhaps already know, I am visiting the
island with the object of investigating the condition of agriculture,
of labor, and of the municipalities particularly, and I desire from you,
as representatives of Lares, such statements respecting the interests
of that city as you may feel inclined to make.

Mr. Martinez. We thank you for your good intentions, and wish
first to tell you that our efforts are directed in the interests of agricul-
ture; that we wish for the establishment of agricultural banks. In
the next place, for the' better working of our municipal governments,
we desire the most ample municipal autonomy. We also desire modi-
fications of custom-house duties and the exchange of money.

We wish to emphasize particularly that if agriculture is not assisted
and encouraged, agricultural commerce will fall and the arts and
industries will suffer. Agriculture is the life of this country. We
wish you to understand also that we agriculturists who have our small
debts are obliged to give our crops over to the merchants. There is
no competition among merchants, and they can put their own price
on the crops; whereas we have to take the provisions we consume at
the prices demanded by the merchants, as we can not go to the other
districts, not having credit there. In that respect also we are at the
mercy of the merchants. Therefore we earn almost nothing from our
labor. The merchant is the one who makes the profit out of our work.
This state of things would be prevented if we had agricultural banks
which could take upon themselves the business of lending money to
the agriculturists. This would enable the agriculturist to sell his
crops when the prices are highest.

Dr. Carroll. Do you refer to the retail merchants in Lares or to •
the exporters in the coast cities?

Mr. Martinez. We mean the exporters. If there were banks, we
could go and buy where we could get provisions cheapest, and could
sell where we could get the best prices. We are completely in the
hands of the merchants, and that has brought agriculture to its
present state of ruin — to such a state of ruin that suspension of judi-
cial proceedings is necessary.

Dr. Carroll. Are the planters being pressed by the merchants for
their debts, both mortgage and floating?

Mr. Martinez. Yes ; and something must be done, because agricul-
ture can not continue under present conditions. To take 1 hundred-
weight of codfish to our estate to give to our peons we have to pay 1\
quintals of coffee. How is it possible for the agriculturist to do that —
pay 12 per cent per annum interest and pay off what he owes at the
same time? If it is within your province, I think you ought to take
some steps to suspend judicial proceedings before the agriculturists are
brought to complete ruin. Owing to the ruinous state of the agricul-
turist the working classes are in a state of deprivation, with no hope
and no means of subsistence, and the day will come when they will
declare themselves in open revolt. I think, if possible, something
ought to be done in the way of road building to give them employ-

508

ment. That would at least give them some little hope of earning a
livelihood for the time being.

Dr. Carroll. If the creditor takes possession of the estate, it will
be worth nothing to him unless he works it, and in that case the new
owner would give work to the laborers.

Mr. Martinez. Doubtless what you say is correct. A few years
ago we were in a better position, owing to the high prices of coffee,
but to-day we are utterly helpless to give work to our peons. We
have hardly money enough to continue the working of our estates.

Dr. Carroll. To what is the present low price of coffee due?

Mr. Martinez. One of the reasons is that our largest market, Spain,
has declared a heavy duty against us, considering us a foreign nation.
We have not a single important market now.

Dr. Carroll. How about Cuba?

Mr. Martinez. Cuba affects more the tobacco market. We used
to send only about 5 per cent of our coffee crop to Cuba, and that the
worst grades.

Dr. Carroll. What duty did Spain formerly charge on importa-
tions of coffee from Porto Rico?

Mr. Martinez. I do not know exactly, but it was a very small
amount.

Dr. Carroll. It was very large on sugar.

Mr. Martinez. That was to protect the sugar of Andalusia, in the
south of Spain. We pay to-day $10 per 100 pounds to get our coffee
into Spain.

Dr. Carroll. There is no duty on it in the United States.

Mr. Martinez. Our coffee is not known there. There is no market
for it. Within a couple of years we hope they will know it in the
United States.

Dr. Carroll. You ought to endeavor to introduce it there, inas-
much as it is a free market.

BANKS, SAVINGS BANKS. AND FINANCIAL CORPORATIONS.
STATEMENT OF JOSE AMADEO, M. D.

Patillas, P. R., March, 1899.

A few years ago the efforts of a few thinking men, headed by Julian
Blanco, founded the Banco Agricola, which was favored by the pleth-
ora of Mexican silver. The retirement of this and the Cuban war,
which induced want of confidence, slowly undermined its usefulness,
and latterly the approach of the American fleet completed the work.

The Spaniards, principal owners of the wealth of the country, with-
drew their capital from circulation, refused loans which formerly
they had proffered, exacted the immediate payment of loans, and
thus created a difficulty for the sale of securities which has been
highly prejudicial. To this add the fall in the rental value of prop-
erty, want of assistance in moving the crops, and their consequent
loss. We know of a case where, for want of 8300 for cultivation, a
landowner lost crops of the value of $4,000.

And worse still, we are foreseeing the foreclosure of obligations
which for want of circulating medium have not been liquidated. To
such an extent is there a shortage that in some districts the custom of
barter has been had recourse to, as in primitive times.

509

If no extension is granted, if unfortunately seizures and auction
sales become prevalent, many families will be ruined.

As the invasion and change" of government are the part cause of the
economic disturbance, it is their duty to protect, with their laws and
capital, this fertile region of the Tropics.

The Spanish Bank and the Ponce Savings Bank, which only loan at
three months, are of little service to farmers, although in their sphere
of action they have been of some use.

There is great need, therefore, of facilitating the establishment of
banks of emission and savings banks, mutual societies, cooperative
and insurance, and other similar corporations, which will assist in the
welfare and aggrandizement of the country.

No country can be prosperous without the existence of fiduciary
and personal credits, which assist the mobilization of securities and
constitute an additional source of wealth for the use of the com-
munity.

If Spain had applied a portion of its useless war budget, since its
initiation, to the work of assisting the productiveness of this island,
her flag would not have suffered such a sad fall.

A million people satisfied with their nationality and with natural
defenses are invincible.

POSTAL, TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE SERVICE.
THE TELEGRAPH.

There are about 400 miles of lines for telegraphic purposes in the
island of. Porto Rico. The operators employed by the United States
are enlisted men of the Signal Service, under Lieut. Col. William A.
G-lassford, chief signal officer of the island »

The Morse system of transmission is made use of in place of the less
effective system that was employed \>y the Spanish postal service,
which combined the telegraph system with the postal system previous
to the occupation of the island by the United States — October 18, 1898.
The following is the list of the telegraphic stations in Porto Rico,
made in July, 1899 :

Adjuntas.

Aguadilla.

Aibonito.

Arecibo.

Arroyo.

Baranquitas.

Barros.

Bayarcion.

Caguas.

Carolina.

Cayey.

dales.

Coamo.

Corozal.

Fajardo.

Fajardo Light.1

Guayama.

Huinacao.

Juana Diaz.

Lares.

Las Marias.

Los Banos.

Manati.

Mayaguez.

Naguabo.-

Ponce.

Playa de Ponce.

Rio Piedras.

San German.

San Juan.

Utuado.

Vieques.

Yabucoa.3

Yauco.

At all of the above towns operators from the Signal Corps of the
Army are stationed. Commercial business thereat is handled at the
rate of 20 cents United States money for 10 words or less, and 2 cents
for each additional word over 10; address and signature are included
in the count. Commercial business is transmitted by heliograph at
the rate of 40 cents for 10 words or less, and 4 cents for each addi-
tional word over 10. Telegrams are sent between Fajardo and the

1 Substation of Fajardo.

2 Telephone substation of Humacao.

3 Substation of Humacao.

510

isle of Vieques by means of the heliograph. The French railway
management have petitioned the Government for permission to open
its telegraph stations to the public.

CABLE.

The West India Panama Cable Company now has four cables from
the island of Porto Rico, one east and one west from both Ponce and
San Juan. There are three persons emploj'ed at the Ponce office and
four in San Juan. There has been a gradual reduction of rates for
these cables from $1.85 a word in January, 1898, to February 15, when
the rate became 75 cents a word between San Juan and New York.

The cable company works in connection with the military telegraph
lines for inland towns. The apparatus used is the mirror galvanom-
eter. This company own a steamer for repair work, with a crew and
working force of 53 men.

THE TELEPHONE.

There are three telephone exchanges in the island of Porto Rico,
namely, at Ponce, San Juan, and Mayaguez, and there are but few
private telephone lines in use at other places. The exchange at San
Juan had in April, 1898, 292 subscribers and ernpk>3Ted 9 persons.
Rental on telephones for hotels is $10 per month ; for stores, $6 ; for
private residences, $4 in native money.

In the Ponce exchange there are 200 subscribers, 8 persons are
employed, and the cost per month of telephones is $6 in town and 50
cents additional for telephones out of town, in native money.

The Mayaguez system comprises about 100 subscribers. The monthly
rent for telephones here is $5 for commercial houses and $4 for private
residences. Five persons are employed.

GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF THE TELEGRAPH.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR ETTSTOQUIO TORRES.

Guayanilla, P. R., November 7, 1898.

" Comunicaciones.'1'' — Under this heading are understood postal and
telegraph service.

When the United States Government took possession of the island
and suppressed several of the stations formerly open to public service,
their absence was deeply felt. Owing to the want of good roads, the
telegraph has come to be a principal factor in commerce and a means
of communication with foreign parts.

It is thought that if this service is given over to a private corpora-
tion only the principal towns will be given the use of the wires, many
towns, such as this, being left in isolation, as the expense would not
cover the maintenance of a station. It would be convenient, there-
fore, that the Government take charge of this important service in
the form established before — that is, in connection with the post-
office. In this way, in most of the towns, one employee could easily
take charge of both posts and the two services together would produce
far more than the cost. Thus public funds would suffer no harm and
the entire country would reap the benefit of this necessary institution.

511

THE POSTAL SERVICE.

Under Spanish rule there were approximately fifty post-offices in
the island of Porto Rico. These were combined with the telegraph
system of the island, and were under the supervision of an official
having the title administrador general de comunicaciones, which
represented what would be termed postmaster- general. Senor
Odaviano de Herrera y Cisneros was the last occupant of this office.

The post-office, now under the supervision of Mr. Elliott, who is
also postal agent at Ponce, comprises twenty offices now in operation
at chief towns in the island, and in each instance under the manage-
ment of an American postal agent; but in the larger offices, where
there are numbers employed, the native post-office clerks are found
working side by side with Americans.

Of the twenty post-offices now in operation there are ten offices which
are money-order post-offices. United States postage stamps are sold
throughout the island, and the number of post-offices will increase, as
new contracts are being perfected daily for carrying the mails. There
is a railway postal service, where railroads afford the possibility of
such a service, and the insular mails are running very smoothly ; but
the mail service with the United States was for some months quite
irregular. There are all together about fifty persons employed in the
postal service of the island of Porto Rico, the several offices being
made a part of the city post-office at Washington, D. C, being
simply branches of the Washington office. This condition is, how-
ever, only temporary, and in time the service in the island will be a
regular service distinct from the present dependence upon Washington.

The post-office at the capital, San Juan, was opened and went into
full operation at noon of October 19, twenty-four hours after the for-
mal occupation of the island by the United States.

The postal agent having direction at San Juan is H. K. Van Alstyne,
who is assisted in his duties by sixteen clerks, a part of whom are native
Porto Ricans.

List of post-offices in

Porto Rico, April 1,

1899.

Adjuntas.

Cornerio.

Las Marias.

Rio Grande.

Aibonito.

Canavanos.

Luquillo.

Rincon.

Arroyo.

Cidra.

Loiza.

San Juan.

Anasco.

Corozal.

Mayaguez.

Santurce.

Aguadilla.

Ceiba.

Morovis.

San Sebastian.

Arecibo.

Dorado.

Manati.

San German.

Aguada.

Fajardo.

Moca.

Salinas.

Aguas Buenas.

Florida.

Maunabo.

San Lorenzo.

Bayamon.

Guayarna.

Maricao.

Santa Isabel.

Barceloneta.

Guanica.

Naranjit .

Sabana Grande,

Barros.

Guayanilla.

Naguabo.

Toa Baja.

Barranquitas.

Gurabo.

Penuelas.

Tallaboa.

Cabo Rojo.

Hurnacao.

Ponce.

Trujillo Alto.

Carolina.

Hatillo.

Playa Naguabo.

Utuado.

Caguas.

Isabela.

Patillas.

Vieques.

Coamo.

Juana Diaz.

Piedras.

Vega Alta.

Cayey.

Juncos.

Punta Santiago.

Vega Baja.

Camuy.

Lajas.

Quebradillas.

Yabucoa.

Ciales.

Lares.

Rio Piedras.

Yauco.

512

MORE TELEGRAPHIC FACILITIES.

[Statement of Senor De Gastambiue.]

YATJCO, P. R., November 10, 1898.
Postal and telegraph stations should be established in every town
and village in the island without exception, and of an official nature,
without reference to private lines which may be granted concessions,
if it is thought convenient. Frequently one or two telegraph wires
are not sufficient to cope with the general service of the island. There
should be a tendency to establish telephonic connection between all
towns of any importance. To put an end to the abuses which have
been the subject of complaint, postal employees should be laborious
and honest.

PUBLIC LANDS AND MINES.

San Juan, P. R., October 29, 1898.

Dr. Carbonell (secretary of the interior). My department has
jurisdiction over the granting of concessions and the sale of Crown
lands, and I wish to call your attention to the fact that the Spanish
Government in December last sold just outside the port here 9,000
square meters of land for $216— land which is worth $180,000. Al-
though that title is registered here, it can be set aside. The register
who "formerly held this office, and who held it at the time this land
was sold, has gone to Spain, taking with him a fortune of $200,000.

Dr. Carroll. Did he have control of the selling of the property?

Dr. Carbonell. He registered the property wrongly and in contra-
vention of existing laws.

Dr. Carroll. Why was the property sold for such an extremely
small amount? Was some official of the Government a beneficiary?

Dr. Carbonell. The property was put up at public auction, but
no one knew anything about the auction but the man who bought it
in, and that was a business between the purchaser and the intendencia.

Dr. Carroll. He must have paid more for. it privately.

Dr. Carbonell. Yes; doubtless he did. According to the Spanish
law sales of public property can not be had without the approval of
the board of military engineers, and that was not obtained, for which
reason the deed of the property so sold can be set aside and the United
States take possession of the land in question.

Dr. Carroll. Were these lands previously rented by the Govern-
ment?

Dr. Carbonell. No.

Dr. Carroll. The Government got no income from them?

Dr. Carbonell. I do not know as to that.

Dr. Carroll. Do you know how much of Crown lands remain?

Dr. Carbonell. That is a question impossible to answer, and made
impossible by the express act of the retiring Government. There
existed archives relating to the whole of the public lands, and these
had indexes, but since the Spaniards have gone the indexes have
disappeared.

Dr. Carroll. Does the Government own the mines of the island?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes; the State is the owner of the mines.

Dr. Carroll. Does it rent them?

513

Dr. Carbonell. It cedes them to a person, and reserves so much
per ton of the ore. Placer mining is free for any person who desires
to work such mines.

Dr. Carroll. Has a general survey been made of the mineral
resources under the direction of the Government?

Dr. Carbonell. It has been completely abandoned ; it is not even
known whether there exists gypsum ore.

Dr. Carroll. Are there deposits of coal in the island?

Dr. Carbonell. There is a very inferior class of lignites.

Dr. Carroll. There are plenty of stone quarries?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes; even marble. Native copper .has been dis-
covered in a free state; also silver.

Dr. Carroll. Then it is hardly known what the mountains really
contain?

Dr. Carbonell. No. It is the opinion of an intelligent geologist
here that by following the River Luquillo you would arrive at the
vein which naturalists sa}r must exist before there can be washings.

Dr., Carroll. Is it the law here in the island that where minerals
are found, whether under a man's house or elsewhere-, they belong to
the State?

Dr. Carbonell. The owner of the land has a right only to its
superficial soil.

Dr. Carroll. Then, if there are large mineral resources, they might
be developed and thereby greatly increase the revenues of the island?

Dr. Carbonell. There is a very rich phosphate of lime deposit.
At one time these deposits were worked and the product sent to Ger-
many. They took it chiefly from the Mona Island, but even in this
island there are very important deposits.

MINERAL RESOURCES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1898.
Mr. Francisco T. Sabat, deputy collector of customs "at San Juan:

Mr. Sabat. In the district of Cabo Rojo are saline deposits, both
natural and artificial. By artificial I mean that in some cases the
ebb of the sea water has been obstructed and the salt deposited by
evaporation. These are the property of the company which acquired
them from the Spanish Government and which now works them.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any coal produced in the island?

Mr. Sabat. A vein of coal of a poor quality has been discovered,
samples of which are in the engineers' museum here, if they have not
been taken away by the Spaniards. There are copper mines in
Naguabo, iron mines on the top of Yunque Mountains, which have
not been worked because, apparently, the product is not a desirable
one from a commercial point of view. There is also placer mining in
the river Corozal and in Luquillo. The mines in Luquillo were
worked under Isabel II and Maria Christina of Spain, but the parties
to whom the concession was made abandoned the mines because they
got very little gold out of them.

Dr. Carroll. What coal is used here?

Mr. Sabat. The coal used here is brought from Philadelphia and
Cardiff. It is bituminous coal.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost in the market here?

Mr. Sabat. I do not know, but just before the war it went up to
$15 a ton. Only charcoal is used in private houses.
1125 33

514

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517

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

MUNICIPAL DISTRICTS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

. San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1898.
Mr. Manuel F. Rossy, lawyer:

Dr. Carroll. Do the districts here correspond to counties in the
United States?

Mr. Rossy. No; a municipal district, as it is called here, consists
of a certain portion of territory in which there is included a certain
number of houses; that is the base of the municipality. There are
70 municipal districts in Porto Rico — the largest of about 56,000
inhabitants and the smallest of about 4,000. These districts are quite
distinct from what are called the judicial districts of which there are, I
think, 11. Each of the 70 municipal districts has its municipal govern-
ment, and these as a whole are subject to the provincial deputation.

Besides the division of the island into municipal and judicial dis-
tricts, it is also divided into 7 military districts, which are: San Juan,,
Arecibo, Aguadilla, Maj^aguez, Ponce, Guayama, and Humacao, at the
head of each of which there was a military commander.

Dr. Carroll. What is the composition of the municipal govern-
ment?

Mr. Rossy. The actual state of affairs in municipal and provincial
government is the old one. They did not have time to get down to
that before the war brok*e out. They had elections in February and
March and war broke out in April, and municipal government remained
as it was under the old regime.

Dr. Carroll. What was the former municipal government?

Mr. Rossy. The old system, which is at present in force, has a.
municipal council elected by all persons residing in the municipality,
and is composed of members called councilors, varying in number
from 9 to 24, according to the importance of the municipality. Once
elected, they met and named their mayor, unless the Governor-General
should wish to name the mayor, which he could do, but the person so
named by him had to be one of the councilors.

Dr. Carroll. What was the term of the councilors and mayors?

Mr. Rossy. The councilors remained in office four years, half of
them being replaced every two years. The mayor held office for two
years.

Dr. Carroll. Is the mayor intrusted with large powers?

Mr. Rossy. Mayors had a twofold official character. As delegates
of the Governor-General they received orders in regard to political
government; as heads of the municipalities they executed the man-
dates of the councilors and had by virtue of their office certain
powers over priests, vigilantes, and other matters of a purely local
character, which they exercised at discretion.

Dr. Carroll. Are the highways controlled by the municipal gov-
ernment or by the provincial?

Mr. Rossy. Roads are divided into two classes — one class called
municipal roads and streets, and the other called provincial roads.
The former are those within the immediate limits of the municipality,
and provincial roads are those which connect the municipalities.
Provincial roads are under the jurisdiction of the provincial gov-
ernment.

518

Dr. Carroll. Can you inform me in regard to the schools of the
municipalities?

Mr. Rossy. The schools are governed under a law promulgated by
one of the captains-general, and also by the school law of the new
autonomous government. It is a provincial matter. The naming of
teachers is under the immediate jurisdiction of the secretary of
fomento. In respect to financial matters, such as payment of sala-
ries, repairs of school buildings, etc., the schools depend upon the
municipality.

Dr. Carroll. Do the mayors direct the municipal police, municipal
fire department, and similar municipal matters?

Dr. Carroll. Who prescribes the text-books?

Mr. Rossy. Formerly they were prescribed by the governor-general,
but they are now prescribed by the secretary of fomento.

Dr. Carroll. Have the mayors also powers of magistrates to hear
and determine cases of any kind?

Mr. Rossy. Absolutely none.

THE TAKING OF THE CENSUS.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.
Dr. Francisco del Valle, mayor of San Juan :

Dr. Carroll. How was the general census of the island taken for
the year 1897?

Dr. Del Yalle. The census was taken in December of that year, in
the following way: Printed statements were sent to each person con-
taining instructions as to how to fill out the census blanks, but a
great many people in the interior did not understand these blanks and
had no one to show them, besides which the native peasant always has
had the idea that anything in the shape of printed paper from the
Government meant additional taxes. Most of them try in their
returns to diminish the number of persons in their family, hoping
thus to diminish the anticipated tax. I hand you now a note as to the
number of inhabitants of this city in the years 1846, 1857, 1860, 1877,
1888, and 1897, and also a description thereof. Also a note as to the
inhabitants of the various departments, as taken the 22d of March,
1888.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any schools or asylums for deaf and blind
persons here?

Dr. Del Valle. No.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any native insurance companies?

Dr. Del Yalle. There was a native life insurance company, run on
the assessment plan, but after being in existence for a short time it
failed.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any fire insurance company?

Dr. Del Valle. Only foreign companies — English and American.

Dr. Carroll. Do people generally take out insurance on their
buildings?

519

Dr. Del Valle. A good many do, but not so many as in the
country districts, because here the buildings are all brick, and in the
country they are of wood.

Dr. Carroll. Do you often have serious fires in the city?

Dr. Del Valle. As a general rule fires here are much less com-
mon than in other cities of the island. Those which have taken place
have been usually in the neighborhood of the warehouses. There was
one a short time ago in a warehouse in Tetuan street.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any asylums or almshouses or other x^ro-
visions made for the poor of the city'?

Dr. Del Valle. There is one, the expense of which was borne by
the municipality, for poor of both sexes, situated in Puerto de la Tierra,
and also one situated in the same suburb supported by a religious
order called the Sisters of the Poor.

Dr. Carroll. About how many inmates are there?

Dr. Del Valle. From 90 to 100.

Dr. Carroll. Are orphaned children cared for by religious orders?

Dr. Del Valle. There is only one building of that description,
called the Beneficiencia, which is a provincial building for the whole
island. Other buildings of that class are absolutely necessary to take
charge of children who are on the road to prostitution and perdition
because they are absolutely abandoned.

Dr. Carroll. Is that the only one in the island?

Dr. Del Valle. It is the only one. There is an institution con-
ducted by the society called San Ilclef onso, but they take in only about
25. That is in San Juan.

Dr. Carroll. Have the results of the census been tabulated?

Dr. Del Valle. No; they have not.

Dr. Carroll. Under whose direction was the census conducted?

Dr. Del Valle. There was a very complicated arrangement. There
was a central board formed, a provincial board, and a departmental
board, each to look after its own work, but the work was interrupted
by the war.

Dr. Carroll. Under whose direction is the census?

Dr. Del Valle. The Secretary of Government.

Dr. Carroll. What about the morality of the city of San Juan.

Dr. Del Valle. As to that, this city must be considered as a large
place in proportion to the other towns of the island. There is a fair
amount of prostitution, but with regard to other vices not so large as
might be expected. There is much drunkenness here, though; there
is a good deal of vagabondage, and, as I suggested before, a great aban-
donment of children. Only to-day the police in their rounds have
picked up quite a number of children, who, when asked where they
sleep, answered, "In any doorway we can find." When asked what
they eat, said, "Whatever we can get hold of."

Dr. Carroll. What are the causes of the abandonment of children?

Dr. Del Valle. They are usually illegitimate children, and when
the mother dies they are left without a roof. They sometimes beg of
a neighbor to take them in, and sleep wherever they can find a corner;
but just as frequently they have no other shelter than what they can
find, and as there are no asylums besides the one mentioned, these
children are rapidly becoming criminals.

Dr. Carroll. Do parents abandon their children?

Dr. Del Valle. Not in the sense that they cast them out, but
they do in the sense that they don't educate them or care much for
their development.

520

Dr. Carroll. Do they not love their children'?

Dr. Del Valle. Yes; even to the extent of allowing them to mis-
behave with impunity.

Dr. Carroll. Then, is not the abandonment of which you speak
due more to their ignorance than to any other cause?

Dr. Del Valle. Yes; that is the cause.

TOO MANY MUNICIPALITIES.

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1898.

Andres Crosas, merchant:

Mr. Crosas. The island of Porto Rico, small in size, has seventy-
two cities or municipalities, and every municipality has a mayor,
secretary, and common council. It is a terrible expense to the island
to sustain this common council in every village. We can not stand
it. The result of it is that taxes are very heavy indeed. These
municipalities are patterned after those of Spain. In some of the
smallest of them they have eight or nine persons in the council, which
costs small villages like Dorado from $14,000 to $18,000 a year. I
see that in the States they are divided into counties, and in the more
central villages you have the different authorities to attend to justice;
but this island, being small, is divided into seven military districts, and
at the centrally located town, or town of most importance, we should
have the seat of the court. About fifteen mayors would be sufficient
for the whole island, instead of seventy-two, as we have now. I think
that these departments, which are equivalent to counties, would be
sufficient. There is a ridge of mountains running through the center of
the island from east to west, and I think it might be divided in such
a way that the northern part should be divided into so many central
places, and then it would not be necessary for people to go over the
mountains. That would be convenient, in my estimation. The present
division into departments does not take into account counties at all.
Sometimes they stretch over the counties.

There are many buildings which belong to the province, and of
course in the municipalities there are buildings which are municipal
property; but this evacuation commission that has met here has had
no one to inform it properly regarding the properties and to whom
they belong. In fact, the public does not know what has taken place.
It has been as closed as the door of a lodge within the commission. It
is feared that the Spanish commissioners have made it appear that-
certain property belonging to the State, or otherwise, was national
property. For instance, there is a military hospital that was a dona-
tion by a Good Rule we had here to the municipality, and the munici-
pality kept it out. When they thought fit, the military pounced on
it, took it away from the municipality, and then extended it. But
the original land belonged to the municipality. In the same way, there
is a hospital next to the palace Santa Catalina, called the Concepcion.
That is a municipal hospital which was built by donations from the
citizens here for the purpose of providing medical attention for poor
women. I fear that as that building is next to the palace it has
been made to appear that it was national property of Spain. That
was not the case.

521

THE AMERICAN PLAN.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arecibo, P. Pi., January 14., 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What are you most interested in? People here
speak generally of the matters which most concern themselves.

Dr. Guillermo Curbelo (physician). The question of general
administration. The system here needs to be Americanized, and to
do that properly the Spanish centralization system should be abol-
ished. As it is now, the government is embodied in the secretaries,
who try, by putting their own people in office, to prepare for the
future elections as they did before. Not only alcaldes, but judges
and members of the municipal councils are named by the secretaries
of the government. Even school teachers are appointed by them, and
cases are common in which those possessing influence have gone to
the capital, and by bringing that influence to bear on the secretaries, or
the friends of the secretaries, have secured positions which they were
in no way competent to hold.

Another point is that we should be granted municipal autonomy as
you have it in the United States.

Another matter is that of the police, who are appointed by the
mayor and not by the judicial body, as in other countries. As the
police are friendly with everybody and know everybody, they are not
able to comply with their duties. I think that the military author-
ities should give us a military police administration and teach the
people to obey the laws, as the Spanish system of "He who has money
is able to do what he likes " is apparently in force, and will likely
continue in force for some time. Naturally they should try to get
policemen who can speak Spanish, or, if sufficient Americans who
speak Spanish can not be had, put some natives on the police force.

Another reform is needed in the management of the office of the
escribanos. Things go on in their offices pretty much as these func-
tionaries want them to. One man, for example, wounds another in
an unlawful attack upon him, the wound is perhaps cured in four or
five days, still the intention of harm is there, but if the aggressor
stands well with the escribano of the court and makes his position
firmer by a little " greasing," he can get out, The escribanos all over
the island are a lot of bandits.

Dr. Carroll. How do they profit by this system?

Dr. Curbelo. For instance, I wound a man and am arrested. I see
the escribano, give him a sum of money, and the whole matter is dis-
posed of. Owing to the immense amount of work the judges have to
do, they sign a paper without looking at it, depending upon a clerk
to present the papers requiring signature. The clerk puts in a paper
he wants signed along with fifty or sixty others and the judge signs it
without knowing what it is.

The schoolteachers are the same who held under Spanish rule,
when it was sufficient to have a recommendation from the Spanish
party, without regard to competency, to obtain a position. We are in
the same position to-day. The schools are very badly administered.
The board of public instruction here, of which Mr. Jauregui is a mem-
ber, held a public examination recently, and only one school was found
to be even passably fair. The children in the other schools seemed to
know nothing at all.

Dr. Carroll. Is the trouble due to the teachers?

Dr. Curbelo. Yes; they don't trouble themselves about teaching.

522

Dr. Carroll. Was it not generally true of the teachers, where they
were Porto Ricans at least, that they were very faithful to their duties
and sometimes taught for months without receiving any money?

Dr. Curbelo. That happened right through the Spanish administra-
tion. The Spanish authorities appointed them for their vote, and
having appointed them, seemed to think that that finished their obli-
gation to them. This municipality is bankrupt, the same as other
municipalities in the island to-day.

Dr. Carroll. Do you mean that the municipality is in debt'?

Dr. CtJRBELO. That it is both in debt and without funds. They
pretend to make savings, but what they really do is to charge the
business interests with heavier taxes in order to give more places to
their friends and adherents.

Dr. Carroll. I understood that there was no insular debt and no
municipal debt in the island.

Dr. Curbelo. The municipalities owe salaries to their employees
for months back.

Dr. Carroll. But they have no bonded debts, I suppose?

Dr. Curbelo. This municipality has a contract debt for building
an aqueduct. A Spanish engineer said it would cost 160,000, but they
have since found it would cost $90,000, and are unable to get the bal-
ance with which to finish it.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be a good thing to finish it?

Dr. Curbelo. When that estimate was made the alcalde was one
of the partners of the house of Rosas & Co., and is now in Spain.
This alcalde, who was in partnership with the engineer of public
works, agreed or found it necessary, or pretended to find it necessary,
to take the water for the aqueduct from a point which would require
a turbine, whereas they could have taken it at a point lower down,
where no turbine would have been required. They did that because
they had a plan for building an electric plant. They had the town
spend $20,000 for a dam which otherwise they would have had to
build for their own account. That was why the work resulted so
expensively. Thej7 wished to install the electric-light plant at the
expense of the city. After they had the waterworks they could pro-
duce the electric-light plant for $8,000. The house of Rosas & Co. here
is the sole cause of the poverty of this city. The members of the firm
are millionaires. Mr. Figaros is one of the partners, although he
gives it to be understood that he has only a power of attorney to man-
age the business of the firm here. He has a large capital, too, of his
own. This house earns more than any other in the island. It has a
credit balance each year of between three and four hundred thousand
dollars. They have ruined this cit}' by resorting to every means pos-
sible to prevent other merchants from going ahead.

Dr. Carroll. Do they have trouble with their men on the plantations?

Dr. Curbelo. They can do nothing to their men now, but in Spanish
times they were the absolute bosses of the whole district. Men did
not dare lift their heads to complain. The\r are very good citizens
now and very quiet — oh, very good and quiet!

Dr. Carroll. What are your reasons for desiring an enlargement
of the powers of municipal government?

Dr. Curbelo. For the reason that as these alcaldes at present
depend for their positions on the central power, they have to please
those in office at the capital, and as they have a number of relatives
in all these districts, the mayors have to create offices for them and
take them whether they want them or not. Another reason for auton-

523

omy is that the municipalities can not incur certain expenses, while
the secretary in San Juan has that power.

Dr. Carroll. Has the secretary power to inaugurate works without
reference to the will and judgment of the municipality itself?

Dr. Curbelo. Yes, practically. He sends the municipality a plan,
with his indorsement, to the effect that it would be convenient, and
the municipalities always adopt plans sent to them in that way.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose that the secretary means by such indorse-
ment that it must be done.

Dr. Curbelo. That is the Spanish way of giving an order — that
the convenience of the political party requires that you do this and
that.

Dr. Carroll. I notice that the municipalities of Porto Rico are
very much extended. For instance, this of Arecibo includes much more
than the city proper. There is a larger population outside the city lim-
its and within the municipal district than in the city itself. I want to
raise the question whether it would not be in the interest of home rule
by the people to divide these municipal districts and have a number
of municipalities where there is now but one.

Dr. Curbelo. I think not.

Dr. Carroll. It is the policy of the United States to encourage the
organization of hamlets, towns, and villages, as well as cities, for sev-
eral reasons. In the first place, in order to give home rule to small
aggregations of people; second, to encourage people to take part in
their own government, so that they may, by participating in village
government, come to have an intelligent understanding of the basal
principles of civil government.

Dr. Curbelo. Please allow a question. Do you think that in a
country like this, where hardly anyone knows how to read and write,
people would be able to govern themselves? And in this municipality
there are probably not more than 12 men who know anything about
city government.

Dr. Carroll. That is a difficulty, no doubt, but it is a difficulty not
unknown in the United States. There are sections where the people
are illiterate, but it does not follow that because a man can not read
or write he is not intelligent and has not a large amount of civic virtue.

Dr. Curbelo. That is in the United States, not here among Span-
ish people.

Dr. Carroll. I have known members of rural boards of school
trustees who were themselves unable to read or write, and yet who
were anxious that their children and other children over whom they
had supervision should have the largest facilities for acquiring an
education and who were public-spirited men.

Dr. Curbelo. They were Americans.

Dr. Carroll. A third reason for this in the United States is the
fact that a group of houses forming a small hamlet will have few pub-
lic requirements compared with a large collection of houses compactly
built in the municipality, and the wants of the villagers will be so
few that their officers will be few and their public expenditures will
be small, so that their taxes will be extremely light.

Dr. Curbelo. That is all right. The reasons are good, but that
is in the United States. Here you can not get the people to live even
in little villages, because the estates are large and the people will not
come together. Some of them who own little parcels of land, not
large enough to get a living out of, yet do not want to go into a vil-
lage, because, they say, people quarrel when they get together.

524

Dr. Carroll. That is also the condition in the United Slates. In
the cases of persons living separately in that way they are formed
into townships and have a very simple government, but they all take
part in it and are interested in it.

I am not making an argument for such a system here; I am simply
trying to set out the advantages it has to American eyes, with a view
to getting your opinion as to whether such a system can be intro-
duced in a gradual way into Porto Rico.

Dr. Curbelo. Conditions of life here are not the same as in the
United States. There are three classes of property holders here —
those who have large estates, those who have only small estates, and
those who live on a borrowed piece of land on which they are work-
ing, and who. the day they cease to work for the owner of it, take up
their household effects and depart. The latter class is the most
numerous.

Dr. Carroll. Then the vast majority of the population of the
island consists of the peasant or laboring class?

Dr. Curbelo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. The middle class here, then, is very small.

Dr. Curbelo. Very small and very poor, and even the people who
are called rich are not so in fact. A people numbering a million with
a circulating medium of only 5,000,000 pesos can not be other than
poor.

Mr. Jauregui (druggist). I am in favor of American institutions
in every sense of the word. I think that the sj^stem of township
government you have described is worthy of trial.

Dr. Curbelo. If it were done on the American plan, it would be
feasible, but if on the Spanish plan, where everybody wants to create
posts, it will end in a fiasco. For instance, in Hormigueros, by a
vote of 32 to 2, the municipality was consolidated with that of
Mayaguez, which shows that the people there at least do not want
to have a separate governmental existence.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not true that the suddenness with which the
people have been set at liberty has led them to wish to exercise it in
some way or other, and may not the trial of plans which have worked
elsewhere lead to the settling upon some one that would be permanent
and satisfactory; that is, to reach permanency through experiments
of that kind, just as when a boy is thrown on his own resources he
has to try for himself?

Mr. Jauregui. Up to the present we have suffered from the mis-
takes and vices of the Spaniards, but now that we belong to another
system, of greater freedom, we think we ought to have that S37stem
here. If we have to learn all over again, we will do so, but we can
not learn without having the sj^stem introduced, and we will learn to
walk as the child does, falling down many times, but persistently
trying again until it learns to walk.

Dr. Carroll. I think that every experiment with regard to the
management of schools and municipal government that has ever
entered into the mind of man has been tried in the United States.

Mr. Jauregui. We will have to do the same thing here.

Dr. Curbelo. The first thing to do here is to teach the people to
respect the law.

Dr. Carroll. I am asking the questions -ttiiich I have put to you,
gentlemen, everywhere I go, because as the island is to have a new
government it is a question whether it ought to have these other
things also, or whether you should have a new insular government

525

and continue the rest of the system practically as it is. I am asking
these questions for light as to the opinions of the people of Porto
Rico.

Dr. Curbelo. I have spoken with persons of intelligence here, and
find that they understand very little about the American system. I
have told them of the American township system in which, when they
have not money enough to pay for police, some volunteer to act as
police, and when they have not money enough to furnish lights the
people put out lights. People here can not understand how a little
town can manage for itself. The centralization system of government
here is fatal to any aspirations to self-government. I will cite you an
instance which will show how accustomed the people are to being
bossed. When the Americans arrived an officer sent word to the
mayor of one of our towns and said he wanted the use of a hospital,
and directed the mayor to clear it. out ready for use. The mayor
straightway, without raising any objection or making any explanation
as to the situation, removed all the patients from the hospital, although
some were at the point of death. That would not have happened in
the United States.

Dr. Carroll. When I first came down here it was with the general
idea of maintaining things as I found them as much as possible, and,
while giving Porto Rico a new form of government, to use the system
as far as might be as it now exists; but the more I inquire about it,
the deeper I go into the subject, the more does it appear to me that
when the government is changed for a new one there should be a
pretty thorough change in the system; not, perhaps, a radical change,
but the introduction of those features, at least, which the leading men
of the island think it worth while to try.

Dr. Curbelo. The island requires a thorough change in its system
of government.

MUNICIPAL AUTONOMY.
[Hearing- before the United States Commissioner.]

ITtuado, P. R., January 17, 1899.
Senor R. Martinez, alcalde of Utuado :

Dr. Carroll. I would like to have something from you as to what
measure of municipal autonomy municipalities in the island ought to
have.

The Alcalde. We think that it is of the greatest importance that
we should have the right to dispose of our own money, to form our
own budgets, and to attend to our own roads, without the intervention
of anyone at the capital. It sometimes happens that we have dis-
turbances of the peace, when we find it necessarjT to appoint ten or
twelve extra policemen. To do this we have to prepare a petition
and send it to headquarters, and it takes ten or twelve days to get
it approved. In the meantime we are unable to suppress a disorder,
which, if we could attend to it ourselves, we could vote on the increase
of the police force and suppress the disorder at once. We frequently
want to make a road — for instance, from here to Ciales. To do so we
have to send in a long ,'ocument, and it takes, perhaps, six months
before it is returned, and perhaps it is finally refused. There would
be no danger in empowering the ayuntamiento to raise and appro-
priate monkey for these municipal needs. Should the ayuntamiento

526

exceed its powers and attempt to do anything which would prejudice
the interests of the taxpayers, they are on the spot and could make
their claims, and they would know where to go and get attention if
they thought the municipality was going outside of its sphere. More-
over, as the council is composed of the high-rate payers, they would
not be apt to do anything which would injure rate payers, as they
would be the first to suffer by such an injury. You must also take
into account that it is not the municipality that prepares the assess-
ments and budgets. They call everybody in who has an interest in
the matter, and they fix the rate between them. I think the whole
country would gain considerably by granting municipal autonomy.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States the cities have self-government,
but within certain limits. Their proceedings are usually under char-
ters, which limit their power, for instance, to contract debt. I sup-
pose that such a limitation would be practicable in the island of Porto
Rico.

Mr. Siejo. I think it convenient if such a charter should include
the power to borrow money.

Dr. Carroll. Yes, but within certain limits. Cities in the United
States are allowed to borrow a certain per cent of their taxable
property.

Mr. Siejo. They would not want to borrow 2 per cent on the value
of the property here.

Dr. Carroll. Another provision that they have generally in the
United States lodges in the hands of the governor power of removal
of the mayor of a city when cause is shown therefor on trial before
the governor or before a commission.

The Alcalde. We have that also.

Dr. Carroll. Sometimes also a veto power is given over the mayor's
power of removal of the head of the department of public works or of
the fire department or the police department. That is simply to pre-
vent unjust removals for political or other reasons.

The Mayor. I think it is a good measure. I think there should
always be a certain brake in the hands of the governor to prevent
acts being taken from personal or political motives to the injury of
public officials.

Dr. Carroll. The subject of municipal autonomy is an important
one.

Mr. Lucas Amadeo. I am a radical in that. I aspire to municipal
autonomy as it exists in the United States. The question is hardly
discussable. There can be but one side to it. The principle is fun-
damental.

Dr. Carroll. There is no doubt in my mind if the people will go
to that extent.

Mr. Amadeo. Everything that is fundamentally true in government
should be instituted. The people are waiting and are ready to accept
anything that has had a trial.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that the opinion of the island inclines
more and more to the adoption of American institutions generally,
not including the penal and civil codes, because the people seem to
think that with a few changes those may stand ; but that in all other
matters, including methods of judicial procedure, American institu-
tions should be introduced.

Mr. Amadeo. In what we call substantive laws — that is, laws which
declare the rights of people — we have very good codes, but our second-
ary laws, which govern the administration of the codes, are not in

5*27

proper relation to the codes themselves. They do not work out the
honest meaning of the codes.

Dr. Carroll. And are too complex, are they not?

Mr. Amadeo. Yes; and give rise to twisted meanings and bad faith
in their operation.

(Note. — Dr. Carroll here explained at length the municipal system
of the United States. )

Mr. Amadeo. The system of subdivision of governmental powers,
which gives to every community the administration suitable to its
position and requirements, is just what I iind so admirable in the
municipal life of the United States, serving as it does as a school in
government, as these different degrees of self-government are par-
ticipated in by the people.

Dr. Carroll. You are using the same argument that I used in
Arecibo to show them the value of our system, which they seemed to
regard as impracticable for this island.

Mr. Amadeo. Everything that is good appears to me to be possible.
Only the bad appears impossible. Our commercial code is splendid,
but our hypothecary law is bad and errs on the side of too much
stringency on the debtor. Speaking of our laws, I have always said
that they are founded on a scientific basis, and are, therefore, accept-
able; but there is a tremendous hiatus in the police laws. There is
no system of police laws covering municipalities. We may say that
we live without municipal regulations of any description, and that is a
wide field for work, because, as you understand, the police come into
daily contact with the people, and the influence of police and police
laws over the people is one of very greatest importance. In the
organization of the courts there is also great room for improvement.
Municipal judges in most of the municipalities are machines of public
destruction, instead of being dispensers of justice. They are posts
sought for and solicited because of the illeg;al methods of those hold-
ing them; they give larger returns than any business. In the courts
of first instance are nests of parasites. The country has suffered from
a horde of shysters who live by trying to get property owners into
litigation, and this despicable practice has been protected by the
ignorance of the judges and their venality. I think that the position
of a judge should be made a responsible position, and that could be
accomplished in the first place by electing them to office.

Dr. Carroll. Would you give them long terms?

Mr. Amadeo. To-day the tenure of judges is considered a guaranty
of their independence. In England the greatest normality has been
obtained in this direction, but the judicial system there is too expen-
sive ; there is too much luxury about it. There they have striven to
prevent all possible corruption of the judges by giving them salaries
which put them beyond want. I think judges should be elected by
the people, but not by universal suffrage. I am not a partisan of uni-
versal suffrage. Candidates should have their names posted and
should be subjected to a prior criticism by the people at large.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States we have a campaign between
the nomination and election.

Mr. Amadeo. In the United States are the judges named by the
executive power, or elected?

Dr. Carroll. In some States they are appointed, and in some
others elected. In the Federal courts they are appointed for life or
good behavior.

Mr. Amadeo. One thing you have to guard against to-day is atavism.

528

Judges have inherited Spanish ideas. IT is necessary also to pay
special attention in order to secure the honest and clear administra-
tion of justice, because without that the wealth of the country can not
increase. That is the basis of everything. It is also the basis of
public dignity.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think that the introduction of the jury sys-
tem as we have it in the United States would be of advantage here?

Mr. Amadeo. Yes; that is one of my fundamental principles.

Dr. Carroll. What conditions would you lay down for the exer-
cise of the franchise.

Mr. Amadeo. Those who know how to read and write or who are
taxpayers.

REFORMS DESIRED IN LARES.

LHearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 18, 1899.
Mr. Justo A. Mandez Martinez and Mr. Juan Vivo, a delega-
tion from Lares, the former second assistant alcalde of Lares and the
latter vice- judge of the same district.

Mr. Martinez. We hope the government will supply municipalities
with teachers who understand both Spanish and English, so that they
will not have to bear the expense of supporting an English teacher.

Dr. Carroll. It would be difficult to get such teachers at once. It
would require time.

Mr. Martinez. In the country there are a great many men who,
although they do not hold professors' diplomas, understand both
languages, and would be very useful in that way. Although they
have no diploma for teaching English, they can teach the language.
The general wish is that children who have had no education should
be sent to school and should be given an opportunity of learning
English at the same time they learn other things.

Dr. Carroll. Could peons send their children to school if free
schools were furnished?

Mr. Martinez. The law should oblige them to do so.

Dr. Carroll. I understand from statements made by representa-
tives of the laboring classes in Arecibo, that their rate of wages has
been so low that they have been compelled to put their children to
work at as early an age as 8 years and could not send them to school
for that reason.

Mr. Martinez. The people of Lares desire the removal of all em-
ployees who belonged to the armed forces of Spain; that is, to the
volunteers. We have two very objectionable ones there at present.
We also want more economy in the municipal budget. We have too
many employees in the municipality and want the number cut down.

Dr. Carroll. Can you particularize?

Mr. Martinez. The necessary employees are a mayor, a secretary,
and a depositary of municipal funds. As it is they have a first clerk,
second clerk, third clerk, and from sixteen to twenty others, besides
the necessary officers I have named. The population of Lares is 22,000
in the whole district. Eight employees is all they can possibly need
to carry on the whole municipal business.

Dr. Carroll. You do not include in that the chief of police and of
the fire department?

529

Mr. Martinez. I only refer to the employees in the office at the
alcaldia. I think we have too many policemen, however; we only
want abont ten or twelve.

Dr. Carroll. What do you pay the policemen?

Mr. Martinez. We have thirty, to whom we pay $10,000 a year.

Dr. Carroll. Has not the city power in itself to reduce the number
of policemen?

Mr. Martinez. No; the approval of the central authorities is re-
quired.

Dr. Carroll. Do you want any change in the methods of munic-
ipal taxes?

Mr. Vivo. As it is, taxes are unfairly distributed. We would pre-
fer an indirect tax, so that everybody would have to pay according to-
what he consumed. Some taxpayers are protected to the prejudice of
others. They name the board of assessors according to the caprice of
the alcalde or boss of the district, and he favors his own friends.

Dr. Carroll. How many are there in the board of assessors?

Mr. Martinez. Six. I think it would be to the great benefit of
the country if all the alcaldes who were named by the Spanish Gov-
ernment were removed and new ones elected by the people. At pres-
ent the people are more inclined to occupy themselves with politics
than with good government, because most of them are opposed to the
present alcaldes.

Dr. Carroll. When do the next elections occur for members of the
common councils?

Mr. Martinez. Under the present law they should occur next
month.

Dr. Carroll. General Henry proposes to grant municipal autoii;
omy and allow the councils elected by the people to choose their own
alcaldes; and if he does so, then you have the remedy in your own
hands.

Mr. Martinez. We fear that if these elections take place things
would be so manipulated by the alcaldes that we would remain as
we are.

Dr. Carroll. The thing to do is to organize to carry the elections
in the interest of good government.

Mr. Martinez, "if the law as it is now is enforced, it is all .right; but
if elastic, so that offenders will be allowed to escape, we will be in a
bad predicament. With regard to notarial fees and fees of the clerks
of the courts, I would say that that is another thing that contributes
to the ruin of the country.

Dr. Carroll. Please explain.

Mr. Martinez. Notaries have no tariff, or if they have, do not stick
to it in Lares. The other day, on a document involving $6,000, I had
to pay $200 to have it executed. The notaries will not give receipts
for the amounts. they are paid; so they always have a legal way of
escape.

Dr. Carroll. Have you only one notary in Lares?

Mr. Martinez. Only one, who acts for two towns.

Dr. Carroll. Have you made complaint to the government at San
Juan in reference to these matters?

Mr. Martinez. No; we have never done so, because when we have
made complaint the complaint has never been listened to.

Dr. Carroll. Could you not make complaint before the judge of
first instance?
1125 31

530

Mr. Martinez. Up to the present we have never attempted to make
a complaint, because it would have been useless to do so.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not in the power of the court to compel notaries
who have taken illegal fees to disgorge?

Mr. Martinez. In bringing an action it would be necessary to prove
the amount paid, but the notary does not give a receipt with which
this could be done.

Dr. Carroll. Why not pay in the presence of a witness and take
the witness to court?

Mr. Martinez. I think now we will take these matters more into
our own hands. Heretofore we have been unable to do so. The plan
of the city, showing the lands belonging to it, was lost bj~ accident.
Certain rich men there, who are favored by the central government
and by the alcalde, have taken possession of considerable property
and have closed up all but one of the means of entering the town.
It is not possible to prove anything, because they have lost the plan.
Other people have asked permission to build houses on municipal
land, but as these rich men have built up their houses other people
have been refused. In this municipality they give a man two months
to build, but in Lares they put a wire fence around the lot without
building on it, and keep other people from doing so. Here in Utuado,
if the lots are not built up within two months, they are passed over to
somebody else.

HOW ONE MUNICIPALITY IS CONDUCTED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Camuy, P. R., January 20, 1899.
Jose de Jesus, owner of agricultural property and owner of a
stage line:

Dr. Carroll. What do you wish to speak about particularly?

Mr. de Jesus. The question of municipal administration. I wish
to speak only for the interest and good of the town. Here, as in all
the towns, there are two parties. They are not both represented in
the municipality. The result of that is that the persons holding
power are not persons to administer big offices in the way they should
be administered. No question is ever put up for discussion. Every-
thing is approved unanimously, even when it is prejudicial to local
interests. We lack the means for obtaining a state of government
which would tend to the progress of municipal affairs. There are too
many employees. A town of this size can be well served by an alcalde,
a secretary , and a clerk. All the other employees are super-abundant.

Dr. Carroll. How large is the district?

Mr. de Jesus. From 11,000 to 12,000. Even in the Spanish times
we never had more than three employees, and that was considered a
full number, although, as you know, their business methods take a
voluminous form of words.

Dr. Carroll. Has this increase taken place since the American
occupation?

Mr. de Jesus. When the Spanish left. It has not been the direct
action of the Americans, but these people were put in as soon as the
Americans came. The alcalde has given emploj'inent to all his fam-
ily. Two nephews and a young man who is going to many a niece,
and they have raised the salaries more than 50 per cent. The alcalde

531

received $70 before ; now he receives more than $100. His name is
Lanrentino Estrella. The clerk before earned $25 ; now they have
two clerks, at $40 each. The depositary of public funds was paid
before 5 per cent of the amount collected; they pay him now $50 a
month without reference to what he collects. Before there were two
policemen, at $25; now they have six for the city, earning $30 or $40,
and they are absolutely useless. They don't serve the town in any
way.

Dr. Carroll. Who is responsible for the increase in the number
of employees and salaries'?

Mr. de Jesus. You can not exact responsibility from anybody,
because the matter is brought before the municipality and approved
with unanimity.

Dr. Carroll. Is not the consent of the secretary of government
necessary?

Mr. de Jesus. They are approved by him before they are passed.
It is by his instigation that those measures are taken. He does not
care about the interests of the country, but only of the party which
he holds together and increasing the number of places to give to his
friends. And we to-day feel the weight of the burden on us, and
therefore we complain. He simply lives on his salary and does not
care about the sufferings of his countrymen. He does not have to
take the plow in his hands as I do. That is all I have to say.

Dr. Carroll. Are you a member of the council?

Mr. de Jesus. No. They have been very careful not to admit me
to the council. They only take into the council persons who will
allow the alcalde to do what he likes.

Dr. Carroll. Is anything being done here to carry out General
Henry's order to tax liquor and tobacco?

Mr. de Jesus. Yes; and I have to make an observation about it.
The order was to cover the deficit caused by the abolition of the con-
sumption tax. There was no consumption tax here. Every expense
was covered in the ordinary way. They have raised this liquor and
tobacco tax higher than they should have done to cover an old deficit,
which was caused by maladministration and, worse than that, pecu-
lation. I would, be the first to applaud them if they would collect
even a larger amount than they required to build schoolhouses, but
they have used this power to collect more money to cover some mal-
versations. They do not pay employees in money, but in vales, and
they go and collect these vales in the mayor's store. The money
earned by employees should be given to them to spend wherever they
wish. The alcalde makes it appear that he does it to relieve the mis-
ery of the people, but it means a percentage for him. The school-
teacher here is paid in vales also.

Dr. Carroll. Do you know of anyone here who would like to be
heard?

Mr. de Jesus. There are two people who represent the town here.
The mayor represents the alcaldia, and I represent the rest of the
people. You hear the alcalde and form your own judgment. You
can believe according to impressions you form. I have said nothing
that I can not prove. I bring no political passion to the discussion of
it. I am only a workingman. I am worth from $15,000 to $20,000,
and I have made it by my own efforts.

Note. — A message was sent to the mayor's office advising him thai
the commissioner was in the town and would be pleased to hear him.
The messenger was informed that the mayor was not in town.

532

BAD MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aguadilla, P. R., January 21, 1899.

Adrian Del Valle. The municipal administration in the island
to-day is of the worst description. Towns like this, for example, are
in a state of despondency — even worse than that. They form a
budget for $40,000, but there is no way of getting that amount, as the
people have not that amount to pay. We wish the power granted us
to raise loans. We owe small amounts. For instance, this munici-
pality owes only $16,000, which is small. We own property sufficient
to give good guaranties, and if we could borrow we could give good
security and pay off these loans without great effort. Why should
we not have the right to borrow money at 0 per cent when they are
willing to lend it at that rate in the United States?

Dr. Carroll. Have not you power to raise a small loan for tempo-
rary use?

Dr. Casselduc (the mayor). None whatever.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be likely that if this power were granted
some municipalities would overwhelm themselves in debt?

Mr. Del Valle. First give the municipality proper power, and
then honest and well-wishing men will be brought to the front. With
such men there would be no danger. Why should they have 20 indi-
viduals to form a council in this city? Ten would be quite sufficient.

Dr. Carroll. Are there 20 or 24?

Mr. Del Valle. There are 20 here. In some places they have 24
By having a less number it would be possible to find men better fitted
for the position. The people never make a mistake when they can
elect their representatives freely.

Dr. Carroll. Now, about the roads. That has been mentioned as
one of the most important subjects; and it seems to me to be one of
importance to Aguadilla. Have you road experts here? Has a care-
ful estimate been made at any time recently as to the making of a
good road from here to Lares?

Mr. Del Valle. Do you mean a broad road?

Dr. Carroll. What kind of a road do you want?

Mr. Del Valle. A broad road. The last contract let out by bids
for making a road was for 116,000 a kilometer.

Dr. Carroll. Can a good permanent road be made for that amount?

Dr. Casselduc. Yes.

Mr. Del Valle. Naturally on that contract the contractor would
make a profit. Such contracts are put up at public auction, and the
contract is awarded to the person bidding the lowest amount.

Mr. , secretary of the council; Mr. L. Torregrosa, a law-
yer, and Dr. Casselduc, mayor of the city.

Dr. Carroll. Have you endeavored to carry out the order of Gen-
eral Henry in respect to taxing wholesale liquor and tobacco dealers?

Secretary of the Council. We are occupying ourselves now
with that question.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any difficulty in imposiug the additional
taxes proposed?

Mr. Torregrosa. This municipality will have no difficulty.

Dr. Carroll. In one or two municipalities they have said that this
tax was impracticable. Then you do not find it so here?

Dr. Casselduc. No; I think the people will drink and smoke, no
matter what the price may be.

533

Dr. Carroll. Is this a large district?

Dr. Casselduc. There are 13,000 or 14,000 in the entire district,
and about 8,000 in the city proper.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think a municipality should include so large
a rural territory under its jurisdiction?

Dr. Casselduc Our plan here, I think, resembles much the plan
in the United States of dividing up the States into counties.

Mr. Torregrosa. With regard to the system of public instruction,
the centralization system is still in force, just as it used to be. Munici-
palities have absolutely no initiative in the matter of education. This
town formerly supported three schools for males and three for females,
and one school in each of the rural districts. All three of the male
schools are to-day without teachers. One of them is being attended
to by an interim teacher. The ministry of fomento has not taken
any resolution on the question of naming teachers for the remaining
schools.

Dr. Carroll. Why is that? Has it not teachers to appoint? Haven't
teachers been recommended to it from the municipality?

Mr. Torregrosa. One of the teachers was taken from here and
given a school in San Juan. One of the teachers in Mayaguez changed
with another teacher here. But although the one from here went to
Mayaguez, the Mayaguez teacher would not come here, as he is a
Spaniard.

Dr. Carroll. How long have these vacancies existed?

Mr. Torregrosa. Six or seven months at least.

Dr. Carroll. Were they brought promptly to the attention of the
secretary of fomento?

Mr. Torregrosa. He must have known about it, because he is the
person who has charge of the subject. I do not know whether it is a
question of saving or simply a case of letting the matter drift that the
teachers have not been named. Unfortunately, the town council is
composed of nullities who do not know anything about municipal
affairs or anything connected with it. Last night they took measures
among themselves to get rid of the present alcalde, who is a man of
worth. To show you the extent of their ignorance, I will mention an
instance. General Henry asked the mayors, when they met him in
consultation, as to whether or not' they were willing to have kinder-
gartens established in their district. Dr. Casselduc presented the
matter to the council, and one of the members said, "We have no
gardens here that could be used for any such purpose." The alcalde
had to explain to them what it meant.

Dr. Carroll. Were the members of the council elected or appointed?

Mr. Torregrosa. You have to understand the politics of the coun-
try to be able to comprehend how it is possible to form such a town
council. The persons who belong to a certain political party are
interested in naming the most ignorant persons, so as to have them as
easy tools, and persons of any degree of culture or education have to
refrain from taking part in the citj^ government for that reason.

Dr. Carroll. You need a reform, then, beginning from the top
down.

Mr. Torregrosa. When General Henry called the meeting of dele-
gates, I was one of those who attended, and I asked to have an inter-
view with him. General Henry requested a list of persons who would
be suitable for the council, and I made out a list, giving him names
of persons of both shades of political opinion.

Dr. Carroll. General Henry has the matter under consideration,

534

and he desires to have the council divided politically, both in Agua-
dilla and elsewhere, but it takes a little time to make such reforms.
Practically, at present you have no schools here that amount to any-
thing.

Mr. Torregrosa. We have none, and what is specially necessary
here is a couple of schools taught by lady teachers for our children.
We wish to introduce the teaching of the English language in the dis-
trict, and as soon as the proper persons get into the municipal coun-
cil that will be the first thing the3T will do. The municipality can
support schools if it wishes to.

Mr. Robert Schnabel. One thing we want especially is a police
force, particularly a country police. The country is full of marauders.
After they got tired of burning estates, they commenced assassination
and all sorts of mischief. Every now and then these things occur.
Some of those who went to the justice to make complaint were not
attended to because the greater part of the judges, as well as the
mayors, are in complicity with these lawless people, and it is hard to
say, but it is true, the chief trouble is politics. Captain Mans-
field can confirm this. At Pinas some of these outlaws took charge of
an estate and drove off the manager. He applied to the niayor, but
the mayor would do nothing. The matter was then brought to the
attention of Captain Mansfield, who said the mayor must attend to it
and give protection, otherwise he, Captain Mansfield, would consider
him an accomplice. You would naturally think that the mayor would
have resigned then, but he did not. He yielded to Captain Mansfield
and sent the police. This town council is as bad as you can imagine,
and thej^ were all put in office by political preference. We applied
to General Brooke for protection against attacks of marauders, but he
said, "You must defend yourselves," and that was all the consolation
we got.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think that there should be a considerable
degree of liberty for the cities'?

Mr. Schnabel. Not at present. The people are not educated suffi-
ciently for that ; they have given proof of it. They got autonomy from
Spain, and there was fighting all around.

M UNICIPAL O O VERNMENT IN MA TAG UEZ.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Mayaguez, P. R., January ££, 1899.
Mr. Manuel Balsac, secretary of the council. since last Ma}T and
an employee of the office for twenty-five years, and Mr. St. Laurent,
mayor :

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask a few questions further regard-
ing the composition of the municipal government. I want to get an
idea of the constitution of a municipal government with all its bureaus.
Is there a department of wharves or department of the plaza?

Secretary Balsac. There used to be port works in the city over
which the niayor had jurisdiction, as a board of port works, but since
that board was dissolved in May there is none, and nobody has juris-
diction at present.

Dr. Carroll. Do the titular doctors constitute a board or a sepa-
rate department?

535

Secretaiy Balsac. The three titular doctors do not constitute a
separate department, but report individually and directly to the sec-
retary. The two hospitals are under the department of charities.
The house of refuge for the poor is also a part of public charities.

Dr. Carroll. Is the care of prisons also under the municipality?

Secretaiy Balsac. There is a prison which is used for the purpose
of receiving prisoners from what is called the prison district, compris-
ing several municipal districts. That is managed by a separate board,
of which it happens that the mayor is the head.

Dr. Carroll. Then you have also a municipal jail?

Mr. St. Laurent. In the police barracks we have a place of deten-
tion, but only for twenty-four hours. i

Dr. Carroll. Are there committees for all these departments?

Mr. St. Laurent. The council is divided into six committees, which
divide up this among them, with the exception of the district prison,
which has a separate committee.

Dr. Carroll. What are these six committees called?

Secretaiy Balsac. The first is the committee of estimates; then
the committee of instruction, the committee of public works and
adornment, the committee on charities, the committee on health, and
the committee of police.

Dr. Carroll. I notice that there is a park down by the theater. Is
that a public park?

Mr. St. Laurent. That comes under the committee of public works
and adornment. There is another small one behind the custom-house.

Dr. Carroll. Is it the intention to introduce trees in these parks
to afford shade, as is the custom in America?

Mr. St. Laurent We have a project for making this street into a
boulevard, planting trees and making broad sidewalks, but have not
been able to carry it out for want of funds.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any other city in the island that has a project
for a park like that?

Mr. St. Laurent. I think Ponce has. If Mayaguez could borrow
the money it desires to, we could greatly embellish the cny. There is
a space beyond the barracks which it is intended to use for a park.

Dr. Carroll. How many members are there in the council?

Mr. St. Laurent. Twenty-three, the mayor making twenty-four.

Dr. Carroll. How often does the council meet?

Mr. St. Laurent. Every Monday at 8 o'clock. If a quorum is not
present, a meeting is held on the Wednesday following.

Dr. Carroll. Are the members of the council here general tax-
payers?

Mr. St. Laurent. Yes. I should explain in reference to our meet-
ings that on Monday a quorum consists of one-half the number of
members plus one, but if we do not get a quorum on Monday and
must hold the meeting on Wednesday the quorum is whatever num-
ber may be present.

Dr. Carroll. I would now like to ask your opinion as to what
changes are desirable in the matter of municipal administration to
make it more effective?

Mr. St. Laurent, mayor. Our aspiration is to have an ample munic-
ipal autonomy, so that everything relating to local life can be attended
to by us without having recourse to the central government. It has
been our constant struggle with Spain to decentralize the government.
For instance, the municipality of Mayaguez has not the power to name
one of its own teachers. We nominate a teacher, but have to send

536

the name to headquarters. We think there would be no barm in a

provision requiring municipalities to notify headquarters of the
appointment of a teacher, but not for the purpose of confirmation. I
think taxation should be left to the municipal authorities. The cus-
tom is now under the Spanish law for the amount to be named at
headquarters, and we have to procure that amount whether we are
able to or not.

Dr. Carroll. You mean the state taxes?

Mr. St. Laurent. I mean that each municipality should name the
amount that it should pay to the state for the state government.

Secretary Balsac. The municipalities want to have their taxation
absolutely free from state control; that the state should support its
government by custom-house receipts and should have no right to
impose on municipalities, as such, any direct taxation ; that the state
should collect its taxes independently of municipalities.

Dr. Carroll. Would it increase the effectiveness of municipal gov-
ernment to divide the municipal districts so that the citj^ of Mayaguez,
for instance, should have control simply over the city proper, leaving
the rural districts to organize into various forms of rural government —
into villages, hamlets, as the case might be'?

Secretary Balsac. Mayaguez has no dependent villages. Outside
of the city proper this municipal district consists entirely of agricul-
tural holdings without any aggregations of population.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be proper, then, that the agricultural
interests should form a rural government of its own, to be known as
townships, as in the United States. These township organizations are
very simple, and while they have the necessary functions their economy
of management is such that a very small rate of taxation is required
to meet their expenses.

Mr. St. Laurent. How would the city sustain itself?

Dr. Carroll. By its own inhabitants. By taxes upon the property
within its own limits.

Mr. St. Laurent. A large number of those living in the country
have the advantages of the city. I have my estate in the country,
but I live in the city.

Dr. Carroll. I don't see how that affects the matter. You are an
absentee landlord.

Mr. St. Laurent. The workingman pays absolutely nothing.

Dr. Carroll. But there are planters who live on their estates, are
there not'? Such a division would result in the decrease of the amount
these would have to pay, because now they pay for the fire department,
for the police department, and for streets, the advantages of which
are nothing to them.

Mr. St. Laurent. They also pay for the hospital and for the
vicinage roads, in the benefits of which they do participate.

Dr. Carroll. But they can have them for themselves and relieve
you of that.

Mr. St. Laurent. Later on. It appears to be a good idea, because
it is a very just one. The principal thing is to bring these people
together into groups.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States we have rural districts, just as
you have, where the house's are 2 miles or more apart, and yet in a
township 4 or 5 miles square there will be an aggregation of houses
which will form a government of simple form which will look after the
roads, after the elections, and after such matters as concern them. It
is said that people who have never exercised responsibility are not fit

537

to exercise responsibility and that they will do very foolish and unwise
things; but on the principle that after a child is burned it will avoid
the fire such people will learn by their mistakes.

Secretary Balsac. I consider the idea a very fine one, but I don't see
how it can be brought into practice without other improvements
being introduced.

Dr. Carroll. I am not proposing an argument for it with a view
to imposing it upon the people of Porto Rico, but I am making the
statement I do so that you may fully understand it, as I want to get
your judgment as to whether this system, which has been used in the
United States, could be introduced gradually into Porto Rico for the
benefit and gradual education of the whole people.

Mr. St. Laurent. It could be implanted here, with certain modifi-
cations, until the people congregate more in the country districts.

Dr. Carroll. I laid this idea before Don Lucas Amadeo, and he
thought it an excellent idea and one which ought to be implanted in
some way in Porto Rico. He regarded it as an excellent educational
project to instruct people in the manner and ways and principles of
civil government.

Mayaguez, P. R., January #4, 1899.
Don Genaro Cartagena:

Dr. Carroll. You are president of the department of public works,
I understand.

Don Cartegena. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What is included in that department?

Don Cartagena. Streets, roads, buildings, and the aqueduct.

Dr. Carroll. What public buildings have you?

Don Cartagena. The alcaldia, the market, theater, slaughter-
house, and the plazas.

Dr. Carroll. Not the custom-house?

Don Cartagena. No ; nor the office of the captain of the port.

Dr. Carroll. No public school buildings?

Don Cartagena. No.

Dr. Carroll. Not churches?

Don Cartagena. I don't know about that.

Dr. Carroll. Nor a cemetery?

Don Cartagena. Yes; it cost $14,000, and 1 suppose it belongs to
us, because it was built with money of the municipality.

Dr. Carroll. Any other public buildings?

Don Cartagena. I know of none.

Dr. Carroll. What is the aqueduct of which you speak?

Don Cartagena. It is to bring water to the city; but is in a very
bad condition. There are four reservoirs.

Dr. Carroll. What is the source of the water supply?

Don Cartagena. A river about 6 kilometers distant from the city.
It is a very small river in the mountains.

Dr. Carroll. How is the water gotten into the reservoirs? Is there
natural descent?

Don Cartagena. There is a dam to hold back the water, and that
causes it to flow into the reservoir.

Dr. Carroll. How large are the reservoirs?

Don Cartagena. I don't know.

538

Dr. Carroll. Is there any attempt made to filter the water?

Don Cartagena. Up to the present they don't filter the water. We
are considering now whether to build more reservoirs or to put in
filters.

Dr. Carroll. Is the water considered reasonably pure?

Don Cartagena. Not in the rainy season. Two clays after a rain
the water gets turbid.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any contamination, so far as you know, of
the water supply in the river above?

Don Cartagena. No.

Dr. Carroll. Are the reservoirs protected from contamination?

Don Cartagena. Two are open and two are closed. They take care
that they are not contaminated.

Mr. Federico Gatell, a member of the council and of the board
of health. It is in a bad condition in this respect, that the water d oes
not bring down any foreign substances other than earthy matters.
There are no foreign bodies'thrown into the water. The last Ameri-
can engineer who was here spoke of the matter and offered to make
free plans for the establishment of a filter, and the municipality
offered $10,000 to carry it through; but he went to Ponce and nothing
has since been heard from it. We have no good engineer in our own
in the city. We wish to better the condition of the aqueduct. We
understand that it is an absolute necessity for the town to have an
abundance of pure water.

Dr. Carroll. Are the streets piped so as to carry water to all the
houses?

Mr. Gatell. Yes; but the water supply is not sufficient. When
we water the streets the houses have not enough.

Dr. Carroll. What is the size of the main?

Mr. Cartagena. Those that come to the reservoirs are 12 inches
in diameter, and the others are 7 and 9. They are iron pipes.

Dr. Carroll. Is any charge made to the residents for water, or is it
free?

Mr. Cartagena. Pipes leading from house to house of one-quarter
inch cost $4 a year; a half- inch pipe, $8, and 1-inch pipe for factories,
$100 a year.

Dr. Carroll. In the rainy season there is plenty of water, I sup-
pose.

Mr. Gatell. There is never an absolute failure of water.

Dr. Carroll. What is the dry season?

Mr. Cartagena. From now until May. The rest of the year we
have plenty of water.

Dr. Carroll. What other sources are there?

Mr. Cartagena. That is one of the questions we want, an engineer
to study.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any waste of the water during the rainy sea-
son?

Mr. Cartagena. No.

Dr. Carroll. Some houses let the water run all the time. It seems
to me, if you have no other supply, you might economize by having
meters and compelling people to pay by the amount of water that runs
through.

Mr. Cartagena. All that is under consideration now.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose it would cost a great deal, though, to put
in the meters.

Mr. Cartagena. Yes.

539

Dr. Carroll. Are there any sewers in the city?

Mr. Cartagena. Very few.

Dr. Carroll. Where do the sewers empty?

Mr. Cartagena. In the river.

Mr. Gatell. I have applied to the municipality for permission to
purchase a couple of odorless carts to remove waste matter. Mr.
Estenache, of Ponce, wishes to obtain the contract to sewer the city,
but as that is a slow and expensive matter, I would like, to introduce
these carts here to serve in the meantime.

Dr. Carroll. The question I asked was about the sewerage.

Mr. Gatell. Few houses — for instance, this on the plaza — have made
their own sewers, and their pipes discharged in one of the barrios.
They have taken them down to a ravine, and everything falls into that.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that the sewage is exposed. Is any-
thing done to deprive it of its noxious character?

Mr. Cartagena. The water from the river washes the matter into
the sea.

Dr. Carroll. Is it communicated to the river?

Mr. Cartagena. It is a gulch. It is not a river.

Dr. Carroll. Of course that is below the water supply?

Mr. Cartagena. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any habitations in that neighborhood?

Mr. Cartagena. None at all.

Dr. Carroll. What is the condition of the health of the city?

Mr. Gatell. Very good.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have any epidemics here?

Mr. Cartagena. In the year 1856 we had cholera.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have yellow fever?

Mr. Gatell. There used to be cases among the Spanish troops.

Dr. Carroll. You have malarial fevers?

Mr. Gatell. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Does smallpox ever become epidemic here?

Mr. Cartagena. Very seldom. Such cases are removed far from
the city. They are usually of a mild character.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much mortality among children? ,

Mr. Gatell. No. The civil registrar keeps record of the deaths,
and causes of deaths, and we will give you last year's record. This
year has probably the greatest number of deaths of the century.
These records will show also the ages.

Dr. Carroll. I have asked no questions about the condition of the
streets because I can see for myself that they are kept clean. I would
now like to ask a few questions more of the president of the board of
public works. How much money yearly is expended on the streets
and roads of the district?

Mr. Cartagena. We have this year $5,000 for the streets and
$5,000 for the- roads which lead to the city, not including vicinage
roads. We have only been in control of these matters for a few
months.

Dr. Carroll. What important roads lead out of Ma3^aguez?

Mr. Cartagena. Two roads, one to Aguadilla and one to San Ger-
man. The macadamizing of the road to Anasco reaches only to the
River Anasco. We have nothing to do with that. The State pays
for it.

Dr. Carroll. Are the State roads in fair condition, or do they
require much to be done?

Mr. Cartagena. They are in fairly good condition.

540

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask some questions of the mayor.
What departments are there in the city government of Mayaguez?

Mr. St. Laurent. The alcalde's office, the secretary's office — the
secretary being the chief clerk — the department of public instruction,
municipal taxes department, charities, police, hacienda, cattle brands,
public library— perhaps the best in the island — municipal architecture,
and the accountant's office. In this office is the depositary of munici-
pal funds.

Dr. Carroll. Then, what is the hacienda'?

Mr. St. Laurent. The hacienda is for the fixing of the rates and
the collection of the taxes. We have an emergency hospital, which
comes under public charities; police barracks, which belong to the
department of police, and we have three titular doctors. These doc-
tors do not hold meetings, but are called upon when needed. We
have also a fire department. The bureau of architecture is under
public works. All the city councilors are divided into commissions,
and each commissioner undertakes the supervision of his respective
work. They serve gratuitously. We have also a general hospital
and houses of refuge for the poor.

Mr. Ricardo Rivera. The laboring class is in a very poor condition,
owing chiefly to the poverty of the agriculturist, who is not able to
assist him to rise. The country requires assistance, especially in the
matter of the money exchange. The agriculturists of my district wish
the exchange made at the rate of two for one. We would also like to
have the municipalities of Las Marias and Maricao added to the munici-
pal district of Mayaguez.

Dr. Carroll. Why do you wish to have these municipalities added
to Mayaguez?

Mr. Rivera. Because they are burdened with a horde of employees
whose only work consists in collecting their salaries.

Dr. Carroll. How would it do, instead of annexing these munici-
palities to Mayaguez, to dethrone these municipalities as such and
constitute in their places simple governments by towns or villages,
which require very few employees and incur very few expenses? This
would be a most economical way of conducting rural government.

Mr. Rivera. That is just what I would wish to avoid. I believe in
centralizing the government, as they have it in Spain. I think they
should remove the officers from these small municipalities of Las
Marias and Maricao and bring these places under the municipality of
Mayaguez. We want this because it would be very much better than
any other government, however simple.

Dr. Carroll. You planters who live in rural districts, assuming
that your district were annexed to this, would have to pay for the care
of these streets, for the lighting of these streets. You would have to
pay for the fire department and for many of these things in the city,
the benefits of which you do not enjoy. There are many things neces-
sary in a city which are not needed for scattered houses.

Mr. FaJx\rdo, of Hormigueros, stated that the people of that town
applied to General Henry for an opportunity to hold an election to
decide whether they should be annexed to Mayaguez; that the elec-
tion was conducted under the superintendence of Major Cooper; that
it resulted in 198 in favor of annexation aud 2 against it; that in the
municipality there were 115 who could read and a somewhat larger
number who were taxpayers ; that the 2 who opposed annexation were
the son of the alcalde and the son of the secretary; that the munici-
pality had a large number of employees, and that its expenses amounted
to $12,000 a year.

541

Mr. Manuel Badrena, ex-United States consul at Mayaguez:

Dr. Carroll. Why is Mayaguez so much more thrifty, with wider
streets and finer buildings, than other cities in the island?

Mr. Badrena. At the time of the exchange of the Mexican money
there were many rich men here and we have had good mayors.

Dr. Carroll. Did the insular government discriminate against
Mayaguez in any way because there were few Spanish houses here?

Mr. Badrena. No.

Dr. Carroll. They say in Aguadilla that it did there. "

Mr. Badrena. I do not believe it.

Dr. Carroll. They say they never could get any money for the
road to Lares, and that by reason of the failure of the government
to take action Arecibo was built up at the expense of Aguadilla.

Mr. Badrena. That depended on who represented the municipality
in the Porto Rican congress. People are very fond of mixing politics
with these matters. The Liberals are in power here — in fact, every-
where in the island. They are in power because they know the tricks
and can cany the elections. They had to send four deputies to San
Juan from this district. These had to be elected on the same day and
at the same hour in six different towns. The Radicals were sure that
out of the four they would get one or two, but they published the
record of the election when they had arrived at the result in these
towns. Thej^ left the town of Lares to level up the number of votes.
When they found the votes were against them, they made up false
returns there, so as to make up the difference. That is what we call
in Spanish a "political stew."

MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS IN SAN GERMAN
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

• San German, P. R. , January 26, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. How long have you been alcalde?

Mr. Felix Acosta (mayor). Seven or eight months. I was the vice-
alcalde in the old days. I have virtually been alcalde for a year and
a half.

Dr. Carroll. How many councilmen are there?

Mr. Acosta. Twenty-one. The number is not complete, but I have
seen in the papers that the others have been named. They are pro-
posed from here and named at the capital.

Dr. Carroll. Have the ones that have been proposed been ap-
pointed?

Mr. Acosta. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Have the present councilmen been members very
long?

Mr. Acosta. A little more than a year.

Dr. Carroll. Is any attention given in the choice of councilmen to
party affiliations?

Mr. Acosta. A month ago, in the captain's house (Captain Gold-
man, United States Army), we called eleven of one party and eleven
of another, and this delegation decided to set aside party differences.
They took steps for a celebration and we held a big meeting in the
theater, in which the whole town celebrated the disappearance of
political differences. There are six or seven Liberals, six or seven
Radicals, and six or seven of the old Unconditional party forming the
present party.

542

Dr. Carroll. Have you a good class of people in the council?

Mr. Acosta. They try to pick the best men of the city and coun-
try districts.

Dr. Carroll. How many inhabitants are there in the city proper
according to the last census'?

Mr. Acosta. Nearly 5,000.

Dr. Carroll. How many in the municipal district?

Mr. Acosta. About 20,000.

Dr. Carroll. What are the chief industries?

Mr. Acosta. Sugar, some coffee, and tobacco.

Dr. Carroll. Not much coffee?

Mr. Acosta. Small coffee farms only.

Dr. Carroll. What is the amount of your annual budget in the
municipality?

Mr. Acosta. It was $52,000, but we have lowered it about 110,000,
so that it is now approximately $42,000. It has been lowered by rea-
son of the removal of the consumption tax.

Dr. Carroll. Have you reduced your expenses any?

Mr. Acosta. When I came here there were seven clerks. I have
only allowed three to remain. We have reduced expenses.

Dr. Carroll. Mr. Mayor, you said the budget was formerly $52,000,
but has been reduced to $42,000.

Mr. Acosta. I spoke then offhand. I have the budget here and
want to give the exact figures. The total of the budget is $51,960 for
the current year, from which is to be deducted $4,084 as not applying
to the municipality, but to prisons. In all, there has been a reduc-
tion of $10,000, and there is to be a further reduction.

Dr. Carroll. How much of the total amount is for streets?

Mr. Acosta. I will give you the items one by one :

Repairs to the alcaldia and other municipal buildings _ $500

Construction and care of roads, bridges, and cart roads - . . _. . 1, 500

Tools for the road r 100

Streets, drains, and everything concerning streets 600

Implements for cemetery . 13

Police . 3,160

Schools:

Salaries ■_ 5,640

Materials . .. 1 1,174

One gratuity was made by the Spanish Government, which paid for
an assistant teacher. There are, in all, 13 teachers and 13 schools.

Dr. Carroll. How much is spent on the fire department?

Mr. Acosta. We have no fire department.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any charities?

Mr. Acosta. We pay $1,500 in salaries for the services of three
titular doctors; $1,300 for material, such as alms for the poor, medi-
cines, and the sustaining of the poor and the hospitals. The amount
is insufficient for these purposes.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a city hospital?

Mr. Acosta. We have to pay for each sick person a half dollar in
the hospital here.

Dr. Carroll. What is meant by this item which appears here as
back royal dues of something over $2,000?

The Depositary. This is an amount the municipality has been
owing for several years to the royal treasury of Spain, and it is being-
claimed now. The treasury department in San Juan is still trying to
make us pay it.

543

Dr. Carroll. How was the debt contracted?

The Depositary. The municipality was obliged in former years to
collect the state taxes, and as there was difficulty in collecting them,
when the municipality remitted what it had collected the amount fell
short of the total assessment, which was charged up against the munici-
pality, although the municipality had no interest in these taxes and
derived no benefit from them.

Dr. Carroll. For what purpose is the secretary of the treasury at
San Juan claiming this amount?

The Depositary. I don't know for what reason, but as he has to
approve this he wants the amount paid.

Dr. Carroll. When was the demand for this first made?

Mr. Acosta. Less than two months ago. Mr. Cuebas, of the Maya-
guez custom-house, acting under orders from the capital, made the
demand.

The Depositary. When the demand was made for this amount we
said that we did not see how we could owe this money, as it was a
debt to the royal treasury of Spain. We have received no reply to
that.

Dr. Carroll. And you have not forwarded the money to them?

Mr. Acosta. No ; most certainly not.

Dr. Carroll. Does this municipality owe anything to the provin-
cial deputation in addition to this?

Mr. Acosta. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Are the school expenses all paid up to date?

Mr. Acosta. We owe only for the current month.

Dr. Carroll. When was the last contribution paid for the support
of the church?

Mr. Acosta. We never paid that. It was paid from the insular
treasury.

Dr. Carroll. How were these debts due to the provincial deputa-
tion contracted?

Mr. Acosta. The amounts that were levied on the municipality
were not always covered, and this is the sum of the deficiencies. All
the municipalities together owe the deputation, perhaps, $100,000, but
it owns buildings worth, perhaps, $1,000,000, built from money con-
tributed by the municipalities, so that really the deputation is the
debtor.

Dr. Carroll. I notice that in some years the deaths exceed the
births.

Mr. Acosta. We had two successive years an epidemic of smallpox
and typhoid.

A Gentleman present. Not all the births are inscribed.

Mr. Acosta. All the marriages are.

Dr. Carroll. What changes, if any, do you think should be made
in the municipal government to make it more effective?

Mr. Acosta. Full municipal autonomy; liberty to name our own
councilmen and officers.

Dr. Carroll. I find that that sentiment is unanimous; everywhere
they say the same thing.

Mr. Acosta. We don't want to have to submit our officers for
approval of the central government for everything..

Dr. Carroll. Are there any complaints here about assessments for
taxation?

The Depositary. No.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any suggestions to make with regard to the
management of prisons?

544

Mr. Acosta. We have asked permission of the central government
to put the prisoners at work on the roads.

Dr. Carroll. Are all prisoners put together in the same prison?

Mr. Acosta. Yes; they all go together.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not possible that those put in for first offenses
might be inoculated by older criminals?

Mr. Acosta. Very likely that is so; but as we have no other place,
we have to put them there.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any prisoners?

Mr. Acosta. Forty-odd.

Dr. Carroll. For what offenses, principally?

Mr. Acosta. Assaults.

Dr. Carroll. Many for petty thieving?

Mr. Acosta. Yes; quite a number.

Dr. Carroll. None for very serious crimes?

Mr. Acosta. That kind does not come here, but to the capital, and
there were four who committed murder and have been sent to the
capital.

Dr. Carroll. Are those arrested here for serious offenses impris-
oned here until their trial?

• Mr. Acosta. Thejr remain here until they have been sentenced by
the audiencia. When the audiencia sentences them the judges
themselves designate the prisons where they are to serve out their
sentences.

MUNICIPAL FINANCES.

[.Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cabo Rojo, P. R., January 27, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Have you anything to say, Mr. Mayor, with refer-
ence to municipal government in the island?

The Mayor. I think it would be preferable to allow the municipali-
ties to act on their own authority and on their own responsibility,
without having to depend upon the permission of anybody outside of
the city.

(The hearing was interrupted for a few moments, some hats being
brought in for examination. The commissioner, desiring to buy one,
offered a $5 bill, which the hat owner was unable to change. On
applying to the alcalde, he said that there was not money enough in
the city treasury to change that amount. )

Dr. Carroll. What is the matter, Mr. Mayor, with your city treas-,
ury?

The Mayor. This is one of the towns most punished by the war.
We also had an epidemic of smallpox, and had to apply to the insular
government for assistance.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that this is not so well kept a town
as others I have seen. The streets are not clean, and things are not
in good order. Your vicinage road is not as good as others. I should
think the city would suffer by leaving these affairs in such a condi-
tion.

The Mayor. It is all due to the want of money. To economize this
year it has reduced the amount for street cleaning and everything else
relating to good municipal government. Consequently anybody in
the mayor's chair has a difficult position to-day.

545

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me it would be well to exercise your
economy somewhere else and keepjrour streets in good order, because
that indicates thrift, and makes strangers think there is some thrift
and some management.

The Mayor. If I had money, I could put things in good condition.
As it is I find myself with folded arms.

Dr. Carroll. Have you done anything in this city to carry out
the spirit of the order of General Henry removing the consumption
tax?

The Mayor. The tax on meat and bread has been already taken
off. This city is the one, perhaps, in which meat is sold the cheapest
in the island. I think the price of bread will also fall.

Dr. Carroll. When was the tax taken off?

The Mayor. On the 5th of this month, when the circular was
issued.

Dr. Carroll. Have you taken any steps to levy additional tax on
dealers, wholesale and retail, in liquors and tobacco?

The Mayor. The adjustment and distribution of the tax is being-
attended to now.

Dr. Carroll. Do you anticipate any difficulty in collecting that
tax?

The Mayor. I don't think so. The people of the town are very
good. No matter how much they object, they will pay.

Dr. Carroll. How many retail dealers are there?

The Mayor. There are fifty-five.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many wholesale dealers here?

The Mayor. No; we have dealers who will sell a sack or two of
rice, but I don't call that wholesale.

Dr. Carroll. I refer to liquors.

The Mayor. Only the cane growers, who sell rum by wholesale.
There are eleven dealers in the municipal district of Cabo Rojo.
There are thirteen wholesale dealers. There are twenty-two tobacco
workers. By tobacco workers I mean to say the men who make the
tobacco into rolls for export. They will suffer loss caused by the
difference between the internal-revenue tax and the consumption tax
of $4,200.

Dr. Carroll. Have you reduced your budget?

The Mayor. The budget was $29,000 ; we have reduced it to 124,000.

Dr. Carroll. About how many clerks have you here?

The Mayor. Our office force, in addition to the alcalde, is 1 sec-
retary, 2 clerks, 1 depositary of funds, 1 chief of police and 7 police-
men, 2 employees to look after the consumption tax, 2 police for the
alcaldia, 1 for the municipal judge, 1 clerk for the municipal judge,
1 attendant at the hospital, 1 janitor for the alcaldia, and 1 watchman
for the cemetery. We have a poor system of lighting and a poor
system of cleaning.

Mr. Ramirez. I bring some information in writing.

Mr. Pagan. I desire to say something to clear up an opinion that
might be formed from the document o f Mr. Ramirez in reference to salt —
that although the poor people used to work the salt mines here, the
Government sold the salt mines to the present owners on public sale
for $200,000. It was paid by the present owners.

Dr. Carroll. How much tax is paid to the municipality and to the
insular government by the salt works?

Mr. Pagan. Up to the present we have enjoyed a right, granted
by the Madrid Government, that these mines should be free from
1125 35

546

taxes for ten years. This year $1,500 has been assigned by the mu-
nicipality; nothing to the insular government. We pay a mining
right every year of $60 to the insular government upon each mining
claim.

Dr. Carroll. How much was paid last year?

Mr.. Pagan. I know that 77 pesos was paid as a municipal tax.
This year it will be 1,500 pesos for the municipality.

(The official budget was subsequently produced, which showed that
the amount of tax assessed against the salt industries was 1,200 pesos
instead of 1,500 pesos, as stated by Mr. Pagan.)

Dr. Carroll. How many inhabitants are there in the city of Cabo
Rojo proper?

The Mayor. About 3,000; the whole municipality contains 18,000.

Dr. Carroll. What kind of road is there from here to the port?

The Mayor. It is a second-class road.

Dr. Carroll. Is it in as bad condition as the vicinage road out
here?

Mr. Ortiz. It is in a worse condition.

Dr. Carroll. What would be the use, then, of having a port made
of Cabo Rojo if you can not get your products to the port?

The Mayor. We would undertake that, because the owners of the
salt mines would want to get it in good condition.

Dr. Carroll. How much do you think it would take to put the
road in good permanent condition?

The Mayor. From $1,000 to $1,500. It is very short. Possibly it
would require $2,000.

Dr. Carroll. Is that a municipal or a state road?

The Mayor. A municipal road, but it is considered as a cart road.
The Spanish Government, however, never took any pains to make it
what they called it.

MUNICIPALITIES AND SCHOOLS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Fajardo, P. R., January 31, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. How many members are there in your council?

The Mayor. Fifteen constituted the council, but there are three
vacancies.

Mr. Bird. I think Fajardo has too many councilors.

Dr. Carroll. You have municipalities within this municipality,
have you not?

The Mayor. We had, but they asked for annexation and now form
but one. Before that they had separate administration.

Dr. Carroll. They don't have an alcalde now?

The Mayor. No.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any other towns in this municipality
except Luquillo?

The Mayor. Ceiba is here, although it is only a small collection of
houses.

Dr. Carroll. Are these towns represented in your council?

The Mayor. Ceiba had three, and one of them resigned. Luquillo
has not at present, but has named one who will probably be accepted.

Dr. Carroll. About what is the amount of your annual budget?

The Mayor. Thirty-seven thousand six hundred dollars. We owe a

547

portion of that, $2,600, on account of the annexation of Ceiba, which
was an old deficit that town had. We paid $2,600 toward the district
prison, which is atrocious; also a back debt of $900 to $1,000 to the
provincial deputation; we have 15 schools, costing $7,255; to-day
they cost more than $8,200.

Dr. Carroll. Have yon sufficient accommodation for the children
of the municipality?

The Mayor. If all the children went to school, we would not
have.

Dr. Carroll. Is there room for all who want to go?

The Mayor. If it were a question of wanting to go to school, not
one-tenth part of those who do go would attend school. They are
compelled to go. There are many fathers of families who, although
they might want to send their children to school, are unable to do so
because of the great distance and bad roads. The government should
take some steps to bring into the cities, or nearer the cities, these
people who are spread over the district, and it would then be easier to
compel children to attend.

Dr. Carroll. Are the schools provided with good teachers?

The Mayor. According to the old law they are fully up to their
requirements, but they do not measure up to modern ideas.

Dr. Carroll. How much is annually appropriated for the police
department?

The Mayor. Five thousand eight hundred and thirty-four dollars.
A portion of this amount will be reduced, as this estimate covers the
creation of a rural police which has not been created yet. This item
was intended to cover any deficiency caused by the .removal of the
troops, and as the colonial police are being formed we will be able to •
reduce this amount. There are now 11 policemen altogether.

Dr. Carroll. How much of the amount goes to streets?

The Mayor. Fifty dollars only.

Dr. Carroll. How much goes to the roads?

The Mayor. Eight hundred dollars. Bridges and culverts, $100.

Dr. Carroll. That is very insufficient, of course, both for streets
and roads.

The Mayor. It is very little and insufficient owing to the fact that
this locality is ruined by reason of the sugar crops and everything
else failing to bring in the amount they should. We can not collect
sufficient money to attend to these things. The most eloquent data
that can be given you at this point is that among the three towns of
Ceiba, Luquillo, and Fajardo there used to be twenty-five cane mills;
to-day there are only twelve. Thirteen have died, and among them
the richest in the municipality.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any state road here?

The Mayor. Yes; as far as Rio Grande. From Fajardo to Ceiba
the road is in quite good condition, but municipalities like Rio Grande
never take any care of roads.

Dr. Carroll. Have you anything to say with regard to municipal
government?

The Mayor. I am satisfied with everything as it is because at the
head of affairs in the capital we have men of great talent who know
the needs of the country and are inclined to attend to them.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think municipalities should continue as they
are, and that it is well to have the government at the capital revise
and supervise the acts of all municipalities throughout the island and
approve or disapprove as they like?

548

The Mayor. I think the municipalities should have their own sphere

of action and should be autonomous, and should be accountable for
their acts directly to the people of the municipality; but I think the
old government in the capital should continue.

Dr. Carroll. It is not a question of the continuance of the insular
government. The question I am trying to get at is the relation of the
insular and municipal governments.

The Mayor. I am in favor of municipalities being able to collect
and dispose of their funds as they want. I don't consider that the
insular government has any right to impose on them the amount of
funds they are to collect, or the number of schools, for instance, that
shall be established.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the municipality should have absolute
control over the employment and dismissal of teachers, for example?

The Mayor. That is my desire and the desire of all mjr councilors.
We want complete power to remove and appoint our employees.

Dr. Carroll. Then you want a measure of municipal autonomy?

(A recess was here taken until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. )

Mr. Antonio Barcelo. As regards municipal autonomy, the insu-
lar government has already presented to General Henry a plan of
municipal autonomy with which the municipalities would very
generally be satisfied. As regards the schools, I don't think the munic-
ipalities should have direct intervention, especially as no two munici-
palities agree exactly as to school systems, and there would be a want
of uniformity if they could all do as they pleased in the matter. All
expenses occasioned by public instruction should be borne by the
state, and not by the municipalities. These are the onhT two points
on which I wish to make comment.

Mr. Barcelo. There are some municipalities here so poor that they
would not be able to attend to school matters as they should. I think
that by having a central plan by which so many schools haye to be
provided per so many inhabitants there would be uniformity, and
the system would work better.

Dr. Veva. I am with you completely in your suggestions, when once
the Territorial law or other civil law may be granted us. Meanwhile,
under the old Spanish laws, which have never been removed, but which
with all their drawbacks are still in force, we can do nothing, because
the state is in a condition of abject misery. One of the most important
and transcendental matters of the island is public instruction. That
which we have, and which comes from the old Spanish system, is bad.
It never did and never will give good results. This -system is to be
removed and replaced by another, but as this replacement means the
spending of large sums of money and the muncipalities, ruined as
they are, will not be able to raise those sums, the money Avill have
to be found in some other quarter.

Dr. Carroll. That is clear enough.

Dr. Veva. To-day there is no money to be gotten anywhere. It is
impossible to collect the $37,600 to-day which forms the budget of
this town. It can only be collected by taking away the people's
property.

Dr. Carroll. I understood that the budget was to be reduced.

The Mayor. Even with that reduction it will not be possible to
collect the amount, though during eight years of my mayoralty I
have never had to execute against anyone, but I have had to col-
lect the 2 per cent fine for failure to paj^ taxes within the time pre-
scribed.

549

MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS IN VIEQUES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Island of Vieques, P. R., January 31, 1899.

A Planter. We used to have a free port here in the time of the
Spaniards, because the customs receipts did not pay expenses and the
island prospered very much. There is no importing here at all. We
buy altogether from San Juan. In this island we have asked for trial
by jury,"but have been told that it can not be given until it is gen-
eral throughout Porto Rico. There is very little criminality here.

Dr. Carroll. You will have to wait until the new government is
established. About what is the amount of your budget?

Mr. Jacome. Twenty-one thousand four hundred and twelve dol-
lars.

Dr. Carroll. The municipality includes the whole island, I pre-
sume?

Mr. Jacome. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. How much of that $21,412 do you spend for police?

Mr. Jacome. One thousand five hundred and sixty dollars.

Dr. Carroll. How much for schools?

Mr. Jacome. Three thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars.
There are six schools.

Dr. Carroll. Is that all you need?

Mr. Wolfe. They are very poor schools and our system is a very
bad one.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any money due the insular government for
back taxes?

The Secretary. We don't know the amount, because the liquida-
tion committee of the deputation has not given us the balance
sheet yet.

Dr. Carroll. How many members are there in your council?

Mr. Jacome. It is constituted by thirteen, among which are three
vacancies. I consider that number excessive.

Dr. Carroll. Is it difficult to get good men to serve at the council?

Mr. Jacome. Very difficult.

Mr. Wolfe. There are many foreigners here, mostly French and
English. We have been obliged to take men who, under the law of
the United States, should not sit in the council. Men without capacity.

The Secretary. We have two members of the council who can not
read or write.

Dr. Carroll. I understand, then, that it is difficult to get men for
the council?

Mr. Wolfe. If they would admit others, we have men here who
would serve.

Dr. Carroll. Do you mean men who are not citizens?

Mr. Wolfe. Yes; but persons who are willing to become citizens.

A gentleman present. We want good schools here and better com-
munication. We get our mail from Humacao. It should come from
Fajardo. The mail is brought here in a sailing vessel, and as there is
a trade wind between Fajardo and Vieques we always got the mail on
time when it came from' Fajardo. We want the American system of
schools here.

Dr. Carroll. The way to get things is to continue to make repre-
sentations.

Dr. Carroll. How about the health of this place?

550

Mr. Wolfe. Very good. The troops are all well and regret leaving
here.

Mr. Mouraille (a rich planter who has been thirty or forty years
in the island). We want free trade with the United States. With that
the island would be very prosperous. We have nobody here who
understands law, and they have to send judges from outside. As to
administration, we can settle with ours here.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a system of registration here?

Mr. Mouraille. No; we register at Humacao.

Dr. Carroll. Is that not very inconvenient for you?

Mr. Mouraille. Very inconvenient. We would like to have com-
plete separation from Humacao.

Mr. Dutal (a druggist). The present system is very inconvenient.

The Mayor. One of the needs here is municipal autonomy in all
questions of administration. We ought to have also a different system
of judicial administration here. We find it difficult to get witnesses
to go to Humacao, because the expense is considerable, as well as the
inconvenience. We ought to have a certain amount of judicial inde-
pendence here, except in cases of capital crimes. At least, we should
be able to dispose of our own minor cases.

Dr. Carroll, You have j^our own municipal judge have you not?

The Mayor. Yes; but his jurisdiction is very limited. He has to
inform Humacao of every step he takes, and has to send all prison-
ers to Humacao.

Dr. Carroll. Is this a port of entry?

Mr. Wolfe. It is now. It has been such for about a month.

Dr. Carroll. Have any steps been taken to impose the liquor tax
of which General Henry dealt in an order in which a part of the con-
sumption tax was renewed.

The Mayor. We had it already in our budget before the order
came out. When the consumption tax was removed we had nothing
with which to make up the deficiency and we have asked permission
to tax all prime necessities coming into the island at 5 per cent.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any distilleries here?

Mr. Wolfe. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. How will the planters feel about having internal
revenue established here as it is in the States?

Mr. Wolfe. All that is necessary they can support. I don't think
it is required, because I think the country can pay its own way if we
can get the duty off of sugar.

THE MUNICIPAL BUDGET OF HUMACAO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Humacao, P. R., February I, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What is the population of the q\Xj of Humacao
proper?

Mr. Joaquin Masferrer (mayor). Five thousand; the population
of the entire district is 15,000.

Dr. Carroll. What is the amount of your annual budget?

Mr. Masferrer. Fiftj^-four thousand dollars this year. The last
one was $60,000.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have much difficulty in collecting your taxes?

551

Mr. Masferrer. Yes, considerable; the situation of all the tax-
payers is a rather hard one.

Dr. Carroll. Have jon taken any legal proceedings to collect
taxes?

Mr. Masferrer. Not yet.

Dr. Carroll. What part of the $54,000 is set apart for schools?

Mr. Masferrer. Eight thousand four hundred and seventy dol-
lars, distributed among eleven schools.

Dr. Carroll. Are these schools fully equipped with teachers?

Mr. Masferrer. Yes; some of the schools are being taught by
interim teachers. This will continue until March, which is the month
for the naming of permanent teachers.

Dr. Carroll. What is the average salary paid each teacher?

Mr. Masferrer. Five hundred and sixteen dollars.

Dr. Carroll. Are teachers permitted to collect fees from scholars?

Mr. Masferrer.' Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do they make any report to the municipality of the
amounts collected?

Mr. Masferrer. No; these amounts are considered to be theirs.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be better to give them a sufficient sal-
ary and abolish all fees?

Mr. Masferrer. Very much better.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have any difficulty here in getting good teach-
ers through the fomento?

Mr. Masferrer. The present plan for the selection of teachers is a
very bad one.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be better to allow the secretary of
fomento or superintendent of public instruction to lay down the
qualifications to be required of those desiring to become teachers, to
give proper certificates to persons possessing those qualifications, and
then allow each municipality to select its own teachers and dismiss
them whenever it found it necessary to do so?

Mr. Masferrer. Such a plan is what the municipalities desire.
They wish to avoid the influence and favoritism of the capital and be
able to select the teachers the}7 know are suitable for the needs of the
municipalities.

Dr. Carroll. What amount of the budget is set apart for streets?

Mr. Masferrer. One thousand dollars.

Dr. Carroll. How much for roads?

Mr. Masferrer. Two thousand dollars for three roads.

Dr. Carroll. That is not a large amount.

Mr. Masferrer. It is not sufficient even for repairs. We spent
more on that little piece of road we passed over between here and the
playa.

Dr. Carroll. Are your streets generally paved?

Mr. Masferrer. No. v

Dr. Carroll. In the United States, when it is desired to have the
streets paved the city proposes to property owners along the line that
if they will raise a certain sum by subscription among themselves
toward macadamizing the streets, the city will raise the rest. Usually
the citizens have to raise in that way only about half the amount, and
the system works very well.

Mr. Masferrer. Persons here on building a house are obliged to
put down the sidewalk only the first time ; after that they have noth-
ing to do with it; from that time on the municipality has to attend
to it.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States property owners are required

552

not only to put down the first sidewalk, but to keep the sidewalk in
condition, and that relieves the city of considerable expense. If the
city is vigilant it secures thoroughly good sidewalks, and it is a just
measure.

Mr. Masferrer. Here there are a great many poor people owning
property, and that measure would work great hardship. I tried it in
one case and had to give them the material.

Dr. Carroll. How much is set apart for police?

Mr. Masferrer. Under the old rule the municipality had only fif-
teen policemen, but there were twenty orclen publicos and eight of the
Guardia Civil. But as these bodies have been done away with, the
municipality has had to replace them by twenty-five policemen. The
amount set apart at present is 110,000.

Dr. Carroll. That seems a large sum in proportion to the whole.
I presume there are some special reasons for it. Have you had many
disorders in this district?

Mr. Masferrer. Absolutely none.

Dr. Carroll. Is that due to the vigilance of your police, to the
good order of the people, or to what?

Mr. Masferrer. To the good order of the people. The troops and
the people have fraternized, and there has been no disorder of any
sort among them. I want to state that this municipality owes $6,766,
to its employees chiefly. For the purpose of raising this amount we
were depending on the consumption tax, but this tax having been
abolished we have no means of paying this debt.

Dr. Carroll. But you have now a tax on retail and wholesale
dealers in liquors and tobacco.

Mr. Masferrer. That is not sufficient to recompense.

Dr. Carroll. Haven't you a. great many retail dealers here? There
are in all other towns.

Mr. Masferrer. There are not many here — 28 only — and they can
not afford to pay more than we already impose. Some will cease to
sell because of the new tax. This debt of $6,766 has nothing to do
with the present administration. We are managing to cover our
expenses at present by our budget. When I took charge of the office
I found only $2 in the cash box.

Dr. Carroll. Is any part of this debt owing to the Treasury at San
Juan?

Mr. Masferrer. We still owe the provincial deputation $2,000.

Dr. Carroll. What is included in this amount of $6,000 under the
head of beneficencia?

Mr. Masferrer. The salaries of two titular doctors and one stu-
dent, the subsistence of patients in the hospital, rental of the hospital
buildings, and petty expenses, such as laundry, clothing, etc.

Dr. Carroll. Have you more than one hospital?

Mr. Masferrer. There is one hospital supported by the munici-
pality and one house of charity supported by private ladies, who are
granted a subvention of $400 by the municipality.

REDUCTION OF EXPENSES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yabucoa, P. R., February 2, 1899.
Dr. Carroll. What is the annual amount of the budget in round
numbers?

Mr. Martorell (mayor). This year it is $31,000, but next year we

553

will reduce it to $21,000. We found it when we took possession of
the alcaldia. We had a deficit of about $5,000 to cover.

Dr. Carroll. Was that due to the provincial deputation?

Mr. Martorell. No; it was on account of back taxes not col-
lected.

Dr. Carroll. What do you owe to the deputation?

Mr. Martorell. Nothing.

Dr. Carroll. What are the other items of the budget?

Mr. Martorell. Beneficencia, $3,893, which includes pay of doc-
tors, medicines, and supplies for hospital, besides general hospital
expenses, and a subvention of $400 to a charitable society. The
amount for police is $2,976; for public instruction, $5,033.

Dr. Carroll. How many schools are there?

Mr. Martorell. Eight. All are supplied with teachers, though
some of them are interim teachers.

Dr. Carroll. Do you believe that when the new government is
established for Porto Rico the powers of municipalities to govern
themselves should be enlarged?

Mr. Martorell. I believe in municipal autonomy.

Dr. Carroll. Is there anything you would like to say in addition
to what is contained in the paper you present?

Mr. Cintron. The question here which is of vital importance is that
of exchange of the money.

Dr. Carroll. That has already been settled.

Mr. Cintron. According to the rate at which the exchange is fixed
will result the prosperity or ruin of the country, owing to the sugar
industry.

Dr. Carroll. The peso will be worth 60 cents, American, under the
rate decided upon.

Mr. Cintron. Does it simply give the Porto Rican currency that
value, or does* it remove the Porto Rican money?

Dr. Carroll. That has not been announced.

REDUCTION IN EXPENSES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner. ]

Arroyo, P. R., February 3, 1899.
A gentleman from Maunabo :

Dr. Carroll. How large a place is Maunabo?

Mr. . A district of 5,000 or 6,000 only. It is one of the

smallest municipalities in the island, both as to area and number of
inhabitants.

Dr. Carroll. How many members have you in your council there?

Mr. . Twelve, including the mayor.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get good men to serve in the council?

Mr. . We have too many members in our council. They

change frequently, and I think they should be reduced to six — seven
with the mayor.

Dr. Carroll. How many barrios are there?

Mr. . Six or seven.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well to have one elected from each
barrio?

Mr. . In some of these barrios of 500 people there is not one

person who can read and write. So, naturally, if that system were
adopted, you would have a number of men in the council who could
not read.

554

Dr. Carroll. Would the majority of men selected be fit men? '

Mr. . I understood you to suggest that there should be one

from each.

Dr. Carroll. That was my suggestion. It seems to me that there
must be some intelligent men in the barrios. I have known men in the
United States who could not read or write and yet who made excel-
lent public servants.

Mr. . Yes, I don't doubt that; and sometimes they are better

citizens than those who can read and write.

Dr. Carroll. Is it your idea that the mayor should be elected by
the people and not by the council?

Mr. . No; I think that the town should elect the council and

the council elect the mayor. I think in these small towns the mayor
could be selected for two or three months from among the town coun-
cilors and change about and get no salary.

Dr. Carroll. The experience in the United States is that it is well
to put the responsibility on one man; that where you have a council
of from six to a dozen men, it is difficult to fix responsibility, whereas
if you have a rnayor, and give him power, you can hold him respon-
sible. It seems to me that some such system here in Porto Rico would
be good for the government of the municipality.

THE MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS OF ARROYO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arroyo, P. R., February 3, 1899.

The secretary of the Ayuntamiento of Arroyo produced an official
cop}^ of the municipal budget for the current fiscal year for the inspec-
tion of the commissioner. It showed the following:

Total budget, $16,540. For police, $2,860; for public instruction,
$2,310, distributed among three schools ; materials for the hospital and
care of the poor, $2, 300 ; administration expenses of the alcaldia, $3, 720 ;
streets and roads, $600. The municipality owes nothing to the provin-
cial deputation.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a prison?

Secretary. We have a detention place only. Our prison is at
Guayama, and we pay $800 a year, as our contribution to the support
of that. We are now making complaint about the amount; we think
it exorbitant ; we only send five or six prisoners there a year.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any municipal debt?

Secretary. One thousand dollars is owing to employees. Besides,
we owe $2,700 additional to the prison.

Dr. Carroll. Are you having any difficulty in collecting taxes this
year?

Federico E. Virella (vice-alcalde). There are always some bad
payers, but we have no special difficulties; we do not have to proceed
against anybody.

Dr. Carroll. Under what title is the public property of Arroyo
held? Is it a matter of record in the books of registry?

Mr. Virella. The only property we have is this house ; it has not
been registered yet, as we have not paid the last installment on it.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not possible to register property until it is
entirely paid for?

Mr. Virella. That depends on the arrangement made at the time of
purchase.

(One of the gentlemen present at the hearing refuted this state-

555

ment, claiming- that property could be registered always when pur-
chased, whether paid for in cash or by installments.)

Dr. Carroll. What guaranty have you that you will get title when
all the payments are made?

Mr. Virella. The receipts of payment which we have will consti-
tute a right.

. The municipal judge. The municipal judge and the secretary are
working without salaries.

A gentleman present. Owing to the fact that they are not paid,
we don't get the service we ought to have.

Dr. Carroll. Do they receive no fees at all?

The municipal judge. Yes; but they do not amount to $25 a
month.

Dr. Carroll. That ought to be changed,

A gentleman present. An aspiration of Arroyo is to see military
government disappear and civil government at once instituted.

Dr. Carroll. Congress must first enact legislation with regard to
the installment of a new civil government for Porto Rico, and Con-
gress will not be able to take action until next winter; but I hope the
people of Arroyo and throughout the island will exercise a large
degree of j)atieiice, assured that General Henry, who is now in com-
mand at San Juan, desires only the best interests of the people of
Porto Rico and is reforming the laws as rapidly as defects in them are
brought to his attention.

A gentleman present. The whole island is satisfied with General
Henry. We think he is the right man in the right place.

Note. — The last census of Arroyo showed 276 houses and 1,504
inhabitants.

Dr. Carroll. Is the present method of municipal government
entirely satisfactory to the island, or do you think that when the new
government shall be inaugurated from Washington, the system of
municipal government should be changed somewhat?

Mr. Virella. I think it should be changed ; we should have munici-
pal autonomy.

THE MUNICIPAL DISTRICT OF GUAYAMA.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Guayama, P. R., February 3, 1899.
At the request of the commissioner, Mr. Celestino Dominguez, mayor
of Guayama, produced a copy of the municipal budget, which showed
the following, among other items:

Pesos.
Total of the budget 59,500

Salaries for management of ayuntamiento:

Mayor 1,300

Secretary... 1,000

An employee . — 600

2 clerks, at $360 720

1 clerk !.._ 240

1 clerk .. •-..- 180

1 porter 240

1 accountant .... 420

1 depositary 900

1 clerk attendant 90

Total 5,790

Municipal police 3, 600

There are 9 policemen, including officers.

556

Public instruction:

Salaries 5, 360

Materials 3, 696

9, 056
There are 10 schools altogether, with an equal number of teachers.

Beneficencia (including 3 titular doctors. 1 student, 1 man in charge of

the hospital, 1 veterinary, besides subventions and supplies) 6. 950.

Streets and roads:

Vicinage roads 1 . 000

Streets 1,000

For the repair of the church 50

Dr. Carroll. Are you indebted to the provincial deputation?

Mr. Dominguez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Any arrears in royal dues?

Mr. Dominguez. No; the amount I first gave as the total of the
budget will be reduced. Several items have been removed which will
reduce it.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a new budget formed?

Mr. Dominguez. No.

Dr. Carroll. What will the amount be for the year as reduced?

Mr. Dominguez. For 1898-99, from July to June, #51,272. During
the war the Spanish soldiers were quartered here to a considerable
extent; and as they had no money, the municipality had to attend to
their needs, which cost us about $100 a clay.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose the $1,000 spent on roads hardly represents
your needs.

The Depositary. This municipality has to take care of only 8 kilo-
meters of road, which are in perfect condition. The others are state
roads. We have plenty of rural roads, but they are not in very good
condition.

Dr. Carroll. How is it with the hospital? Is the city hospital
under the control entirely of the municipality, or is it managed by the
church in part, as in some other cities?

Mr. Dominguez. It is entirely under civil control.

Dr. Carroll. Is it in good condition?

Mr. Dominguez. It is in fair condition; it is a wooden, building,
large enough to take care of the people of the town. We have a proj-
ect for a new hospital. A gentleman left $14,000 for a hospital, but
he left the money to his wife for her life, and when she dies we will
use the money for that purpose.

Dr. Carroll. In San Juan I was told there were only two civil hos-
pitals in all the island, but I find that nearly every town has one.
Guayama, I believe, is the seat of the judicial district, and you have
the district jail here?

Mr. Dominguez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. How many prisoners are there in it?

Mr. Dominguez. Forty-nine or Mty. The largest number we have
had is 80.

Dr. Carroll. How many of these are serving out sentences and
how many are detained awaiting trial?

Mr. Dominguez. Twenty-five are serving out sentences, and the rest
are awaiting trial.

Dr. Carroll. At Arroyo to-day the municipal authorities made a
complaint about the amount assessed for the care of this prison ; that,
although they have on an average only four or five prisoners here,
they are assessed about

557

Mr. Dominguez. You must uot believe that. That figures in their
budget, but they haven't paid for several years. When the estimate
for the prison is formed, they call -all the alcaldes from the different
towns which have to contribute, and they agree as to what each shall
pay, and when they go home they go home satisfied with the amount
assessed. They have been granted delay, and two representatives
came up from Arroyo yesterday to ask a further stay of five years.
They collect the tax for it, but it filters through their fingers some-
how. What brought those gentlemen here yesterday was the fact
that this city had an embargo laid on the municipal receipts of Arroyo,
and they came up to have it taken off. They have lost their credit
with this municipal^, and yet they come asking for five years' fur-
ther time. Here is the petition that they brought us. [Mr. Dominguez
showed the Commissioner a petition, purporting to come from the
authorities at Arroyo, asking for a delay in the payment of the prison
dues.] The substance of it is that the undersigned councilors, com-
missioned for this object, have the honor to submit to your consider-
ation the following proposition for the payment of the debt for prison
expenses up to the year 1898-99 : The council of Arroyo undertakes to
make payment to the prison board of its share of prison expenses in
five terms in the form below, and goes on to propose five amounts of
$540, interest to run at the rate of 6 per cent.

Dr. Carroll. What is their proportion per year, on an average?

Mr. Dominguez. Arroyo pays $954. The other towns of the district
pay as follows: Guayama, $2,144; Barranquitas, $692;Maunabo, $842;
Patillas, $1,034; Ciclra, $587; Cayey, $1,518; Salinas, $926; Aibonito,
$787; total, $9,584. We estimate on 90 prisoners daily. That is the
number we used to have under Spanish rule. When there was a
political row, we had as high as 500 in prison at one time, and that
was quite frequent. The trouble wi,th Arroyo is that it has a large
staff of employees and pays much more out than it can possibly get in.

Dr. Carroll. Does the amount you have stated as the total for
prison expenses represent merely the cost of keeping the prisoners, or
does it include, as well, the expense of trial?

Mr. Dominguez. It does not include the expense of trial, but only
the cost of keeping them, and covers the items of food, medicines,
clothes, services of doctor and turnkeys, and everything connected
with the prison. Every month we give the prisoners a change of
clothing.

Dr. Carroll. In what condition is the prison here?

Mr. Dominguez. There is no sickness in the prison now except
slight infirmities, such as colds. The sum of $2,000 is required to put
the closets in a sanitary condition. They are a center of infection.
We tried to get the towns of the district to contribute an amount for
the purpose, but the only town that paid its contribution was Guayama.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any accommodation for the separation of
prisoners? For instance, young prisoners that come in for minor
offenses and perhaps for the first time. Are they herded together
with the old offenders?

Mr. Dominguez. Yes. We have four cells in which we put the
prisoners convicted of serious crimes, but they are all practically
together. Of course, the women have a separate place.

Dr. Carroll. The apartment assigned to women in the jail in
Humacao was horrible. They said they could not help themselves,
because they had no other place to put them.

Mr. Dominguez. We have preferential apartments, which we sell to
persons able to pay for them.

558

Dr. Carroll. Do you make an annual appropriation for the poor?
I did not notice that in the budget.

Mr. Dominguez. No; we do not.

Dr. Carroll. Have 3^011 any institution for the care of the insane?

Mr. Dominguez. No; we send them to the madhouse at the capiial.
About every ten years we have a case. We are people of brains here.

Dr. Carroll. Do the municipal judge and his clerk receive any
salary?

Mr. Dominguez. No.

Dr. Carroll. Plow are they maintained?

Mr. Dominguez. They live on what they collect from the litigants
according to a tariff. The municipal judge here is a private gentle-
man who lends his services gratuitously and leaves his fees to his
clerk.

Dr. Carroll. Won Id it not be better in all these cities to have a
municipal judge with a salary, and a clerk to be provided for in the
same way, and fines and fees, if any, to be collected and paid into the
municipal treasury?

Mr. Dominguez. That would be better. Then justice would not be
exposed to the spoliation which it now suffers in the island — not here
in Guayama now, but in other cities of Porto Rico. The priests, since
they have been denied state support, are making a practice of charg-
ing as high fees as they can get. They charge $32, where they can
get it, for going to a house to perform a marriage.

MUNICIPAL AUTONOMY DESIRED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

• Coamo, P. R., February 6, 1899.

At the request of the commissioner, Mr. Segundo Bernier produced
a copy of the municipal budget of Coamo, which showed, among
other items, the following:

Total amount of budget, 129,000, reduced by revised estimate to
$27,365; administration expenses, $5,169; police, 13,100; public in-
struction, $4,766; other night schools and beneficiencia, 64,134; public
works, $641. Of this amount $200 was for streets and $440 for roads.

Dr. Carroll. Of what does the municipal property of Coamo
consist?

The Secretary. The cemeteiy, the slaughterhouse, the hospital,
and 200 cuerdas of land on which the city is built.

Dr. Carroll. Then the municipality owns the site of the city?

Mr. Bernier. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is that all the property?

Mr. Bernier. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any changes you would desire in municipal
government?

A Gentleman present. Yes; Ave should have self-government.
The municipality should be as free as they are in the United States,
without any kind of supervision.

Dr. Carroll. What do you mean by municipal autonomy?

A Gentleman present. A government of the people and \>y the
people.

Dr. Carroll. In what measure?

A Gentleman present. To the full extent.

559

Dr. Carroll. Without any reference at all to the insular govern-
ment?

A Gentleman present. Where civil supervision is proper it should
be exercised.

Dr. Carroll. For instance, would you give the cities unlimited
power to issue bonds and create debts'?

A Gentleman present. Yes ; giving also full power to determine
every question within their spheres.

Dr. Carroll. Then 3^011 would probably soon have a state of bank-
ruptcy in all the cities of the island.

A Gentleman present. No. They would have to keep within the
restrictions which the law would require.

Dr. Carroll. Then you do want limitations?

A Gentleman present. Yes, certain limitations.

Colonel Santiago. These gentlemen have already said more or less
what I wanted to say, but I will go into it a little more in detail. I
understand by your question and your suggestion that a state of bank-
ruptcy might soon result from full autonomy; that the people to-day
are not in a condition to accept autonomy.

Dr. Carroll. No, not at all; but in the United States and other
countries municipal autonomy is generally coupled with a proviso in
the charter to the effect that the city shall not contract indebtedness
beyond a certain percentage of the value of the property of the city,
so that it shall not place itself too heavily in debt.

A Gentleman present. I think that the only way the people could
choose their form of government would be by collecting together the
men of the country and taking their vote.

MUNICIPAL PROPERTY.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aibonito, P. R. , February 6, 1899.

Mr. Caballer (mayor). The total of the budget is $22,157; the esti-
mated receipts. 120,888. You will see there is an estimated deficit of
$1,269.

Dr. Carroll. Are there no debts prior to the year 1898?

Mr. Caballer. Yes, amounting to $5,504, which is due on the con-
struction of barracks and the lodging of troops.

Dr. Carroll. What is the amount devoted to school purposes?

Mr. Caballer. Three thousand six hundred and seventy-two dol-
lars, including salaries and materials, There are six schools.

Dr. Carroll. How much for police?

Mr. Caballer. Seven hundred and eighty dollars.

Dr. Carroll. How much for beneficencia?

Mr. Caballer. Two thousand three hundred and ninety-eight dol-
lars.

Dr. Carroll. How much for streets and roads?

Mr. Caballer. Four hundred dollars for streets ; nothing for roads.

Dr. Carroll. What city property is there?

Mr. Caballer. A municipal house which is in a state of ruin, for
which reason it is to be offered at public auction; a butcher shop and
slaughterhouse.

Dr. Carroll. Is the title of the public property entered upon the
records?

560

Mr. Caballer. No; it is not; and I don't think it can be, because
the buildings stand on land which was given to the town by legacy.
The municipality does not own the land; it only owns the public
buildings standing on it. The land belongs to the people as a whole.
We distinguish between the municipality and the people.

Dr. Carroll. If you wanted to raise money on bonds, you would
have to show title to the property, would you not?

Mr. Caballer. We would register the property if we could.

The Municipal Judge. I think the title could be registered, and
from a sale of the lands on which houses are built the municipality
would be able to purchase a new municipal building. The city owns
the entire land within the city limits. A benevolent person some time
ago deeded 10 acres of land now occupied by the city, but somebody,
for personal reasons, probably, put the deed in his pocket and it was
lost. The municipality, not having absolute title to this property,
measured off 10 acres of land and directed that anybody holding
property within those limits should be allowed to build houses on it,
but that the land should remain the property of the city. The only
restriction placed on the building of these houses was that they should
conform to certain architectural rules.

Dr. Carroll. Then it is only a matter of tradition that this land
belongs to the municipality?

Mr. Caballer. Yes ; it is not founded upon any documents.

Dr. Carroll. Can you prove that the land belongs to the munici-
pality before a court of justice?

The Municipal Judge. According to the Spanish law twenty years
of quiet possession constitutes title, and it is easy to prove that the
municipality has been in quiet possession for that time.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a sufficient number of public schools to
accommodate all who wish to be educated?

Mr. Caballer. No ; we have not. In the rural districts we have
only two schools.

Dr. Carroll. Have you not sufficient funds to inaugurate other
schools?

Mr. Caballer. We are completely ruined. You can see by the
estimates that we have no money whatever.

Dr. Carroll. Have you reduced your appropriations for schools
this year?

Mr. Caballer. No; we have not altered the amount for that object.

Dr. Carroll. Have you generally good schools?

Mr. Caballer. We have one elementary teacher, who is among the
best in the island. We have another in the country district, who does
honor to his profession. There is another whom I do not know about.

Dr. Carroll. Are the expenses of the schools paid promptly?

Mr. Caballer. We owe the lady teacher for three months of last
year.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose there is no possible way at present for
raising more school taxes.

Mr. Caballer. It is impossible at present. We have a deficit of
more than $4,000.

Dr. Carroll. How has the modification of the consumption tax
affected the city's income?

Mr. Caballer. We have covered the difference by taxing liquors.

Dr. Carroll. Has there been any objection made on the part of
the liquor sellers or tobacconists because of the tax?

Mr. Caballer. At first some few of them complained a little, but

561

they have been able to convince themselves that it is best for the gen-
eral interests.

Dr. Carroll. Are many cigars manufactured here?

Mr. Caballer. No; there is no cigar factory here.

Lieutenant Gonzales. There were some here who made a living from
cigar making on a small scale. Now that there is a high tax, such
men are out of work.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many?

Lieutenant Gonzales. I have met four or five.

Dr. Carroll. Why do they not form themselves into a company
or association?

Lieutenant Gonzales. I advised them to do that, but they have
not wit enough to do it. Furthermore, on account of these men not
being able to manufacture tobacco, the producer comes to town and
he can not sell his tobacco except to the big dealer, so that the pro-
ducer loses and the small manufacturer loses. I have had a number
of talks with poor men and all have stated the same thing. I think it
was poor policy to put on that tax. Besides, they say the big manu-
facturers make their own price for labor, because there is so much
labor in the country and so many men are out of work. I know the
Spanish language, and I hear a great deal. The big manufacturers
have not raised the price of cigars in Cayey, while here they have
raised the price 1 and 2 cents. Of course this all goes to one man.

Mr. Caballer. We wish you to take to the President of the United
States our thanks for his idea of sending a commissioner to find out
the needs of the country, and I wish to say also that you must not
think the country is really an immoral one. In a large city a man
walks in with a woman on his arm, and nobody knows whether she is
his wife or not, but here everybody knows what is going on. This is
a very peaceable country. Although we have not had in this district
a rural court, there has not even been a case of chicken theft.

Dr. Carroll. If you could have the present system of municipal
government recast, in what form would you have it?

Mr. Caballer. With the greatest amount of decentralization, so
that the people here might enjoy the most ample autonomy it would
be possible to give them. I believe that the basis of the liberty of a
nation lies in the autonomy of its towns.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be well to reduce the number of members
in the council?

Mr. Caballer. I don't think it necessary. The greater number of
intelligences which get together to legislate, I think, the better.

Dr. Carroll. They claim in nearly all the cities I have visited
that they can not get all the members of the council to come together.

Mr. Caballer. That has been a general fault, not owing to the
character of the Porto Ricans, but owing to the difficulties which the
former government put in the way of gathering. . Whatever course
they might resolve on was contravened by the central powers at San
Juan.

Dr. Carroll. You would have the mayor elected by the people,
would you not?

Mr. Caballer. I think so.

Dr. Carroll. Would you make the term of the alcalde one or two
years?

Mr. Caballer. I think two years, as constant renewals bring party
passions into play.

• Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well to elect one councilman from
each barrio, so as to have general representation?
1125 36

562

Mr. Caballer. I think it would be difficult for that to be inau-
gurated, as some of the barrios are at a great distance, without any
roads at all, and councilmen would not be able to attend.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose you will have roads under the new regime?

Mr. Caballer. I think the ruined state of the country will render
it a long time before that could be brought about unless the American
Government, from its own Treasury, attends to it.

Dr. Carroll. You already have a large amount of money in your
insular treasury, and it is the purpose of General Henry to use much
of it in constructing and rebuilding roads. Don't you think it well
that taxpayers, even though they live in the rural districts, should be
represented in the council, as they are taxed heavily?

Mr. Caballer. I think so. They have representation. Every
barrio has a representative here.

Dr. Carroll. It would be well, then, to have one elected from
each barrio?

Mr. Caballer. Yes.

MUNICIPAL BONDS AND ACCOUNTS.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Caguas, P. R., February 27, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What is the public property here, Mr. Mayor?

Mr. Sola. The municipal property consists of the municipal house ;
another building we had built for a hospital, which the troops are now
occupying; the slaughterhouse, and a piece of land outside of the city
which can be used for a cemetery; the cemetery and the chapel,
which were both constructed by the muncipality; a house in which
they sell meat; the church, which was constructed by the munici-
pality, and the plaza.

Dr. Carroll. Is title to this property recorded?

Mr. Sola. No.

Dr. Carroll. It is customary here, I believe, to register municipal
property.

Mr. Sola. The town limits are inscribed.

(The municipal budget for the year 1898-99 was shown to the Com-
missioner. It contained, among others, the following items: Total of
the budget, $53,960.47; administration salaries, $5,608; materials,
$1,686; police, 13,780; schools (nine in number), $5,954; beneficiencia,
including two titular physicians, one assistant, and one veterinary,
$4,450; roads, $800; streets, $500; sidewalks, $200; plaza, $50; prison,
$9,950.)

Dr. Carroll. There is an item here for interest, of $3,024,74.

Mr. Sola. That is on a debt of $7,137.

Dr. Cruz. As an honest man, I protest against that debt. The
$3,024.74 represents interest and a part of the debt.

Dr. Carroll. How was the debt contracted, and for what purpose?

Mr. Sola (brother of the alcalde). This is not a loan; it is an issue
of bonds. We have a portion of the bonds in our safe now.

Dr. Cruz. I ask that the document relative to it be brought out,
that you may know what it is.

Mayor Sola. The money was not obtained from airybody. The
bonds Avhich were to be issued are in the safe.

Dr. Carroll. Then why are you paying interest and a part of the (
principal?

563

Dr. Cruz. They have recorded it illegally as money received, whereas
it is their own paper which they have.

Mr. Sola. A portion of the bonds have been issned for salaries and
to creditors of the municipality. Really they are only in the form of
promissory notes.

Mayor Sola. The amount of the debt was $7,137; $4,270 of that loan
has been placed.

Dr. Carroll. Was the money raised on those bonds used for mu-
nicipal purposes?

Mayor Sola. This amount has not been sold, but has been given to
creditors of the municipality. The municipality owed money and
gave these bonds.

Dr. Carroll. When were they prepared?

Mayor Sola. Nearly three years ago.

Dr. Cruz. This loan was really made to cover a deficit in the treasury,
for money badly spent.

Dr. Carroll. Was it ordered to be issued by the ayuntamiento?

A Gentleman present. It was under the old regime, when every-
thing was done by favoritism from the capital.

Dr. Carroll. Why do you not cancel the bonds you have not issued?

Mayor Sola. They figure in the municipal accounts as money,
because they were put into the municipal safe as money. The people
would not accept them, because they denied their legality.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any power in the municipality to cancel those
in the safe which have not been issued?

Mayor Sola. Only with the consent of the government.

Dr. Carroll. Has the council asked the government to allow that
to be done?

Mayor Sola. No; the reason they are in the safe is that they were
created to cover a deficiency and have to be considered as money.

Dr. Carroll. You have here an estimate of three thousand and
some odd dollars. Is that to cancel the bonds with?

Mayor Sola. Yes; when we pay them we destroy the bonds.

Dr. Cruz. I wish you would ask for the statement of the cash, in order
that you may see how it is. It is all wrong. I have here a copy of a
petition I prepared to the municipality asking for correction of the
accounts. No attention has been given to it. One thing is this loan
which has been referred to. It is illegal.

Dr. Carroll. Was it not ordered by the insular government?

Dr. Cruz. It was ordered by the Spanish Government.

Dr. Carroll. If it was ordered by the Spanish Government, was it
not legal? Was it not ordered in proper form?

Dr. Cruz. It was not ordered in proper form.
A Gentleman present. It was a muddle to cover up the beer that
General Macias used to take.

Dr. Cruz. Some other debts for which this loan was contracted have
already been paid, and there is a voucher of their payment in the
archives of the municipality. They have been twice paid.

Dr. Carroll. Mr. Mayor, is that true?

Mayor Sola. My reply is that I have been two months here as alcalde,
and what took place before then is not my deed.

Dr. Carroll. Have you looked into this debt?

Mayor Sola. No. But I have protested against everything that
was badly done.

Dr. Carroll. Do you believe that that debt was illegally contracted?

Mayor Sola. I believe that the expediente which was drawn up for
contracting this loan was not legal.

564

(The secretary of theayuhtamiento handed the commissioner a state-
ment of accounts which had been sent for by the mayor at the request
of Dr. Cruz.)

Dr. Cruz. That is not the document that is called for.

(The secretary then brought another document, which Dr. Cruz
stated was the one he had referred to. )

Dr. Cruz. You will see from this account that there is a deficit of
$5,000.

The Depositary. I am a new depositary. On taking possession I
made a statement showing that there was a deficit of 85,062.25 — money
that I ought to have found in the municipal treasury, but which was
not there.

Dr. Carroll. Have you made an investigation in regard to it?

The Depositary. Not yet.

Dr. Carroll. Did you call on your predecessor for an explanation?

The Depositary. It is not my duty to do that.

Dr. Carroll. Has no attempt been made by the municipal council
to call upon the former depositary to explain the deficiency and, if it
is a real deficiency, to make it good?

Mayor Sola. We called on him to do so and he said he required a
certain time to make it good. We gave him the time he asked for,
but he has not made it good yet.

Dr. Carroll. Is the depositary under bonds for the faithful per-
formance of his duty?

Mayor Sola. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. HaA^e the bonds been returned to you yet?

Mayor Sola. The bond is not worth a cent.

Dr. Carroll. In case there is not a bond, then criminal proceedings
would lie, would they not, unless he could explain the accounts and
the reason for the shortage?

Mayor Sola. If he does not turn over the money which the munic-
ipality placed in his hands to take care of for it, he is subject to an
action.

Dr. Carroll. Does the ayuntamiento intend to take action in this
case speedily?

Mayor Sola. Yes ; he has promised the municipality to make pay-
ment of the amount by a certain day, and the council is waiting to
see whether he does or not.

Dr. Carroll. What is the date?

Mayor Sola. The date has already fallen due. I asked him to-day
if he had everything ready, and he said that he had not ; he would be
able to arrange the matter in about three days.

Dr. Carroll. Has this been reported to the present secretary of
state?

Dr. Cruz. A memorial was sent to the old government about all of
these accounts which are wrong, but up to the present nothing has
been done about them. There is another matter I wish you to take
notice of. I wish to direct your attention to the amount which has
been added to the budget for the year 1898-99. You will see that
$26,475.14 must be added to the $53,960.47 to get the total of the cur-
rent budget. I would like to have you inquire in regard to this addi-
tional amount.

Dr. Carroll. What is the explanation of this enormous addition
to the budget?

The Secretary. It represents deficits and salaries which were not
met by the old budget.

565

Dr. Carroll. Why were they not inscribed in the old budget?

Dr. Cruz. They are amounts they did not dare put in the old budget,
which they have put in the new.

• Dr. Carroll. I am not getting any explanation of this large addi-
tional budget. I would like to understand it.

A Gentleman present. These are amounts not paid.

Dr. Carroll. Why were they not put in the other budget?

(No one offered any answer to this question. )

Dr. Carroll. When was the original budget made and adopted?

A Gentleman present. May 14, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. When was the additional budget adopted?

A Gentleman present. February 17, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Now, why did you add all this before the end of the
year when you had estimates amounting to over $50,000?

A Gentleman present. These were amounts from 1897-98 which
were not paid.

Dr. Carroll. Then why were they not put in here?

A Gentleman present. Because the present budget was made
before the end of the preceding fiscal year.

Dr. Carroll. What was the amount of the budget in the previous
year?

A Gentleman present. Forty-five thousand six hundred and forty-
six dollars, of which $20,000 was not collected.

(The secretary produced a copy of the law and pointed out the
paragraph providing that unpaid amounts in the budget should form
a part of a new budget to be prepared in the course of the following
year. )

Dr. Carroll. Was the total budget $45,646 last year?

A Gentleman present. Yes; but there was an additional budget
of $9,282, making the total about $55,000.

Dr. Carroll. Then not much more than half of that was collected?

A Gentleman present. The amount includes what was not col-
lected and what was not paid. In other words, whatever is unliqui-
dated is transferred to the new budget.

Dr. Carroll. It is a very strange way of making an additional
budget. That is more than half as large as the original budget. Do
you expect, Mr. Mayor, to collect the whole budget, including the
additional amount, this year?

Mayor Sola. It is not possible to do so. The taxes are very heavy,
and taxpayers are almost ruined.

Dr. Carroll. Is this not a bad method, increasing the debt in this
way? Last year the shortage was $9,000 and now it is $26,000.

Mayor Sola. It is not only bad, it is ruinous.

Dr. Carroll. What method of taxation would you propose instead
of this?

Mayor Sola. That would be a question for the ayuntamiento to
study and prepare a plan for.

Dr. Carroll. As nearly as I can understand, your shortage is
between $35,000 and $40,000?

Mayor Sola. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Then the prospect is that you will have a very large
debt at the end of the year?

Mayor Sola. The taxpayers can not pay the taxes. Thej^ are too
heavy for them.

Dr. Carroll. Have you tried to economize in the formation of the
additional budget?

566

Mayor Sola. We have proposed economies aggregating between
$9,000 and $10,000.

Dr. Cruz. One thing that tended to increase the budget this year
was the war. The Spaniards hired carriages and quarters for the
soldiers here, and there were various expenses connected with these.

Dr. Carroll. Do you estimate that the new system of land taxes
which has been issued by General Henry will result in more or in less
returns?

Mayor Sola. I think it will give less.

Dr. Carroll. Have you been able to make up what you lost on
the consumption tax by the tax on liquor and tobacco?

Mayor Sola. No; we have lost on that.

Dr. Carroll. What suggestions would you make, Mr. Mayor, as
to amendments in the present form of municipal government? I
should like to know whether you consider that the present system of
municipal government is entirely satisfactory, or whether you desire
changes, and if so, of what character.

Mayor Sola. I think they ought to have as much autonomj* as is
consistent with justice.

Dr. Carroll. What are the advantages and disadvantages in that
respect of the present system?

Mayor Sola. The municipalities at present can not form their
budgets to meet their expenses. They are not free to make their
budgets as they desire.

Dr. Carroll. Are you constrained in that respect by the insular
government?

Mayor Sola. At present we make our budget under specific laws
which we have had to follow under the Spanish Government. Under
the new government we think .matters are much improved.

Dr. Carroll. Does the insular government require you to make a
budget larger than the mayor and the council think necessary?

Mayor Sola. No ; I consider the insular government has tried to
have us send in our budgets as small as possible.

Dr. Carroll. I understood you to say that you wished larger lib-
erty for the municipalities in the making of their budgets. For what
reason?

Mayor Sola. We wish to have more power in the matter of assess-
ing taxes, so as to make taxation fall fairly on all classes.

A Gentleman present. For twenty years this town has had a dis-
astrous administration. Each year the estimate grew larger and
larger, owing to the mismanagement of the corporate body, which was
too small for our needs, and to the want of vigilance and allowing this
body to do as it liked. When the moment arrived for the granting of
autonomy by the Spanish Government, this district was completely
shorn, being heavily in debt and without a cent in its treasury. Then
the complications with the United States began, and things became
graver by reason not only of the war, but also of the confusion which
prevented the municipality from attending to its own affairs. The
municipality had no time to collect its money. It was not proper that
the municipality should have been saddled with expense connected
with the war, but the Government put it on us. This is the reason of
the critical position of the town to-day. The way to better the situa-
tion would be to obtain a loan and apply it to running purposes. In
the meantime inquire into past accounts and put the responsibility
for them where it is due. There exists a need of such responsibility
both in the government offices and here in the city, and when the time
comes to make use of it, it will be used.

567

Mr. Sola. I as a councilor think that full local autonomy should be
given to the municipalities in all matters which do not conflict with
state government.

Dr. Cruz. I wish to know whether they understand by autonomy
decentralization. We have autonomy already, but I want it decen-
tralized. If there is to be proper autonomy, the councilors should do
their work in a proper way. I beg that if legislation be taken on this
matter and decentralization is granted, responsibility be exacted
from all the councilors for their acts. We are not so much in need
of laws as of good administration. I find that the municipal book-
keeping is too complicated. There are ten or twelve books kept — so
many that if a person wants to find anything at a moment's notice it
is impossible to get it. I desire liberty, biit liberty in the right sense.
Besponsibility should be exacted from everyone, and I think that no
citizen's rights should be trampled on.

Dr. Carroll. Who is the bookkeeper?

(The bookkeeper who was present at the hearing stated in reply to
the commissioner's question regarding the system of bookkeeping
in vogue that he kept the books by chapters and double entry. Every
chapter has its articles and every article has its account. For in-
stance, we credit the mayor with the whole amount of his salary and
debit him as he draws. )

Dr. Carroll. This gentleman (Dr. Cruz) says there are so many
books that it is impossible for anyone to find out in a moment any-
thing about the accounts. He says there are ten or twelve books
kept.

The Bookkeeper. There are five books.

The Secretary. We are under another obnoxious law. Under
chapter 4, article 138, of the municipal law, bookkeeping for the
municipalities is the same as that adopted for the royal treasury.

Dr. Carroll (to the bookkeeper). In your judgment are there
more books kept than are necessary to keep the accounts straight?

The Bookkeeper. I think only necessary books are kept. That
may be because I am accustomed to the present system.

Mr. Jose Julian Avarez, municipal judge :

-Dr. Carroll. There is, I believe, no salary allowed to municipal
judges?

Judge Avarez. No.

Dr. Carroll. What fees are allowed by law; or is it an entirely
honorary office?

Judge Avarez. There is a tariff of fees, but it is so insignificant
that the judges always leave it for their secretaries, who also have no
salaries.

Dr. Carroll. Are fees allowed for registering births, deaths, and
marriages?

Judge Avarez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Why are the births not fully reported?

Judge Avarez. The chief reason is that the mother or father has
to bring the child and ask for inscription, and he has to do this within
forty days after the birth occurs, and as the distances are sometimes
very great, neither the mother nor the father frequently is able to
come. I think anyone should be allowed to report a birth. For
example, the doctor who officiates at the birth. It should not be con-
fined to the doctor, however, for, as a matter of fact, it is hardly ever
that a doctor attends these country births.

568

Dr. Carroll. Is there a penalty for failure, of the mother to have
the child registered after forty days?

Judge Avarez. If it comes after forty days have expired, they have
to prepare an expediente, and there is a fine from 85 to 810.

Dr. Carroll. Does not that prevent the inscription of many births
that otherwise would be inscribed?

Mr. Avarez. Yes ; that, together with the fact that the father or
mother is obliged to come to report it.

Dr. Carroll. In your judgment, what would be a better system in
order to get full reports of births?

Judge Avarez. I think the first thing would be to send out circu-
lars to the commissioners; second, to enable inscription to be made on
the report of any person duly authorized; and third, that the method
of inscription should be brief. The law requires that the inscription
be put in in duplicate, and it is very long.

MUNICIPAL AUTONOMY DESIRED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cayey, P. R,, Februanj 28, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What is the population of Cayey?

Mr. Manuel Munoz. The population of the entire district is
between 14,000 and 15,000. The population of the town itself is from
3,000 to 4,000.

Dr. Carroll. What is the amount of your budget?

Mr. Munoz. Thirty-six thousand dollars. The budget for next vear
will not exceed $22,000 or $23,000.

Dr. Carroll. Does that include the additional budget?

Mr. Munoz. The additional will be from $2,000 to $3,000.

Dr. Carroll. Is that made up of amounts not collected last year?

Mr. Munoz. About $700 of extra expenses and nearly $3,000 of
uncollected amounts.

Dr. Carroll. What is the amount for police?

Mr. Munoz. One thousand five hundred dollars.

Dr. Carroll. For public instruction?

Mr. Munoz. From $8,000 to $9,000.

Dr. Carroll. How much for streets?

Mr. Munoz. From $600 to $700.

Dr. Carroll. Does that include roads?

Mr. Munoz. No.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a fire department?

Mr. Munoz. No.

Dr. Carroll. How much is allotted to beneficencia?

Mr. Munoz. Three thousand dollars.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have a department prison here?

Mr. Munoz. No, we send our prisoners to Guayama.

Dr. Carroll. How much do you pay for the maintenance of pris-
oners in Guayama?

Mr. Munoz. One thousand five hundred dollars.

Dr. Carroll. How many prisoners do you have there usually?

Mr. Munoz. From sixteen to twenty.

Dr. Carroll. Is that not a large amount?

Mr. Munoz. No.

569

Dr. Carroll. What city property have you?

Mr. Munoz. The cemetery, the clock tower in front of the church,
a house used by the parish priest, a slaughterhouse, and a butcher
shop in very bad condition.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a plaza?

Mr. Munoz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. I want to ask you, in view of the future government
to be given to the island of Porto Rico by the United States, what
system of municipal government you would suggest, whether a sys-
tem having more autonomy than the present one, or whether the
present system of municipal government is satisfactory?

Mr. Munoz. We want complete decentralization.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think each city should be given a constitu-
tion, or charter, within the limits of which it ought to be entirely free
to transact its business without any reference to the insular govern-
ment?

Mr. Munoz. I think so.

A Gentleman present. I don't agree with the mayor in that.

Dr. Carroll. What is your reason for differing?

The Gentleman who had dissented. The state of education is
not sufficiently advanced for the people to understand their own rights.

Mr. Luis Munoz. I believe that under a territorial or any other
form of government the municipality should be allowed all the decen-
tralization and liberty which the constitution of the government
allows. But, as to giving municipalities charters, either they would
all be alike, in which case it would not be necessary to give charters,
or they would be unlike, and in that case there would be conflicts
between the various municipalities.

Dr. Carroll. It does not so work in the United States. We have
different classes of cities and appropriate legislation for each. Cities
are autonomous there in that they have the right to decide how many
policemen the}' want, how many fire engines, whether they will have
their streets paved with blocks or whether they will have the asphalt
system, whether they will raise money by bonds for an aqueduct or
reservoir, and all that sort of thing, within certain limits, the consti-
tution of the city prescribing generally that they shall not contract a
debt greater than a certain percentage of the taxable property within
the limits of the city. They have the absolute right also, within
certain limits, to make their own budgets.

Mr. Luis Munoz. That is what we understand by municipal decen-
tralization, and that is what we all want. We want the greatest
amount of power for the municipalities consistent with a connection
with the insular government. But I think one municipal law or charter
for the whole of the island would be well, in order that all the munici-
palities should be governed by the same charter.

Dr. Carroll. Some have interests of one kind, and some of another.
Would one charter fit all of the municipalities?

Mr. Luis Munoz. I think one law could be made to fit all, but
where there were differences they could make their own regulations.

Dr. Carroll. For instance, San Juan has a council of 24 members.
If you provide the same law for all the cities, Cabo Rojo and Vega
Baja would have to have the same number, and they probably could
not get enough men to transact the public business.

Mr. Luis Munoz. No ; the municipal law to-day provides for that.
It is according to number of inhabitants.

Dr. Carroll. Then you could not have one law for municipalities

570

of all sizes. Do you have any trouble, Mr. Mayor, in collecting taxes
this year?

Mayor Munoz. Yes; much trouble.

Dr. Carroll, What is that trouble due to?

Mayor Munoz. Owing, in the first place, to the war; in the second
place, to the low prices of products, and in the third place, to the
want of markets. Our market for second-class coffee used to be
Cuba, which has laid a heavy duty on coffee. Our first-class coffee
used to go to Spain, which has laid a prohibitive duty on it.

HOW A LARGE CITY IS MANAGED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R,, March 2, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What is the amount of the budget of Ponce for the
economic year?

Mr. Julio Rosich (municipal accountant) . The total of the budget
is $287,624. The additional budget has not been made yet.

Dr. Carroll. What does the additional budget amount to, gen-
erally?

Mr. Rosich. The total comes to about $360,000, with the additional
amount.

Dr. Carroll. Will the additional budget be larger than usual by
reason of failure to collect taxes last year?

Mr. Rosich. No. This year has been one of the best, but the addi-
tional amount belongs to last year. This budget is not closed until
the 31st of December. We have not begun collecting taxes for this
year at all, because the assessments were not approved at San Juan
until to-day.

Dr. Carroll. Have the authorities at San Juan changed the figures
any?

Mr. Rosich. No. They have approved the budget without change.

Note. — The total for salaries is 123,620, of which the mayor receives
$3,500 and the secretary $2,000. There are three head clerks at $1,000
each.

Dr. Carroll. The -municipal judge gets no salary, I suppose?

Mr. Rosich. No; but the municipality furnishes the judge a house
and pays his clerk.

Dr. Carroll. Have you only one municipal judge here?

Mr. Rosich. Only one.

Dr. Carroll. What is the difference between the two classes' of
policemen referred to in the budget?

Mr. Rosich. One is what you would call detectives, and the other
the police proper.

Note. — The total for police is $31,048; for urban police, who attend
to municipal property, $5,580.

Dr. Carroll. Have jtou no rural police?

Mr. Rosich. No.

Note.— For the fire department, $7,400; for .public lighting, $20,000,
paid to the electric-light company; the playa, $25,000; cleaning and
watering the streets, $12,500; public instruction (salaries), $22,970.
There are 47 schools, including 3 kindergartens.

Dr. Carroll. Who is the chairman of the school board?

Mr. Rosich. The alcalde.

Note. — The amount for library purposes, $750; beneficiencia,

571

$42,930. This amount includes the expense for one municipal health
officer, who receives $1,500; three doctors, who receive $1,000 each;
one doctor for the playa, $1,200; one doctor for the emergency hos-
pital, $1,000; besides, there are several assistants; for the Tricoche
Hospital, $18,930.

Dr. Carroll. Is that a civil hospital?

Mr. Rosich. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is that the one which was founded by private charity?

Mr. Rosich. Yes; the man who left the money for the purpose bore
the name of Tricoche.

Dr. Carroll. How is that endowment administered?

The Secretary. The money is employed in the aqueduct — that is to
say, the money was used in constructing the aqueduct, and the water
rates are employed by the municipality in keeping the hospital up.

Dr. Carroll. Then this $18,913 is for keeping the hospital up?

Mr. Rosich. The amount received from the aqueduct is in the other
part of the budget as income, and is a much smaller amount than that
which we allowed to the hospital. The ayuntamiento took the money
to construct a part of the waterworks, and at the same time under-
took to sustain the hospital with whatever amount of money might be
needed. I would like to have you go and see it. It is the best hospital
here. The appropriation for the madhouse is $2,494.

Dr. Carroll. How many inmates are there?

Mr. Rosich. Fifteen or sixteen. This provision for the madhouse
is a matter which properly belongs to the insular government ; but the
municipality, seeing that the insular authorities did not attend to it,
has taken it up itself .

Dr. Carroll. Is fifteen or sixteen about the average number of
inmates?

Mr. Rosich. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is there a resident physician?

Mr. Rosich. No. It is a very poor institution and is poorly equipped.

Dr. Carroll. Is that the only insane asylum in the island?

Mr. Rosich. No; there is one in the hospital, which is a general
one for the whole island. These people are waiting their turn to be
able to get in. There is also here a smallpox hospital, with an appro-
priation of $3,343. This hospital has no resident physician, either.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many patients there now?

Mr. Rosich. There are forty-nine.

Dr. Carroll. Are they all from this municipal district?

Mr. Rosich. Yes. They have been putting up some sheds for them,
as they have not sufficient accommodation.

Dr. Carroll. Has the system of vaccination been used here?

Mr. Rosich. Yes.

Note. — Other items of the budget were as follows: Aggregate of
amounts given to poor people who can not go to the hospital or take
their children there, $500; sundry amounts for charity, including
medicines, vaccine virus, etc., $4,000; public works (architect), $1,500;
one assistant, $480; one porter, $360; vicinage roads and bridges,
$3,230; springs, water pipes, and street watering, $1,000; streets and
plazas, $9,000; prisons, $32,818. Of this last amount $15,175 is for
the construction of a new prison. The expenses of the city as a
departmental prison district are $17,343; sinking fund for the debt,
$9,000. This last debt is a municipal debt of $9,000, which they set
aside for building the new prison, and now they are taking it back.
Census expenses, $2,000.

572

Dr. Carroll. When was that taken?

Mr. Rosich. Last year.

Dr. Carroll. Was it a municipal census or an insula)' census?

Mr. Rosich. Municipal.

Dr. Carroll. What did that census show the population of this
district to be?

Mr. Rosich. Forty-nine thousand.

Note. — A further item in the budget for various objects under the
name of subventions was $3,060.

Dr. Carroll. Does this result of the census referred to correspond
to the insular census of 1897?

The Secretary. It is the same thing.

Mr. Rosich. We have an amount of $7,184 due to the provincial
deputation. The expense of collecting the taxes is 86,000.

Dr. Carroll. Has Ponce a sewerage system?

Mr. Rosich. No. We have a system of pipes only from the Tri-
coche Hospital and the prison, which join together and go on to a
hacienda near here.

Dr. Carroll. What is the source of the water supply? Is it
artesian wells?

Mr. Rosich. The River Portuguese.

Dr. Carroll. You seem to have a good supply.

Mr. Rosich. Yes; plenty.

Dr. Carroll. Is it considered to be fairly pure water?

Mr. Rosich. The aqueduct is not filtered, and the water comes
down somewhat impure. When the river rises in the rainy season, it
brings down turbid water, and each family filters for itself. We have a
project already accepted for constructing a filter in the waterworks

Dr. Carroll. How many fire engines are there?

Mr. Rosich. We have no steam fire engines; we have three hand
engines.

Dr. Carroll. You don't have many fires here, I understand.

Mr. Rosich. We have quite a few; but the water comes down with
a great deal of force, and we can put out a fire easily.

Dr. Carroll. Are the firemen paid?

Mr. Rosich. No.

Dr. Carroll. The city furnishes all the apparatus and the houses,
I suppose?

Mr. Rosich. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a list of the municipal property?

Mr. Rosich. We have no inventory of it.

Dr. Carroll. I mean of the public buildings.

Mr. Rosich. The municipal property consists of the cemetery,
which is also registered; the municipal building, registered; the aque-
duct, registered; a building lot on which we are building another
school; the civil hospital, registered; the insane asylum, registered;
a smallpox hospital, with the lot on which it stands, registered; an
asylum for beggars, for which the municipality gave the lot and which
is under the management of several ladies. We have also the mar-
ket place, the slaughterhouse, the custom-house shed on the Playa, a
lot on which the cholera burying ground was established, the fire
department building, the kiosk, the plaza, and 13 cuerdas of land,
where we are going to build the new prison. I think that completes
the list.

Dr. Carroll. This is the only city I have found where they have
any property registered. What are the sources of municipal income?

573

The Secretary of Municipality. Municipal lands, 1360; niches
in the cemetery, $1,000; aqueduct, $8,301; supplying water to shops,
$300; duty on tonnage discharged, $50,000; stands in the market,
$3,897; cattle brands, $400; permission for building in the city, $750;
licenses for public balls, $10; for authorizing municipal documents,
$400; fines, $837; municipal tax on meats (has been abolished), $8,012;
amount to take place of tax on meats, $8,012 (liquor tax); renting
butcher stands, $4,626; from other municipalities on account of prison
expense, $3,313; expenses for prisoners sent by the state to the Ponce
prison, paid by the state, $14,802; the commercial tax, $10,000.

Dr. Carroll. What is the nature of that tax?

The Secretary. It is the tax on those who did not appear as mer-
chants before, but since the formation of the budget have declared
their intention of opening stores. General tax, which is collected in
the district, $174,625. This last is a tax on agriculture, on merchants,
and on manufacturing.

Dr. Carroll. That is a tax on incomes?

The Secretary. It is a direct tax. You will see that most of the
taxes of this municipality are direct taxes. Under the new territorial
tax we have to give 50 per cent of that to the state. That will leave
us 50 per cent short.

Dr. Carroll. Your income, however, will be larger, because it is
on a different basis* and the insular and municipal taxes will be levied
together, whereas this represents only the municipal tax, and does
not represent what the insular government raises by tax, as I under-
stand it.

The Secretary. No. This will be reduced from $60,000 to $70,000,
according to the new tariff.

Dr. Carroll. Then the insular tax will also be reduced, will it not?

The Secretary. That does not interest us. We have nothing to
do with the insular tax.

Dr. Carroll. Yes.; but in the other cities we have visited the pro-
portion has been 5 per cent for the insular government and 1\ for the
municipal. Now it is share and share alike.

The Secretary. The new law has fixed 8 per cent of the income as
the maximum. We can tax up to 8 per cent— 4 for the state and 4 for
the municipality. The amount given here represents 24 per cent ; that
is six times as much as the law allows us to collect.

Dr. Carroll. How could the people stand that?

The Secretary. The reason is, the returns they have made of their
property were not true returns.

Dr. Carroll. How does General Henry's order in relation to the
land tax affect the municipality?

The Secretary. It ruins the municipality.

Dr. Carroll. Under that system you can calculate from the num-
ber of cuerdas exactly what the revenue will be.

The Secretary. In Porto Rico, especially in the district of Ponce,
an assessment has never really been made, and the returns made by
interested parties are always incorrect.

Dr. Carroll. Have you made an estimate yet as to how much will
be received by the land tax?

The Secretary. No.

Dr. Carroll. The land will have to be classified first?

The Secretary. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you receive 50 per cent of the income from the
land tax?

574

The Secretary. Yes. The new order is an injustice to the munici-
pality. Under the old law it received 75 per cent of the direct tax.
Now it will receive only 50 per cent.

Dr. Carroll. There has been an order issued recently with regard
to the taxation of houses in the cities?

The Secretary. Yes; but the city gets only half of that.

Dr. Carroll. Is that a reduced tax?

The Secretary. Yes, it is much lower.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the land tax is a mistake?

The Secretary. It is badly divided. The municipality should
have at least 75 per cent. At the last session of the council we asked
General Henry to allow us to receive the whole of the the tax on town
property. There has been no reply to that yet. I consider that this
budget is much too high. It is an excessive budget. Direct taxes in
Porto Rico have never given a good result. The assessors have
assessed the tax badly. They have no stable basis for making the
assessment, and have assessed as they pleased.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well to have taxes levied on land
on the basis of its value, instead of income derived from it, so that
land that was bringing no income would contribute to the taxes?

The Secretary. Yes; I think so.

Dr. Carroll. Then, for state purposes, in order that there might
be equal taxation, there might be a state board to decide whether the
assessments that had been made were equal in all districts, and if not
to equalize them?

The Secretary. I think your idea is not only correct, but I believe
it is indispensable.

Dr. Carroll. It is the system on which we levy and collect taxes
in the United States, and it works better than any other system.

The Secretary. Here it would be even more satisfactory, because
it has been a practice here to hide wealth in every possible way, and
the State for one hundred years has been laboring under the disad-
vantage of not knowing the value of property.

Dr. Carroll. If there is going to be a great shortage in the ingresos,
you will, of course, have a large deficit at the end of the year?

The Secretary. Not in this year, but owing to the orders that
have come from headquarters without any consecutive plan — one
without reference to the others — there is no ayuntamiento in the
island that can make a budget with any certainty that will hold.

Dr. Carroll. Will you receive enough from the liquor and tobacco
taxes to make good the deficit caused by the removal of the consump-
tion tax on meat, flour, and bread?

The Secretary. We will be able easily to collect as much if we do
not get any orders from San Juan.

Dr. Carroll. All the other municipalities have replied that they
can not collect this liquor tax and said that it was onerous.

The Secretary. Ponce has already collected nearly all of it and
digested it.

Dr. Carroll. You are on the safe side, then. When was the city
property registered?

The Secretary. At different periods. Some of it still remains to
be registered.

Dr. Carroll. For what purpose was registry sought? Was it for
the purpose of issuing bonds?

The Secretary. Yes ; and so that it could not be taken away from us.

Mr. Rosich. Ponce has several other properties; some, for instance,

575

that it has had to buy in at tax sales. We are gradually getting a
list of these properties and registering them piece by piece.

Dr. Carroll. Has the city of Ponce auy bonded debt?

Mr. Rosich. Yes; we issued a loan, and a portion of it remains
unpaid, but we have all the bonds in our safe, because we have
accepted them as security for different purposes.

Dr. Carroll. Are the bonds for official good behavior?

Mr. Rosich. No; for the due discharge of contracts by contractors.

Dr. Carroll. They will have to be paid back again when the con-
tracts are completed. What is the amount of the debt?

Mr. Rosich. About 7,000 pesos.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that other municipalities have no power
to contract a bonded debt.

Mr. Rosich. The law allows all municipalities to issue loans if they
keep within the statutes found in the municipal law and special
decrees that have been issued.

Dr. Carroll. Are these loans limited in amount?

Mr. Rosich. The limit is the municipal capital with which they can
answer for the payment of the debt. They had to get the Governor-
General's permission, however. The special reason why we are regis-
tering our property is that we have a project to raise a new loan to
complete some of our public works. The waterworks are valued at
$200,000 and produce an income of $9,000 a year.

Dr. Carroll. Above expenses?

Mr. Rosich. Yes ; they sell the income by auction.

Dr. Carroll What is the tax on the use of water?

Mr. Rosich. It is so much per diameter of pipe. Five dollars per
year for a fourth-inch pipe and $20 for a half -inch pipe.

Dr. Carroll. Patrons can then use all the water they want?

Mr. Rosich. Yes ; there is no sort of meter. Our object is to allow
the whole town to use water.

Mr. Luis Porrata Doria, mayor of Ponce :

Dr. Carroll. I wish to ask you, Mr. Mayor, some questions with
reference to municipal government and the changes j^ou would like to
have made. It seems to me that this is an extremely important sub-
ject for the future of the island, and I want to get all the information
I can upon it, and the opinion of those who occupy the mayor's chair,
as you do, as to the points in which the present system needs to be
amended.

Mr. Doria. The new orders being issued are going to place the
municipalities in a very difficult position as regards their receipts. A
great many taxes are being suppressed, and there are no other means
being furnished to enable them to cover the deficits thereby caused.
Commerce is complaining and crying out against the tax on unloading
into the municipal warehouses, and we will have to remove that,
although it will mean a loss of $50,000.

Dr. Carroll. That is not the 10 per cent tax, is it?

Mr. Doria. No ; it is a special municipal tax. Whether the goods
go into the warehouse or not, they have to pay the tax all the same.
There is no reason for the tax; it was imposed with the consent of the
merchants and is really illegal.

Dr. Carroll. The consumption tax has been removed, and also the
cargo tax of 10 per cent in the revision of the tariff; that is a relief to
merchants and importers.

Mr. Doria. We would have to remove it. Several towns, like Yauco

576

and Juana Diaz, imported through Ponce, and they will not pay it.
To make up for these taxes suppressed, Ponce will have to get out of
liquor and tobacco about $200,000.

Dr. Carroll. Perhaps you can reduce your expenses.

Mr. Doria. Every day the expenses of the city are larger. In order
to clean the streets, to light them properly, to increase the police
force — we have only 50 men, which is not more than half enough —
Ponce should really have a budget of $500,000. Every day they are
taking away our sources of income, and I don't know where we will
get the money from. To make Ponce a civilized city it requires a
system of drainage and sewerage, and we would require a loan of at
least $1,500,000, and a sinking fund to pay interest would require an
income of $100,000.

Dr. Carroll. Why not lay down the pipes and charge the property
owners for each connection so much per annum?

Mr. Doria. But we have to have the system before we can make
those charges.

Dr. Carroll. You can raise the money by bonds and the charges
to owners will pay the interest, and gradually you will pay off the
bonds.

Mr. Doria. Nothing here is used for the purpose it was originally
built for. For instance, the insane asylum was formerly the slaughter-
house. In this city hall we have a public library, the mayor's office,
the emergency hospital, and have no offices fit for the purposes for
which they are employed. As regards the sewerage, we are laboring
under the difficulty of not knowing how to dispose of the sewage.
They would have to take it a long way, and that would greatly
increase the expense.

Dr. Carroll. Could you not take it out to sea?

Mr. Doria. The municipal architect, who is a competent engineer,
and I are studying everything that is requisite to make Ponce a
modern city. For instance, the leveling of the streets. The streets
are not level, and until they are level they can not be guttered. We
are going into every requirement for Ponce. We will put in the form
of a pamphlet our conclusions in the matter, and, when printed, I
will send you a copy, and also a copy to General Henry.

Dr. Carroll. What is your opinion as to autonomy in municipal
government?

Mr. Doria. It is necessary. It is the only way in which munici-
palities can attend to their necessities. It is an absolutely indis-
pensable measure and must come soon. Municipal autonomy is a
sequence of individual liberty, and, as you know, the greatness of
the United States is owing to the autonomy of its municipalities.
Each municipality knows its own requirements, and should be able
to attend to them without intervention of the central government.

Dr. Carroll. I wish you would give me an idea, Mr. Mayor, of the
disadvantages of the present system of municipal government.

Mr. Doria. Up to the present we are still working under the old
municipal law, which is a very deficient one. Owing to the war and
lateness in granting autonomy, the insular congress was not able to
change the legislation for the municipal government. I will give you
a statement of a concrete case that presented itself to-day about the
slaughter of oxen for X3ublic food. Under the old legislation, preg-
nant cows were allowed to be slaughtered, and purveyors were com-
mitting abuses. As alcalde, I found myself in a very difficult position.
I did not know just how to bring these people to justice, because they

577

defended themselves by showing me the old law. I had to have
recourse to the health board, which is to-day a military board.
Formerly it was a civil board, and the mayor was at the head of it.
This board issued an order- that cattle in that condition should not be
slaughtered.

Dr. Carroll. That was the question that caused the resignations
of the council in San Juan.

Mr. Doria. I, with that experience before me, instead of looking
for trouble, looked for a way of getting out of it. To-day the pur-
veyors came to me and complained about the board of health. I said,
' ' Gentlemen, I am very sorry, but this is an administrative board. " In
that case, if the municipality had been autonomous, it could have
resolved the matter without referring it to anybody. This is only
one case in thousands which present themselves.

Dr. Carroll. What I understand you want for the city govern-
ment is the power to initiate and carry out, without reference to the
state, those things which concern only the municipality, and do not
conflict with the state. If you wish to add, for example, ten police-
men to your force for a month or two,, you want the power to do so
without referring the matter to San Juan?

Mr. Doria. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. With regard to your council, you have 30 councilors,
I understand.

Mr. Doria. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is not that too many?

Mr. Doria. Yes; not half of them come to the meetings. The
alcalde is always alone in the management of the municipality.

Dr. Carroll. How many barrios are there in the district?

Mr. Doria. There are many of them; I don't remember the number.

Dr. Carroll. How many are there in the city?

Mr. Doria. There are five.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well for each barrio to have a rep-
resentative?

Mr. Doria. Yes; that is the rule, but the alcalde has to do every-
thing himself.

Dr. Carroll. Are any of the members of your council from the
rural districts?

Mr. Doria. No; all are from the city. If they lived in the country,
they would never come in to the meetings.

Dr. Carroll. Would it or would it not be well to have the muni-
cipalities divided — instead of having a rural district within a muni-
cipality, to have a rural government for the rural districts, separate
from the municipalities?

Mr. Doria. In every barrio there is a representative of the alcalde,
called a comisario, who is a sort of police justice.

Dr. Carroll. But a good many ordinances you make for the gov-
ernment of the municipality itself have no reference to any needs in
the rural district. Why would it not be well, therefore, to have a
different kind of government for the municipal body? The farmers
don't want any sewers or electric light.

Mr. Doria. Yes; you are quite right in that. We make the coun-
trymen pay for what they don't enjoy. That is one of the things we
could arrange on an equitable basis if we had municipal autonomy.
Besides the ayuntamiento, we have what we call the municipal board,
composed of thirty members, who, together with the thirty members
of the ayuntamiento, form an assembly of sixty, which considers
matters concerning the whole district.
1125 37

578

Dr. Carroll. Is that board composed of persons from the country
barrios?

Mr. Doria. From all over the district; they are picked by lot. One
of the duties of this board is to approve the budget.

Dr. Carroll. Which they do, I suppose, merely as a matter of
course.

Mr. Doria. Generally. The board can not remove any item from the
budget formed by the ayuntamiento, but it can increase or decrease
the amounts. It can not take away the amount entirely, in other
words, but can only say that an amount is too large or too small.

Dr. Carroll. If they can decrease it, can they not practically take
it all away?

Mr. Doria. Yes; they can bring an amount down to such a small
sum that the item would be practically suppressed.

Dr. Carroll. Are your barrios in the city about equal in popu-
lation?

Mr. Doria. No; some of them are more populous than others.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well to have members of the council
elected bj^ barrios — that is, make the barrios as nearly equal in popu-
lation as possible — and then have the members elected by them, instead
of the method now in vogue? That would be a representative system.
That is the way it is in the United States. You would then have the
mayor elected by the whole municipality, and have the councilors
elected for a two year-term, and if there are 12 members, have half of
them elected every year. Have the mayor elected for two or three
years, unremovable except for cause, so that his responsibility shall
not be to the council, but to the people of the whole district.

Mr. Doria. At present the town elects these councilmen. The
whole town has a voice in the matter. The council, from among its
number, elects the mayor.

Dr. Carroll. That makes him responsible to the council, when he
ought to be responsible to the people generally. Would it not be
better, in your judgment, that the mayor should be elected by the
people, without any reference to the council, and let him serve as the
mayor of the whole district, and as the representative of the people
direct, without election by the council?

Mr. Doria. I think that would be better.

Dr. Carroll. In what other respects would you amend the present
system?

Mr. Doria. What has already been referred to embraces the essen-
tial things; other things are details.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States municipal officers are elected
generally by the people; also municipal judges, district attorneys, or
fiscals, as you call them here, the city treasurer, and nearly all of the
chief officers of cities. In some cases they are appointed by the
mayor.

Mr. Doria. I think that as everything emanates from the people
all public offices should be elective by the people.

Dr. Carroll. In New York the council, president of the council,
the judges of the various courts except of the police courts, the dis-
trict attorney or fiscal, the commissioner of jurors, the city chamber-
lain, the city treasurer, the coroner, and the sheriff are all elected by
the people, but the police justices, the chief of police, the commis-
sioners of various departments — for instance, of public works, parks,
etc. — are appointed by the mayor.

Mr. Doria. I am in accord with that. I will study the matter of

579

municipal government, and see if there are not other points to give
you.

The Rev. Z. Vall-Spinosa. I hand you a book with reference to
prostitutes, showing the system by which they are licensed and exam-
ined here. This book has the stamp of the United States upon it, and
I think it is a shame that such an institution should be given such
recognition.

DIVISION OF MUNICIPAL DISTRICTS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yauco, P. R., March 6, 1899.

Mr. Luis Cianchini, vice-mayor of Yauco, stated the object of the
commissioner's visit to Porto Rico.

The commissioner then called for a copy of the municipal budget.
An official copy of the current budget was produced, showing the fol-
lowing estimates:

Administrative expenses:

Salaries --'- $9,096

Materials - 1,619

Police - -- 2,806

Detective force - 210

Public instruction:

Salaries (16 teachers) 6, 684

Materials 3,374

Beneficencia:

One doctor $1,800

One janitor. . 300

One student ...l 240

Miscellaneous, including medicines, alms, etc .... 2, 800

: — 5.140

Roads_.. 3,000

Streets 1,500

Total for public works 7,400

Prison (prison district of Ponce) 1,316

The municipal judge receives no salary, but is provided with a house or
office.

For new hospital which is being built here .. - 3, 000

Uncollected taxes for account of the State (being the sixth of ten yearly
installments) - - 1, 041

Total of the budget of expenditures 62, 809

Additional budget of expense . -- 3.. 830

Dr. Carroll. What public property have you?

Mr. Cianchini. The city hall, the church, slaughterhouse, the
butcher shop, the hospital, and all city lots; also all the land on
which the town of Guanica is built.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get any rental from these lots?

Mr. Jose G-. Torres (a councilman). The city grants the lots gratui-
tously to people who will build on them. The same is true of the lots
in Guanica. We have in project the sale of these lots.

Dr. Carroll. Does the municipality own the market place in front
of the alcaldia?

Mr. Torres. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What about the cemetery?

Mr. Torres. That is also municipal property.

Dr. Carroll. Do you own a casa parochial?

580

Mr. Torres. No; the casa parochial here is a private house.
Dr. Carroll. Is the city property registered?
Mr. Torres.' Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Including the church?

Mr. Torres. The land, the city hall, and the butcher shop are reg-
istered, hut the church is not registered.

Mr. Me jia and Mr. Torres :

Dr. Carroll. I presume the city has no bonded debt.

Mr. Mejia. It has none.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have any difficulty in collecting the addi-
tional tax on liquors and tobacco authorized by the Governor- General
when. he removed the consumption tax?

Mr. Torres. It produces less than the consumption tax.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any complaint on the part of the merchants
against the imposition of this additional tax?

Mr. Torres. On the contrary, they prefer to pay it on liquors and
tobacco rather than on articles of prime necessity.

Dr. Carroll. Has it compelled any dealers to go out of business?

Mr. Torres. No.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any distilleries in this district?

Mr. Torres. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do they complain of the additional tax?

A Gentleman. They pay a license fee only, because they are all
agriculturists.

Dr. Carroll. Mr. Mayor, what changes would you like to have
made in the form of municipal government?

Vice Alcalde of Yauco. We want to have municipal autonomy.

Dr. Carroll. What measure of autonomy?

The Vice-Alcalde. The free administration of our local matters,
such as building whatever municipal structures we wish to, making
our own budget, etc.

. Mr. Mejia. The tale is told of a king of France who went to a vil-
lage once and said : " What can I do for this village?" And they said :
"The best thing you can do is to let us alone."

Dr. Carroll. You think that is what ought to be done for the
cities? Nevertheless you would consider it well that in the charter
given to municipalities there should be some limits placed upon their
powers?

Mr. Mejia. Every town should have the same system. There
should be administrative autonomy. For instance, we should have
the right to form our own budget, which should be submitted to the
taxpayers for approval and not to headquarters.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think it well that the number of members in
the council should be reduced in niany cases?

Mr. Torres. I think that should be done. In Yauco, for instance,
most of the wealthy men are foreigners and can not form part of the
council, and it is difficult to get up a representative council outside
of these men unless the number is limited.

Dr. Carroll. You would, of course, expect the people to elect the
councils?

The Vice-Alcalde. Certainly.

Dr. Carroll. How many barrios are there within the town proper
of Yauco?

The Vice- Alcalde. Two only; the north and the south.

581

Dr. Carroll. Do the districts or barrios outside of Yauco have
any representation in the council?

The Vice- Alcalde. Some have.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think it well that municipalities should be
limited generally to the territory occupied by the population proper
and not take in large sections of the rural districts?

Mr. Mejia. It can not be.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not a fact that those who live in the rural dis-
tricts and have their interests there nevertheless have to pay taxes for
your street lights, for your aqueduct,- for your fire department, for
your police, in the maintenance of which they have no interest?
Would it not be fairer to organize a government for the rural districts
and have a separate government for the town?

Mr. Torres. That could not be. At present there are barrios with
1,000 inhabitants, and we can not find a man fit to name as a comisario
who can read or write.

Dr. Carroll. That is a bad state of affairs, but in the United
States we have different kinds of government adapted to the needs of
different localities. The people who live in rural districts and do not
want the things they have in the cities are not taxed as much. They
have to raise money chiefly for the care of the roads and for the pub-
lic schools and have very few expenses beyond these. Consequently
they have a government suited to their needs and also to their pocket-
books.

Mr. Torres. Such a system would be impracticable here, owing to
the want of education.

Dr. Carroll. We find in the United States that the formation of
these small rural governments acts as a school in politics, so that
people in a small way learn the art of government, and especially of
self-government, and from administering these small affairs they come,
in time, when the community grows and the population reaches to a
considerable number, to be educated up to the point of having a
higher form of government — that of a town or city even — and these
small rural governments are considered, therefore, excellent schools
in governmental matters.

The Vice- Alcalde. In the United States everybody knows how to
read and write.

Dr. Carroll. No; many do not.

The Vice-Alcalde. But a large proportion.

Dr. Carroll. We have many there who do not know how to read
and write, and yet we find by experience that they often make good
public officials. I have known such men on school boards who have
made efficient public servants. The first requisite of good citizenship
is that the man should have the public interest at heart, and if he is
a good, honest man he can do service in some position. Furthermore,
if you have these rural governments men will have an aspiration to
fit themselves for such positions.

A Gentleman present. Not only are the people in the country towns
ignorant about municipal government, but the people here in the city
are also, because we were never allowed to have a voice in municipal
government. We are capable of taking a share in the government
because we have education, but I don't think rural governments
should be started at once. There should first be started schools in
the country.

Dr. Carroll. It has been stated that there are barrios in which
no one can read or write.

582

Mr. Torres. Yes; those who can read and write are foreigners.

Dr. Carroll. How do they get comisarios in those barrios'?

Mr. Torres. If they can find a man who can read and write, they
name him. Mr. Mejia, who lives in one of those barrios, can tell you
about them and the condition of the peojde.

Mr. Mejia. In the barrio where I live there are twenty or thirty who
can read and write. It has about 1,000 inhabitants. They removed
from there the only school there was in the barrio and now nobody is
learning.

Dr. Carroll. Why did they close the school in that barrio?

Mr. Torres. The municipality can only sustain six or eight rural
schools, and as there are twenty-four districts, they move the schools
about.

Dr. Carroll. Don't you think that if the district were divided up
so that the district of Yauco were limited, the country people would
see to it that they had schools for their children? I think they would.

Mr. Torres. I don't think so, because here it is necessaiy to force
the parents to send their children to school, and if left to their own
initiative I don't think they would take any steps at all.

Dr. Carroll. Is the compulsory law enforced here? You have
not accommodation for half the children of Yauco, have you, if they
all wanted to go to school at one time?

Mr. Mejia. For that reason we have asked the state to take schools
under its charge.

Dr. Carroll. That is just my point. The compulsory law amounts
to nothing unless you have schools for the children to attend. I am
not criticising the conditions here.

Mr. Torris. In thfs district, or in some districts, there are some
two or three hundred children that ought to go to school.

Dr. Carroll. I am not criticising the town at all for the provision
or lack of provision it makes for education. I am asking these ques-
tions to get at the facts. We have a compulsory law in our own
country, but if that law were enforced we would not have accommo-
dation for all the children in many cases. I think you must have
considerable help from the insular government in order to make your
schools what thej^ should be and in order to establish more schools;
but it is my belief that a different system of government throughout
the island would contribute to that result; that towns like this should
have a government of their own and should be set off from the rural
community; that rural communities should have a government of a
much simpler cast, that would cost much less. Now, with regard to
the question whether the people of a barrio or several barrios together
in the country districts are capable of self-government. The same
question comes into view with regard to the people of the island, and
when I was asked this question in the United States I said the onby
way to determine whether people are capable of self-government is to
place the responsibility upon them, and when the responsibility is
placed upon them they usually rise to the emergency. I believe the
people of this island are competent for self-government, and I believe
that it is true of the people of your barrios in some measure.

Mr. Mejia. I think the country people are not sufficient!}- educated
or instructed to conduct their own affairs.

Mr. Torres. The few educated people who can govern would natu-
rally be chosen by the free vote to conduct the government.

Dr. Carroll. If this system of government of which I am speaking
were established, it would be in conjunction with what is known as

583

county government in the United States. In the county are gathered
a number of municipalities, towns, and townships, and the authori-
ties* of the county government exercise supervision to a certain extent
over the governments which are under them ; and if such a system were
adopted here, it would be necessary to have this county government,
and the officials of the county government would instruct the officials
of the township government in the art of governing, so as to prevent
them from making any serious mistakes.

Mr. Mejia. I think that in each barrio a council could be formed
consisting of the comisario and three or four members who can
administer their local affairs under supervision of the head munici-
pality.

Dr. Cakroll. That is what we have in the United States in town-
ship government under a different name.

Mr. Torres. The powers of such districts would have to be very
limited in that case.

Dr. Carroll. Certainly; because their needs would be very limited.

Mr. Torres. If they had to have a system of employees and book-
keeping, such as this municipality has had, it would be impossible.

Dr. Carroll. No; their needs would be very simple.

Mr. Torres. Would they have to collect and apply their own taxes?

Dr. Carroll. Yes; but under the supervision of the county board
of taxation.

Mr. Torres. Then, what income would this municipality count on?

Dr. Carroll. On the income from the property within its limits.

Mr. Mejia. How would we pay our alcalde's salary, our titular
doctor, our hospital, our police?

Dr. Carroll. Ought not the people of the city pay for the things
which they enjoy exclusively?

Mr. Torres. What would the barrios do if they had no titular
doctor?

Dr. Carroll. Have their own titular doctor.

Mr. Torres. At present we have only two doctors for the entire
jurisdiction.

Dr. Carroll. Several of the barrios could join together and have
one doctor between them. It is not necessary that every barrio should
be changed to a township. .

CONDITION OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
STATEMENT OF MANY CITIZENS.

Isabela, P. R., February 15, 1899.

The ayuntamientos drag on an ephemeral existence. They are nearly
all insolvent and can not cover their liabilities, being unable to ful-
fill their mission or comply with their duties as required by law. This
condition, in our opinion, is owing to centralization in government, to
which they were subjected by the Spanish monarchical rulers.

The government must put the municipalities in the way of govern-
ing with complete liberty, allowing them to nominate or remove all
employees paid out of municipal funds, and giving them free action
in matters relating to roads, schools, budgets, police, and everything
affecting local matters. With this freedom of action and without
having to submit voluminous documents for superior approval, which

584

system has always prevented all initiative, both personal and col-
lective, the ayuntamientos will be able to attend to their duties and
cany on things as they should be done. For these reasons we think
that the Government should declare in force for the whole island the
memorial treating of ayuntamientos approved by General Henry, who
began his term of government by calling an assembly to inform him
about the needs of the island, with the object of remedying them
in so far as possible.

POPULAR ELECTIONS FOR MUNICIPAL OFFICERS.
STATEMENT OF JOSE M. OETIZ.

Maunabo, P. R., February ££, 1899.

(1) The immense majority of the municipalities of Porto Rico are
bankrupt and can not support the burdens weighing on them, and it
would be well to relieve them of these so that taxpayers may note
the benefits of a change of regime, which Avould act as a stimulus in
fomenting work.

(2) Autonomy for cities as a governmental basis, with the modifica-
tions suggested by persons of competent judgment in this country.

(3) Municipalities, municipal judges, and governmental bodies to
be chosen by popular elections. Municipalities to name their alcalde
and president.

(4) That the maintenance of district prisons pass to the charge of
the state.

FEWER MUNICIPAL DISTRICTS.
STATEMENT OF DE GAZTAMBIDE.

Yaitco, P. R., November 20, 1898.
Civil administration can be left in the hands of municipalities and
municipal boards, but the number should be reduced. To become an
alderman or member of a board the following qualifications should be
exacted: Two years' residence; to be of age; knowledge of reading
and writing, and being a taxpayer, either governmental or municipal.
Municipalities to be conceded complete autonomy in local matters,
and local boards to be chosen by popular election of all the persons in
the district able to write and read and who pa}T taxes. Employees to
be permanent, only to be removed for cause, and vacancies to be filled
by competition in which preferent rights be, first, for the most com-
petent; second, length of service.

A LIMITED SUFFRAGE.
STATEMENT OF ESCOLASTICO PEEEZ.

Cidra, P. R., November 10, 1898.
I think that mayors, judges, and municipal corporations should be
elected by all ratepayers, whatever quota be paid, and by those know-
ing how to read and write, and no one else. Public offices, especially
in the schools, should be filled by competitive examination, in which

585

virtue and merit should be vigorously exacted. Municipal accounts
should be clear and simple; the estimates should be drawn with
economy, and taxation, with the exception of a few easity collected
items, should be levied on one general article of assessment. There
should be municipal autonomy.

MUNICIPAL AUTONOMY.
STATEMENT OF TWENTY MERCHANTS AND PLANTERS.

Yauco, P. R., March 6. 1899.

Municipalities need complete autonomy in order to develop freely.
They must be able to fix their own budgets of receipts and expendi-
tures according to their local needs and means without outside inter-
ference of any sort, and with no other fiscalization than that of a board
of the largest taxpayers. They must also be allowed to undertake all
classes of public works, making the necessary contracts for loans for
that purpose.

In this district we limit ourselves to asking for the opening of the
port of Guanica for export and import, as it is one of the best of the
island and is the natural port of the largest coffee-producing district,
which exports 60,000 hundredweight of coffee and large quantities of
sugar, and would obtain the exports of the neighboring towns of
Sabana Grande, Lajas, San German, and Guayanilla, and would
acquire the importance it is entitled to.

REFORMS IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

Guayanilla, P. R., November, 1899.
Municipal administration needs a special study. Towns should be
allowed to participate in the control of their own interests. Until the
present time the ayuntamientos have not really been the administra-
tors. Composed of an excessive number of members, almost entirely
political doctrinarians rather than public servants, they have con-
verted the administration into a field of battle, thus prostituting their
high office, and have given ear only to the initiative and pressure of
the captain of the majority in this strange struggle. This captain,
being the most resolute and sagacious, has been elected president, and
he himself fixes his salary, which he takes care shall be sufficient to
to enable him to live decorously and give his whole attention to his
object, thus constituting him a political agent. It is customary to
bring into the body of these councils not the best class of persons of
the locality, nor the persons whose prestige and attainments make
them fit for the position, but political bosses, who can at any given
moment bring the greatest amount of grist to the political mill.
These personages, who in some cases can neither read nor write, and
pay hardly any taxes, and have no practical experience of public
affairs, are usually the most active in political struggles and are well
in with the authorities of the district. These recommend or disap-
prove and pass on measures, enforcing obedience from the other mem-
bers, and at the end of the economic year are rewarded by having
their propertj7 assessed at a low valuation. Between the alcalde and
his employees there is generally a familiarity or secret understanding

586

that he shall be the head of the economic family and they his willing
agents.

Members of a city council, which is everything but representative,
always fall in with the alcalde's views on all important measures and
give their votes as he directs. Notwithstanding this, there have been
occasions when alcaides have announced measures before a vote has
been taken on them and have fallen out with a member of the minority
who has not countenanced the proceeding.

How is it possible that the municipalities shall have prosperity in
such hands? Councilors in excess, ayuntamiento which does every-
thing but attend to public business, and alcalde who bosses the com-
munity and manages everything his own way — these are the three
principal spokes in the administrative wheel.

We think that six or seven councilors are sufficient to manage the
affairs of a district like Guaj^anilla, with 8,000 inhabitants, but they
should fill the conditions of prestige, morality, education, or capital,
and concern for public welfare. To name a greater number is to
insure failure or to deprive other boards, such as those of education,
health, etc., of the needed members.

If the alcaldes were nothing but presidents of the boards of alder-
men, charged to carry out their motions, if the alcaldes were not poli-
ticians, but gave their services gratuitously, as do the aldermen,
doubtless we should see the positions filled by independent persons
of some standing, who would not be terrorized by the threat of re-
moval, and who would attend to public affairs as if they were their
own business.

To conclude, we want fewer members in the city council, men of
known worth and unpaid alcaldes, and until this is provided the
plague spot will remain.

Up to the present the emplo3^ees have been named for one of two
reasons only — political affinity or relationship or business convenience.
Merit has had to hold aloof. There should be a law to stop unjust
nominations and unjust removals. A law is needed which shall exact
merit, honesty, and promotion by turn, and which would not set a pre-
mium on political adherence to one or the other party, and requiring
a strict responsibility for the f ufillment of duty. At present it is not
possible to exact any of these conditions from emplo}7ees, as they are
not sure of their positions nor of their daily bread. Up to now for
every affair there has been named an employee; for each sheet of
paper a pen; all tending to waste public money.

Reduce the number of public servants, divide and organize the
work and offices, and it will be seen that few and good men, well paid,
can do the work to-day neglected by an army of dissatisfied and ill-
paid clerks. Why should a small town like this need more than a sec-
retary at $2 daily and an assistant at $1 daily?

Who would be a better depositary than one of the council, by
monthly turns?

The question of police is the most important and should have your
attention. To be a public guardian, a policeman should be an honest,
firm, and kindly man. Unfortunately, here we have as policemen
men who have been in prison and are political servants of the maj^or,
and who carry out his orders in such a way that there seems no remedy
for us but to emigrate, as some who have been constantly persecuted
have already done. Let the police be well paid, but make them
responsible for the least abuse or excess, and above all only name
men of respectability and firmness for such important positions, who,

587

instead of terrorizing and becoming political instruments, will really be
public protectors. Otherwise it would be better to emigrate than lose
all liberty of action or expose oneself to outrage and insult.

Everything that can be said about taxation is both irritating and
scandalous. As until now all taxation is based on the information
of the taxpayer himself as regards his income and rests on the good
faith of his declarations, the result has been that the returns are
hypothetical. As the revising board is named by the alcalde and
council, these, under the conditions aforenamed, constitute a family
party. The poor peasant, who has to pay, falls a victim to the col-
lector, who sells his estate when he can not satisfy the excessive
quota assigned him. Working his farm, he has no time to attend to
these matters and trusts in the alcalde to do hiin justice; but the
alcalde, together with his board, only sees that his henchmen are
protected at the expense of the others. We even have known it to
happen that when the experts named did not attend, the municipal
employees have themselves acted as experts in valuation.

If it is impossible to do away with direct taxation, then let the
property in each municipality be properly assessed for purposes of
taxation. Until this is done there will be neither justice nor equality
in the application of taxation.

We will also say a word about the officials who are appointed to
collect overdue taxes by forced sales. They themselves name the
valuers and lend themselves to all sorts of immorality in carrying out
their task.

The government should, in the matter of education, look into, two
things — the teachers and the material used in schools. In the cities
inspection is possible. In rural districts, where population is scat-
tered, the teachers are obliged to become instruments of the domi-
nating power and to allow things to pass unquestioned that should be
suppressed. The distance of one house from another makes the
attendance of pupils extremely difficult. Besides, the school mate-
rial used is far from perfect and is often entirely wanting.

The situation of the poor in respect to sanitation is lamentable.
Badly fed, living on the ground in huts, without assistance in case of
sickness, the spectacle presented is moving. Only in the large towns
have sums been set aside for charitable purposes, and only in them
can the poor find a bed and medical assistance in case of need.

But in small towns like ours, where large sums are voted for
employees, feasts, extra allowances, etc., our poor pass their periods
of sickness in their huts, far from medical attendance, both owing to
the causes named, their numbers, and the distance at which they live.

Is a remedy to be sought? In which case, less feasts, less politics,
fewer squandering municipalities, more economies, and a sum set aside
each year for charities and hospitals.

As roads are the life of a town it is natural that ayuntamientos
should give them some attention. As our country is essentially agri-
cultural, there is no doubt that if it were covered by a network of
roads it would become rich and flourishing. This town, for instance,
although traversed by a good central road, has no roads to its points
of production. The bad roads, or rather paths, are the cause of the
produce seeking other outlets, depriving this locality of its legitimate
benefits. It is therefore necessary that money should be furnished to
construct our vicinage roads, and that the ayuntamiento should vote
the amounts required for their repairs.

588

We will not close without stating- that the late order of the govern-
ment respecting the liquor tax lias been wrongly interpreted. Gen-
eral Henry wished to diminish the vice of drunkenness, so common
in the country, but he did uot wish to lay a tax on the producer, who
already pays taxes in the general scheme of land taxation. Why,
then, have our authorities taxed both the producer and the retailer?
Can not our ayuntamiento understand that not having done this in
other towns, the producers of those districts are in a position to
undersell the producers of this district, and the retailers consequently
buy their supplies outside, to the great prejudice of our locality?

If it is wished to wipe out political rancor, to unite the Porto Ricans,
and finish once for all old enmities, it is logical that until the first
elections take place both elements be given equal voice and equal
benefits in the regeneration. It is not logical to give the ayuntamien-
tos over to one party and to allow the other ingress only when some
vacancy occurs.

Is peace sought? Is politics to be exterminated? Then name an
equal number of both parties to the city councils and an American
delegate with a voice, but no vote, as a representative of the Govern-
ment, and it will be seen how quickly success will follow the step.

If this is done, the naming of the new members of the councils
should not be left to the present councilors, or they will do as they
have done already — name nonentities from among their political
opposites, men not able to oppose their selfish plans'.

Gitayanilla, March, 1899.

PRISONS AND CHARITIES.

MUNICIPAL CHARITIES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. Do the municipalities have a poor fund?

Mr. RoiG. There is always a hospital, sometimes an asylum, but
that is in charge of private parties. There are asjdums in only a few
places. A custom here is to go around and beg.

Dr. Carroll. Is not that bad policy? In the United States we have
asylums for the deserving poor.

Mr. RoiG. Yes; we used to do that in Humacao. There is an asy-
lum in Ponce, one in San Juan, and one in Arecibo.

Dr. Carroll. I have been told that when a young girl loses her
parents her relatives and friends will join together to take care of her.
One furnishes her clothes, another supplies her food, and another edu-
cates her.

Mr. Roio. That is usually done. The people here are not miserly.
They do not care much for money. Many of the people who go about
begging are idle people who could work just as well as not.

589

HOSPITAL IN SAN JUAN.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R. , November 4-, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any civil hospitals here in addition to the
military hospital?

Mr. Zarate (secretary of the board of health). There are none.
The military hospital was built by a former bishop here by the name
of Cos, who handed it over to the military authorities with the stipu-
lation that thirty beds should be reserved in it for civil patients. As
can be imagined, this limited accommodation is insufficient, and the
beds are the subject of much competition. Up near Morro Castle an
old shanty has been built for hospital purposes, but it does not deserve
the name of a hospital. The building at present in use as a prison
was originally constructed for a hospital, but sanitary experts decided
that it was so placed that easterly winds would blow germs of infection
from it into the city, and hence it was not used for hospital purposes.

Dr. Carroll. Do the military hospitals publish annual reports
showing the number of deaths, the various causes of death, the num-
ber of patients, etc.?

Mr. Zarate. They do not publish anything.

Dr. Carroll. I have a report for ten years, giving the number of
patients each year, the number having certain diseases, and the total
number of deaths, but it does not show what were the causes of the
deaths. -

Mr. Zarate. They kept a record of the number of patients admitted
and certain data regarding the deaths, which became a part of the
military record, but it was never published. The military authorities
of Spain took this record away with them, so that it is to-day impos-
sible to get the facts regarding the causes of the deaths in the military
hospital unless they can be obtained from the manager of the ceme-
tery, who would have to go over the record of deaths one by one.

HOSPITAL IN AGUADILLA.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aguadilla, P. R., January 21, 1899.
Dr. Casseldttc (mayor of Aguadilla). We have a civil hospital
here of twelve beds. I have two American soldiers there now; one,
Mr. O'Connor, from Newark, 1SL J., who is very ill. At first he had
typhoid fever, and then pneumonia, so that one of his lungs nearly
disappeared, but now he is getting along and I hope to get him in
shape so that he can be sent back to the States. The hospital is a
great thing for the poor here, though it is difficult to maintain it.

PRISON REFORMS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aguadilla, P. R., January 21, 1899.
Dr. Casselduc, mayor of Aguadilla, and Mr. Torregrosa:

Dr. "Casselduc. There is another very important question to be
touched on — that of prisons. The expense of keeping up the prisons

590

is too high for municipalities. There should be State institutions.
The system here in Porto Rico consists in having a prison in the chief
town of the district, and these prisons receive the prisoners from all
the small towns lying within the district. The result of this is that
the number of prisoners lodged in these prisons is far greater than
the capacity of the prison to receive them. The prison here that was
built for 50 has 160 inmates. It is for the prison district, and other
municipal districts lying within it are supposed to send their contribu-
tions for its support, but they never send any.

Dr. Carroll. Why do you not make a rule that when prisoners are
sent here you will not receive them unless the municipality from
which they came pays for them?

Dr. Casselduc. When the judge says, "You take this prisoner,"
we have to do it. The judge resides here, and they must be tried in
Aguadilla, and then they go to the head court in Mayaguez.

Dr. Carroll. I think one important reform for Porto Rico is to
have the powers of the municipal judges enlarged so that many cases
which are now required to go to Mayaguez may be tried in the municipal
districts. Here in Porto Rico on some slight suspicion they put a man
into prison. And when the man has stolen a few bananas or some little
thing, he is put in jail and kept there ten months, sometimes, without
trial.

Mr. Torregrosa. There are prisoners here who have been detained
three or four months before trial, and when tried their offense was
proved to be a mere misdemeanor.

Dr. Carroll. That must be remedied. When a man brings a false
charge against another, he should be brought to justice for it.

Mr. Torregrosa. One of two things must be done — either the
municipalities must be given power to sustain their own prisons or
else the 11 prison districts of the island must be sustained by the
State, and in that case collect the tax for their maintenance and not
leave it to the municipality.

Dr. Carroll. That is right; but it seems to me that there ought to
be common jails in every municipality for the detention of prisoners
found guilty of misdemeanors, and in addition to that jails for the
detention of prisoners guilty of more serious crimes.

Dr. Casselduc. They have jails for such misdemeanors.

Dr. Carroll. I mean that the powers of municipal courts should
be enlarged to cover additional cases that are really too small to go to
the criminal court. There would be fewer sent to Mayaguez and
other places where you have criminal courts, and then, instead of con-
fining the criminal courts to San Juan, Mayaguez, and Ponce, I think
there should be one in each district, because your means of travel are
very much restricted, and it is ia hardship for witnesses or for a man
who is pressing a criminal charge against another to have to go such
long distances as are now necessary, and not only pay his own way but
lose his time. For instance, a man living on the border of Arecibo,
at Gobo, told me of the case of a man who stole a horse from him. He
went first into Arecibo, and there found that the case would have to
go before the judge in Utuado, because the crime was committed in
the district of Utuado, and the judge in Utuado had to prepare a brief
of the case to send to Mayaguez, where this man will have to go to press
the charge. It ought to have been tried in Utuado.

Mr. Torregrosa. The municipality spends at present from $25 to
$28 a day to give the prisoners food, and naturally at the end of the
month they have not money enough to pay their employees.

591

Dr. Carroll. Is it true that the judge of first instance does not
have trial powers?

Mr. Torregrosa. He only has power to prepare a case, and for that
reason he is called judge of instruction.

Dr. Carroll. Why not have a court of first instance to try the less
serious cases in the districts where they are comniitted?

Mr. Torregrosa. That would be a fine thing for the town.

Dr. Carroll. I do not see why it can not be, and allow an appeal.
You don't need more judicial commissioners, it seems to me, but to
have the powers better distributed ; or you might have a circuit court
for trying these, as in the United States, where judges who have
power to hear and determine cases travel around and hold courts
periodically and dispose of criminal cases. Is there any provision in
your law for releasing on bail?

Mr. Torregrosa. There is a system of allowing persons out on bail,
except for the gravest of crimes; but the system does not work, owing
to the venality of the clerks. The system is very much mixed up.
Very often a person is imprisoned for four or five months for a crime
of no consequence.

Dr. Carroll. Is there no writ of habeas corpus?

Mr. Torregrosa. No.

Dr. Carroll. That is considered the palladium of American liberties.

Mr. Torregrosa. The question of prisons should be attended to, as
it is one of great importance.

Dr. Casselduc. It is a source of great misery here.

Dr. Carroll. What provision would you make for the temporary
reform of it during the military regime?

Mr. Torregrosa. Either of the two I have mentioned before,
namely, that the state should take charge, or each municipality be
allowed to have its own prison and attend to it.

Dr. Carroll. That would not be really a reform. Great injustice
is done by keeping people in prisons for two or three months without
a hearing in cases of a trivial character.

Mr. Torregrosa. I would recommend, then, simply to give the
judge of first instance power to take cognizance of small cases that
are not absolutely criminal.

Dr. Carroll. What is done in the case of persons who are wit-
nesses and whose testimony is regarded as of great importance? How
are they detained and how is their presence secured when necessary
in a case?

Mr. Torregrosa. That is another question of highest importance.
When the court at Mayaguez requires a witness, it cites him, and if
he happens to be a poor man he naturally can not afford to undertake
a journey from here to there, and he avoids it.

Dr. Carroll. His expenses ought to be paid in such cases, together
with his witness fee.

Mr. Torregrosa. That should be done; but the state should do it,
for the same reason it supports the judg-es and the high court.

Dr. Carroll. Of course, if it is a state case; but in the police court
it should be done by the city.

Mr. Torregrosa. I think the whole system of courts should be
under state control. I consider that as the state to-day collects a
direct tax — for instance, as a pharmacist I pay $50 to the state in
addition to my municipal taxes — the state ought to spend that money
for state purposes or leave that amount to be spent by the municipal-
ity. In the latter case, the municipality could attend to these matters.

592

think that the custom-house tax and direct taxes should be collected
onh' for federal purposes; that all other taxes should be used for the
purposes for which they are collected — that is, the municipalities col-
lect for municipal purposes only.

GAMBLING.

[Hearing before the United States Commission.]

Mayaguez, P. R., January 24, 1899.
Don Cartagena and Mr. St. Laurent, mayor.

Note. — The following was read from the Penal Code, Title VI,
articles 354, 355, and 35G :

That bankers and owners of gambling houses in which enters luck or chance
shall be punished by major arrest and fined from 625 up to 6.250 pesetas, and in
cases of repetition by that of major arrest in its greatest degree to correctional
imprisonment in its minimum degree and double fine. The players who shall
meet in such house shall be punished by major arrest in its minimum degree and
fined from 325 to 3.250 pesetas, and in cases of repetition with major arrest in its
minimum degree and double fine. The conductor and seller of lottery tickets or
unauthorized raffles shall be punished by major arrest in its minimum degree
and its medium degree, and a fine from 325 to 3,250 pesetas. Those who make
use of fraudulent methods in play or in raffles to secure their winning shall be
punished as swindlers. Money or effects and instruments used in play or raffles
are to be confiscated.

Dr. Carroll. Do they proceed against gamblers severely?

Don Cartegena. Yes; after the feast daj^s, if the police give infor-
mation about it.

Dr. Carroll. There was a great deal of gambling going on last
night in the market place. How long will that continue?

Don Cartegena. During the feast; it has been the custom through-
out the island for many years on feast days to do that.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have any cockpits here?

Mr. Cartagena. Yes; they are allowed by the city. There is no
law against them. They pay a tax.

Dr. Carroll. How many have you in this city?

Mr. Cartagena. Only one.

Dr. Carroll. Is it the expectation that the council will continue
to license that?

Mr. Cartagena. I don't know.

Mr. St. Laurent. We are in a difficult position to-day — neither one
thing nor the other. We are still under the Spanish law, and there
is nothing in that to prevent it.

Dr. Carroll. Why do you permit gambling on feast days and not
on others?

Mr. St. Laurent. It is the custom to celebrate the feast in each
city. As far back as anybody can remember it has been the custom
in these celebrations to allow small gambling, such as you saw here
last night. The council determined this year to have nothing to do
with the feast; but a committee of townspeople called on the council
and asked permission to carry it on as usual. I went to the colonel
in command here and explained the matter to him, in order to avoid
responsibility. The colonel said to me, "Let them do as they are
accustomed to do so long as there is no disorder. We do not intend
suddenly to do away with old established customs. As long as order
is preserved the people may continue their old methods. Little by

593

little the introduction of American customs here will show these peo-
ple what they should do and what they should not do. I do not wish
to interfere in any way." The gamblers pay the expenses of the feast.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any objection in your mind to this way of
celebrating the feast day?

Mr. St. Laurent. The council unanimously objected to it. It is
composed of men who do not gamble; but the townspeople this year
were very much in favor of holding the traditional feast, and the
councilmen, wishing to bring some money into the city and wishing,
at the same time, to raise the spirits of the people a little, allowed the
feast. The people have been very much depressed, owing to the pov-
erty that exists. I expect next year, when we shall have become a
part of the American Union, to take such steps as may be necessary
to compel the people to follow the usages of the American nation.

Dr. Carroll. Is it the general feeling among Porto Rican people
that these games are not on the whole objectionable?

Mr. St. Laurent. They do not think, nor do I, that there is any
real harm in raffles for a package of hairpins or a pot of pomade.

Dr. Carroll. But all the games I saw last night were for money.

Mr. Cartagena. It is our custom, which dates back hundreds of
years. Last year they had a roulette table in the open plaza. This
year they have moved it from the plaza. It is quite possible to pro-
hibit this thing, because if you tell these people there must be no
gambling of any description, there will be none. We have not opposed
the feast this year, so as not to make ourselves unpopular. The whole
town seems to desire it, and as we are here in office on uncertain ten-
ure we did not wish to stop it. Besides, the country people bring in
their daughters to dances, and neighboring towns bring in a certain
amount of business, and the merchants for that reason like the fad.

Dr. Carroll. But no one objects to the dances.

Mr. St. Laurent. Yes; but we can not have the dances without
the gambling, because they are paid for by taxing the gamblers. The
band of the Fifth Cavalry has cost us 1300; the firemen's band
has cost also $300 ; the fireworks have cost $500. A ball which they
are going to give in the theater will cost at least $500. The five balls
to be given will cost in all, $800. They will include a masked ball, a
children's ball, a people's ball, and a workmen's ball.

Dr. Carroll. Has any attempt ever been made by the city authori-
ties to prevent the school children from taking part in this gambling?
. Mr. St. Laurent. They have never taken any steps, because they
do not consider that this gambling is vicious. Women also gamble,
but after the period of the feast gambling is prevented altogether.
When once the feast is over there is absolutely no sort of gambling
allowed. We allow it now for two reasons: First, because the colonel
did not oppose it; and secondly, because Ponce had held its feast and
this city did not wish to be behind.

PRISON CONDITIONS IN HUMACAO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Humacao, P. R., F bruary 1, 1899.
Mr. Joaquin Masferrer, mayor of Humacao :

Dr. Carroll. How many prisoners have you in your municipal jail?
Mr. Masferrer. Eighty-odd. They belong to the judicial district,
or rather to the prison district; not alone to Humaco.
1125 38

594

Dr. Carroll. Have you an audiencia here?

Mr. Masperrer. No; we go to San Juan.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have to send prisoners up there for trial,
together with witnesses?

Mr. Masferrer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. You have a judge of first instance and instruction
here?

Mr. Masferrer. Yes. He will be present at the hearing today.

Dr. Carroll. Does this municipal district have to pay all the ex-
penses of the prison or are they divided?

Mr. Masferrer. All towns pay their proportion.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any abuses of right or privilege or justice
in the arrest and imprisonment of persons?

Mr. Masferrer. No.

Dr. Carroll. Are persons allowed to be arrested on secret charges?

Mr. Masferrer. No.

Dr. Carroll. Then it is different in this district from what it is in
others that I have visited. I have had testimony that persons have
been arrested on secret charges in other districts, the cause of the
arrest not being communicated to them. I think it would be well
before arresting a person to inform him for what reason he is arrested.

Mr. Masferrer. In the time of the Spaniards the abuse was very
common.

Dr. Carroll. Are your prisoners all kept together without respect
to the nature of the offense committed by them?

Mr. Masferrer. Yes; the only separation is according to sex,
except that we have a room, called a preference room, which is devoted
to prisoners who do not wish to be in the same quarters with the rest
and for which the prisoners have to pay.

Dr. Carroll. Do you make any difference as to the age of the pris-
oners— keeping youthful offenders apart from older criminals?

Mr. Masferrer. We haven't sufficient room in the prison to make
such a distinction.

Dr. Carroll. You recognize the importance of keeping first offend-
ers apart from old offenders in order that they should not be inocu-
lated by the vices of the older ones?

Mr. Masferrer, Yes ; but we haven't the means of separating them.

(At the close of the hearing the commissioner inspected the prison,,
which is in the basement of the alcaldia and is the prison for the
entire prison district, comprising Humacao, Fajardo, Naguabo, Vie-
ques, Yabucoa, Juncos, and Piedras. It contains three departments —
that for male prisoners, another for female prisoners, and a preference
department, as it is called, for those who do not wish to be quartered
with the others and can afford to pay for better quarters. There are
now ninety, prisoners in all, among whom are three women. The
female quarters are dark, unhealthy, and totally unfit for human habi-
tation. The women are taken out daily for exercise. Those serving
sentence and those undergoing trial are all in prison together, and no
difference is made between persons guilty of grave crimes and those
guilty of slight offenses ; and no distinction is made on account of age —
old and young, hardened criminals and first offenders, all being shut
up together. The mayor claims that this is one of the best prisons in
the island. The men's prison is in better condition, as to air and
space, than the women's, but the drainage is defective, and the place
is filthy and the smell unbearable. No uniform dress is adopted, most
of the prisoners wearing the clothes they wore when arrested. )

595

Dr. Carroll. Are you familiar with the condition of the prison
here, both the part for men and the part for women?

Dr. Pablo Font. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you consider the prison in good sanitary condition?

Dr. Font. No ; it is not in good condition.

Dr. Carroll. Will you please state the condition in which you
found the prison and your opinion of it?

Dr. Font. There are too many prisoners for the room assigned them.
They are huddled too closely together. There was a project to build
a modern prison, but it was dropped for want of funds.

Dr. Carroll. What is your opinion of the drainage in the men's
department?

Mr. Masferrer. Permit me to say that it is so bad that a few days
ago I called in a competent person to see what could be done in the
matter. He drew up plans for improving the drainage, but I have not
been able to carry them into effect for want of funds.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to know if Dr. Font does not regard the
effluvium which comes from the prison dangerous not only to the
prisoners, but to the keepers and to the people of the town generally?

Dr. Font. Naturally so; and for that reason the alcalde tried to
take steps to better the condition of the prison.

Dr. Carroll. Is not the air charged with germs that might develop
typhoid fever or other diseases?

Dr. Font. Yes ; that is also the case.

Dr. Carroll. There seems to be no particular odor about the
women's department ; but is it not too dark and in other ways unfit for
the incarceration of women?

Dr. Font. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What amount do you consider necessary to make the
prison sanitary?

Mr. Masferrer. We have the lot, and we estimate that $12,000
would be sufficient to put up a building that would be adequate.
This sum was collected under the old government for that purpose,
but the money has disappeared from the treasury.

PRISON CHARGES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aibonito, P. R, February 6, 1899.
Mr. Manuel Caballer, mayor of Aibonito, and Mr. , munic-
ipal judge:

Dr. Carroll. Where are the headquarters of this judicial district?

Mr. Caballer. Guayama.

Dr. Carroll. You send your prisoners to Guayama?

Mr. Caballer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. And- you pay for the support of the prisoners you
send there?

Mr. Caballer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Are the charges large?

Mr. Caballer. Yes. We pay much out of proportion to the num-
ber of prisoners we have sent from here. With the amount we pay
we could keep our prisoners in a hotel.

Dr. Carroll. Have you looked into the matter to see why it costs
so much?

59G

Mr. Caballer. I have only been in office six days and have not
looked into it.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not the custom for the several alcaldes in the
district to get together and agree as to the amount that shall be appor-
tioned to each municipality in the judicial district?

The Municipal Judge. This district pays S3,000 state taxes, and
on that amount they base the amount this district is to pay for prison
duties.

Dr. Carroll. Is there no auditing of the accounts of the prison on
the part of the municipalities which contribute?

The Municipal Judge. I went there. They presented the account
and said: "This contract was let at auction. Here is the amount;
and this, that, and the other thing were done, and here they appear,"
and all the alcaldes could do was to say, "All right."

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that the municipalities ought to look
into it. They are spending large amounts for the keeping of a few
prisoners.

The Municipal Judge. Beginning the 1st of July next, the state
will take the prisoners under its charge; consequently there will be
no need for it.

PRISON AND HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATIONS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Coamo, P. R., February 6, 1899.
Dr. Juan Trujillo, a physician of Coamo:

Dr. Carroll. Is there a city hospital in this city?

Dr. Trujillo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What is the condition of it?

Dr. Trujillo. Good.

Dr. Carroll. Have you all the supplies and accommodations that
are needed?

Dr. Trujillo. No; the town being a poor one, it is not able to keep
up more than a certain number of beds.

Dr. Carroll. Is there a jail in the city?

Dr. Trujillo. Yes; the municipal jail.

Dr. Carroll. Is it a part of your duty to visit the jail?

Dr. Trujillo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What is the condition of the jail as to sanitation?

Dr. Trujillo. It is not a prison possessing good hygienic conditions,
but as few prisoners only are in it, the matter is not serious.

Dr. Carroll. What is the general health of the city?

Dr. Trujillo. Good.

Dr. Carroll. What are the principal diseases?

Dr. Trujillo. Intestinal diseases and a few cases of typhoid fever.

Dr. Carroll. What are those intestinal diseases caused by?

Dr. Trujillo. The chief reason is the heat; another reason is the
unhealthy condition of the town; but now that other measures are
being taken, I think an improvement will be felt.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have any cases of smallpox?

Dr. Trujillo. Up to the present we have had none.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have consumption?

Dr. Trujillo. Yes; it is a very common disease here.

597

Dr. Carroll. What is the cause of that?

Dr. Trujillo. Bad alimentation, the general misery of the poor,
and the irregular way of living.

The Municipal Judge of Coamo :

Dr. Carroll. How many prisoners are there now in the municipal
jail?

The Municipal Judge. Two.

Dr. Carroll. For what offenses are they imprisoned?

The Municipal Judge. One is there for disrespect shown to the
judge and the police authorities, and the other for assault.

Dr. Carroll. What was the case of disrespect?

The Municipal Judge. I had a horse in my grounds, taking care
of it for a man in the country. Another man took it out and rode it
about the town, and on undertaking to get the horse from him, he
used blasphemous words. The case will go to Ponce for trial.

MURDER OF AMERICAN SOLDIER.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Caguas, P. R.., February 27, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. I want to ask a question or two about the killing of
an American soldier here a few days ago.

Dr. Jiminez Cruz. I don't believe that this affair in any way was
induced by the people. I believe that the man who committed the
assassination is a criminal. I know him and know his character.
The affair had nothing to do with politics. Several days before this
event happened I heard certain people say that they were tired of the
conduct of some of the soldiers; that they had had enough of it, owing
to their drunkenness, but this happening has nothing whatever about
it which indicates any feeling against the Government.

Mr. Sola. When the military proceedings were instituted, witnesses
stated that the soldier was invited into the Workmen's Club and that
the assassin entered and killed hiin, treacherously, from behind. The
man who committed the crime was not a member of the club and had
never been in there before.

Dr. Carroll. Had he strong reason for bitter feeling against that
particular soldier, or against any soldier here?

Mr. Sola. It is not known whether he had any motive or not. He
is a man whose hand has been against everybody.

Dr. Carroll. Has he been captured?

Mr. Sola. We have done everything we could to catch him, but
have not been able to do so.

Dr. Carroll. I am not here to investigate that malter at all, but I
wanted to ask a few questions for my own satisfaction.

Dr. Cruz. I wish to put on record that this deed does not in any
way represent the feeling of the people for the soldiers. The soldiers
and the townspeople have been very friendly and have mingled
together up to the present.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to be a very strange affair, because your
people are generally so peace loving. I hardly know how to find an
explanation for it.

Dr. Cruz. I have just been informed that the soldier who was
killed was making love to the girl with whom this man who assassi-

598

nated him was keeping company, and that the assassin had followed
him until he got an opportunity to kill him. This assassin is a man
of bad conduct and has committed other felonious assaults. I have
attended, as a doctor, to the cure of persons whom he has assaulted
and shot with a revolver. It is a gain to society that he should dis-
appear.

Dr. Carroll. Is he a white man?

Dr. Cruz. He is a young mulatto and the son of a blacksmith.
His antecedents are not good; his mother is half demented and a
drinker.

Dr. Carroll. Have you had aii3T other murder here in recent years?

Dr. Cruz. This was the first in many years. There have been
quarrels and wounds, but no murders.

Dr. Carroll. What is the prevailing crime in Caguas?

Dr. Cruz. Quarrels, abduction, and blows given in quarrels.

Dr. Carroll. Do you mean the abduction of girls under age?

Dr. Cruz. Yes; with the girl's consent.

Jose Boada. president of the gremio of workmen of Caguas :

Mr. Boada. In the name of the club which I represent, I come to
repeat the protest which I have already made to the colonel here, and
to offer our assistance, if necessary, and to make the government
understand that we did not wish to be impressed by what certain
Spanish persons here residing told us with regard to the troops, for
which reason these same Spaniards wish to make bad blood between
us and the American troops. The young man who committed this
murder is not a workman; he is not of us, nor is he with us. I wish
one of the witnesses to speak, because I was in the country at the
time and am not personally acquainted with the facts.

Mr. Juan Diaz, a member of the gremio of workmen:

Dr. Carroll. Were you present when this affair occurred?

Mr. Diaz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Will you give an account of what you saw and heard?

Mr. Diaz. There were six of the club there that night, around a
table, reading our regulations. An American soldier came upstairs,
entered into the club, and asked permission to sit down there, which
was granted, and he sat down. He asked what the place was, and we
told him it was a club, and he took his hat off. One of the members
of the club, thinking the soldier came up under the influence of
drink, went down to the street to look for an officer. The criminal
came up the stairs, through the door, and committed the act.

Dr. Carroll. While the man was absent looking for the officer?

Mr. Diaz. Yes, while he was absent.

Dr. Carroll. Then what did the criminal do; leave immediately?

Mr. Diaz. Before the act was committed I got up and asked the
criminal what he wanted, and he said, "I have come here to stick a
knife into this soldier." I tried to prevent him, but I didn't have
time.

Mr. Carroll. Did the soldier know that he was there?

Mr. Diaz. It seems to me that he did not know, because his back
was turned — the assassin stepped up behind him.

Dr. Carroll. Did you try to arrest the man then?

Mr. Diaz. Yes; I tried to catch him, but it was all the work of an
instant. As soon as he did it he ran away.

599

Dr. Carroll. Do you know the man; had you seen him before?

Mr. Diaz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What was his trade, if any?

Mr. Diaz.' A coachman.

Dr. Carroll. He was not a member of your club?

Mr. Boada. No.

Dr. Carroll. Was he in the habit of associating with members of
the club?

Mr. Boada. None of the townspeople associated with him; he was
not the friend of anybody.

Dr. Carroll. Who tries to connect the club with this act? Is it
any person you know of, or is it simply rumor?

Mr. Boada. It is rumor, and is not directed against the club in par-
ticular, but against the working people as a whole, and is started by
those who are annoyed by the fact that we have a liberty we did not
have before. .

Dr. Carroll. Is your club private?

Mr. Boada. No; it is public.

Dr. Carroll. I heard a report to-day on the street that this soldier
was asked into the room of a secret club, and was stabbed by one of
the members of the club. I am very sorry the deed should have
occurred where your club meets, but I don't see any fact connecting
the club with the act, except the fact that the crime was committed
in the same place where your club meets.

Lieutenant (Forty-seventh New York Volunteers). There

had been a meeting there Wednesday night before. I immediately
got their papers and made a thorough search. We took everything
there. It is a casino of the better class of the workmen. It was
reported that he had been invited in there and had been seen with
this man, but I know that the assassin's name was not on the roll of
the club.

Mr. Boada. We wish to have the effects of the club returned to us,
although after what has happened we do not mean to have ifc continue
in the same name nor in the same house.

PRISON CONDITIONS.

LHearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 2, 1899.
Mr. Luis Porrata Doria, mayor of Ponce :

Dr. Carroll. I would like to see the prison this afternoon.

Mr. Doria. There is a refrain here that says "If anything is bad, it
is the prison."

Dr. Carroll. I understand there is no division in the prison except
as between the sexes.

Mr. Doria. It is anything but a prison. All the criminals are in
together, unless we get a dangerous person, and then we put him in a
cell. We have a plan for a new prison, but we lack the money to
build it.

Dr. Carroll. Other municipalities in this judicial district will con-
tribute?

Mr. Doria. They are required to contribute, but they do not do so.

Dr. Carroll. At Arecibo they imprison the insane, I understand,
with criminal offenders.

600

Mr. Doria. Here we do not. Here we have an old slaughterhouse,
as I told you, which we turned into an insane asylum. Everything
here has to be done over.

Dr. Carroll. When you get autonomy you can undertake all these
reforms.

DISORDERS IN PORTO RICO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1899.

Mr. Manuel Reyes Ruiz, mayor of Quebradillas, called at the office
of the United States Special Commission for Porto Rico and was inter-
viewed by the special commissioner.

Mr. Ruiz. There have been about fourteen burnings in my district
of houses belonging to Canary Islanders, owing to the fact that these
gentlemen during the Spanish rule tortured the people there and
imprisoned about thirty-five of them. In their business transactions
the Spaniards robbed the Porto Ricans. For instance, if a Porto Rican
bought goods to the amount of $200, the Canary Islander would charge
it up as $300. Canary Islanders are ultra-Spanish. The result of
this robbery was that the Canary Islanders gradually appropriated
the propert3r of the native Porto Ricans, so that while some of them
arrived there with a hundred dollars, in a few years they became capi-
talists. Prior to the war it was generally stated that these Spaniards
had threatened in case war should be declared to tie us to the tails of
their horses and to drag us to the nearest port to get us out of the
country; they also threatened to tie us together by our mustaches
and use us as beasts of burden to draw them to the water when they
wished to take their baths.

At election time they put the civil guard at all the entrances of the
towns and made us produce our cedulas, or documents, and used every
possible means to prevent Porto Ricans from exercising their right of
suffrage. They threatened the laboring classes that they would tor-
ture and imprison them if the}' dared to cast their votes. They sent
to my little town 150 troops to inspire the people with fright and
thereby prevent them from voting. That was the municipal election
before the installation of the autonomous government. Since the
autonomous government has been in effect elections have been with-
out a show of force.

Dr. Carroll. What was the result of the election where force was
employed?

Mr. Ruiz. In spite of the soldiers and the threats my party refused
to be terrorized and carried the election, but in previous elections
they absolutely desisted from voting, as the authorities made use of
double ballot boxes, pretended to take people to the voting room and
instead took them to prison and made it appear that they had voted
by the substitution of false ballots, whereas they really had not
done so.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that they have one ballot box for one
purpose and a second box for another and that they had voters
deposit their ballot in the wrong box in order that they might be
counted out.

Mr. Ruiz. There was in each booth onty one box, but this had a
false bottom. The Governor- General would direct the mayor as to
what persons should be elected, and the returns of the elections
invariably conformed to this direction. This was accomplished by
false ballot boxes and terrorism.

601

Dr. Carroll. How has it been since the American occupation?

Mr. Ruiz. When the Spanish troops left after the occupation, ven-
geance entered, and I believe that the only hope for the peace of this
country is to make the Spaniards clear out. Fourteen or fifteen of
the worst ones have left Quebradillas and have gone to Aguadilla.
Several of them want to return, but the people of the village will not
permit them to do so. Those who behaved properly under the old
regime have not been molested in any way. Owing to the atrocious
treatment the natives received from some of these men their desire
has been to kill them ; and if they have not done so, it is because they
have been unable to get hold of them. Since the occupation by the
Americans things have quieted down in my section, and the American
soldiers are welcomed as friends and saviors.

Dr. Carroll. Has there been any trouble since the occupation?

Mr. Ruiz. No; but I am not sure there will not be if the Spaniards
remain, as the people do not want them there.

Dr. Carroll. Are they merchants?

Mr. Ruiz. They are storekeepers and agriculturists, and all of them
were volunteers of the Spanish army.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any plantations in your vicinity?

Mr. Ruiz. There is a little sugar, coffee, tobacco, and smaller pro-
ductions.

Dr. Carroll. Has there been any retaliation against the proprietors
of those plantations by the laborers?

Mr. Ruiz. That has been the greater part of the trouble there.

Dr. Carroll. What is the condition of the peons?

Mr. Ruiz. They work twelve hours a day for 2^ reals, with rations,
which consist of salt codfish and plantain.

Dr. Carroll. Do the proprietors take care of the families of their
peons?

Mr. Ruiz. No ; only of the peons themselves.

Dr. Carroll. Did they give them lodging?

Mr. Ruiz. No.

Dr. Carroll. Did they pay the peons by checks?

Mr. Ruiz. Some of them gave half the wages in provisions out of
their stores; others gave all the wages in provisions, and still others
gave all in money.

Dr. Carroll. Did the plantation owners have any power over the
peons to hold them?

Mr. Ruiz. No.

Dr. Carroll. There has been recently no system of slavery of
laborers on account of debt?

Mr. Ruiz. No; I know of none.

Dr. Carroll. The peons were free to leave the proprietors at any
time?

Mr. Ruiz. Yes; they had that liberty. The laborer of this island is
by nature very humble, and besides that he has always been in fear
of the Spanish volunteers and the civil guard; consequently, he used
to go to work and at the end of the day or week, according to what
arrangement he had made, would receive his pay, and would go back
the next day to work for the same owner, partly because he could not
get more wages elsewhere and partly also because he feared that some
complaint might be made against him. There are both black and
white peons, but there are more white.

Di\ Carroll. How many people are there under your jurisdiction?

' Mr. Ruiz. About 6,000. The so-called bandits are afraid of the

American troops, and knowing there are troops in Camuy they will

602

not go there, and I am afraid they will come to Quebradillas. The
so-called bandits are Spaniards and a few native Porto Ricans who
are naturally bad; but the greater part are Spaniards who have
deserted from the army and prisoners whom the Spanish released. I
caught two of them a few days ago myself and put them in jail. I
could take care of the bad natives if the Spaniards were not there.
Recently a party of 700 natives organized to burn some property in
niy district, and I personally was able to restrain them. All the dis-
orderly acts which have occurred in that district were committed
before my election. I was elected by the people, and have been con-
tinued by the Americans in office.

San' Juan, P. R., November 9, 1898.
A delegation representing the banking, mercantile, industrial, and
other interests of the district of Ponce visited the office of the com-
mission to present the conclusions arrived at by a meeting of repre-
sentatives of those interests in Ponce. The delegation was instructed
to lay particular stress upon the following paragraph :

Before we close the present information we desire to state here that the condi-
tion of affairs in the interior of the island can not be tolerated any longer. Bands
of assassins that have been for the last two months burning and killing have
caused such consternation in the country that it is now unsafe to travel, and the
banks and merchants have practically closed business with the interior. If the
present situation continues, there will soon be a complete paralysis of business,
which can not but be immensely detrimental to the credit and prosperity of the
island. As no apparent steps have been taken to stop such vandalic acts, we
earnestly request you, in the name of the inhabitants of Porto Rico, to ask the
President, Mr. McKinley, to give immediate orders to stop it.

On being questioned respecting these acts the members of the
delegation declared that the refusal of the bankers to 'grant loans to
the agriculturists in the interior was due to the destruction caused
by the marauders, and that the merchants for the same reason would
sell to country storekeepers for cash only.

On being asked whether the condition of the currency was not in some
measure responsible for this stoppage of business the delegation
admitted that it might have some effect, but insisted that the chief
cause Was the depredations committed by these midnight bands.

On being urged to make representations to Maj. Gen. John R.
Brooke, military commander of the island, they said they had already
done so some days previously, and General Brooke had said he would
do what he could. They said his plan was to station troops at towns,
so that they could protect these centers of population; but, in their,
opinion, the towns were in no danger; it was the planters who were
suffering, and the trouble was that by the time the troops could be
secured from the towns, the marauders had made their attacks and
escaped. The delegation stated that they believed that travelers were
not safe from these banditti. Before the Spaniards left the island
they opened the doors of jails and let many prisoners loose. These
were among the banditti, and probably also some farm laborers who
hold a grudge against their former employers. They said that the
feeling at Ponce was that this matter was most urgent and should be
attended to at once.

Dr. Manuel F. Rossy, a lawyer, and editor of El Pais, and a
prominent political leader in the island, in submitting the conclu-
sions of the congress of Porto Ricans, of which he was president, for

603

transmission to Washington, made the following statement at the
office of the commission, November 9, 1898:

There are towns where as many as twenty-two estates have been
destroyed, and in many cases the coffee crop has been ruined. The
owner of a large coffee estate has sent his family to Mayaguez and
has himself come to San Juan because of his fear of visitations from
the banditti. In four days there have been seven murders. Three
of the victims were Spaniards, one a Frenchman, and the rest wealthy
Porto Ricans.

At Yauco, in the southern part of the island, a mob visited a coffee
estate owned by a Spaniard from the Balearic Islands. They found
the man in the parlor, and killed him in the presence of his wife and
daughters, to whom, however, they offered no insult or injury.
Later they met his major-domo and cut- off his ear and nailed it to a
tree. These mobs seem to strike specially at Spaniards from the
Balearic and Canary Islands, who are very much hated.

In the opinion of Dr. Rossy, those who commit these depredations
are in part of foreign and in part of native birth. Some of them are
Frenchmen, some Italians, a few Spaniards, and a large number
natives. The Spaniards were mainly deserters from the Spanish
army. A band of marauders captured near Arecibo was led by a
Spanish captain of the Alfonso regiment. He was a deserter from
the Spanish army. The purpose of these bands, which in some cases
number almost a hundred, is loot and revenge. This is made clear
from the fact that they do not offer any indignity to women. They
are generally armed with revolvers, machetes, and clubs.

A mob took from one estate near Barceloneta over 100 head of cattle,
but the owner got most of them back because the bandits could not
make way with them. They killed two or three of them for imme-
diate use and had to abandon the rest.

Some of those who do not want to work have joined these bands.
One of those who surrendered had been a member of the guardia
civil.

Dr. Rossy had been informed that in the district of Camuy on the
north property had been destroyed worth $100,000.

As Mr. Rossy is an editor, he was asked why he did not give the
particulars of these crimes in his paper and why so little was found
concerning them in other papers, particularly of the capital. He was
informed that it was one of the chief functions of the press in the
United States to call repeated attention to abuses in order that a
remedy might be applied, and he was asked whether he did not think
that if the details were given in the press of all these attacks on life
and property the authorities would be in a better position to cope
with the difficulty. He stated in reply that he did not think it would
do any good to publish these matters.

San Juan, P. R., October 20, 1898.
Father Sherman, United States chaplain, stated to the special com-
missioner for the United States to Porto Rico that he had been staying
a short time previously with a friend on a hacienda between the lines
of the United States and Spanish troops. One night an attack was
made on the estate. The proprietor, his son, and a number of others
armed themselves to defend the property. The proprietor was a Span-
iard. Father Sherman did not believe that the men who made the
attack were bandits ; they were former laborers who took this oppor-

604

tunity for revenge. They had worked hard for the proprietor for
years and had been paid in brass cheeks which they had exchanged
for goods at the company's store. They were almost starved, while
the proprietor had saved out of the estate 630,000 a year. Those who
made the attack were not bandits, but men who regarded themselves
as having been defrauded of the just income of their labor.

Sehor Filipe Cuebas, collector of customs at Mayaguez, said that
acts of incendiarism reported from the interior of the island were
entirely new to Porto Rico, and he hoped and believed that the state
of terror reported as existing in some of the districts would not last
long.

Mr. A. Argueso, of Humacao, vice-mayor of that municipality, also
engaged in the mercantile business there, and an exporter of sugar,
made a statement to the special commissioner for the United States
to Porto Rico on the 13th of November.

He stated that the chief sufferers from the marauders in the island
are coffee planters, many of whom owe large amounts of money. In
some cases where injuries amounted to $200 representation would be
made by the owners of the estates to their creditors that their prop-
erty had been ruined, and on the basis of this statement an extension
of the time of payment would be asked and granted. There is not, in
the opinion of Mr. Argueso, very much of real disorder. What there
is is instigated chiefly by desire for personal revenge. As a usual
thing it is the proprietor or manager who is attacked, while the prop-
erty is very little injured or not injured at all. There had been no
disturbances at Ponce, none at Humacao, and none, in fact, in the
eastern part of the island. There had been some at Yauco among the
coffee planters and in the western portion of the island. He had no
doubt that these disturbances could be easily put down.

Comparison of criminality between Cuba and Porto Rico for 1862.

Cuba (population
1,200,000).

Porto Rico (popula-
tion 600,000).

Number.

Proportion.

Number.

Proportion.

169
667
161
1,592
343

1 to 7,101
1 to 1. 799
1 to 7,453
1 to 753
1 to 3, 498

8
117

284

L to 75. 000

1 to 5. 120

1 to 15. 789

Thefts

Suicides

lto 2.112
1 to 12. 500

Crimes in Porto Rico in 1S64 and 1SG5.

Crimes against religion

Crimes against public order .

Crimes of falsehood

Crimes against the public health

Gambling and raffles -

Crimes of public servants in the course of their employment.

Crimes against the person

Crimes against honesty

Crimes against honor - -..

Crimes against liberty and security -.

Crimes against property

Acts not constituting crimes

Total

1864. 1865

37
243
50
.»

28
572
169

1,231

106

230
49
14
27

527

165

1,169

605

Penalties imjwsed.

1864.

1865.

Death by garrote ---

Penitentiary, without privilege of going out occasionally -

Penitentiary and stripes, with privilege of going out occasionally

Penitentiary, without stripes, and with privilege of going out occasionally .

Imprisonment in the puntilla (San Juan) and stripes -

Imprisonment in the puntilla. without stripes

Banishment, not affecting offspring -

Banishment ---

Penitentiary, correctional punishment

Imprisonment in the jail - -

Imprisonment in jail, with right to be ransomed -

Confinement in the beneficencia - --

Stripes

Warned against repetition of offense, and released

Fined - -

Released on ground of imprisonment suffered pending sentence

Released with warning against repetition of offense

Temporary suspension of sentence — -

Pinal suspension of sentence..

Pardoned - -

Freely pardoned

Total

392

111

132

231

167

136

1,641

7
312

1
2
2

19
5

17
136

16
247
114
146
114

1,340

DEPARTMENTAL JAILS OR PRISONS.

REPORTS FROM ALCAIDES, OR KEEPERS.

THE DEPARTMENTAL JAIL AT SAN JUAN.

At the end of the year we have 10 female prisoners, 2 of these sen-
tenced to cadena, or perpetual imprisonment, 1 for the crime of parri-
cide and the other for that of homicide, another to thirty-seven years'
imprisonment for homicide and poisoning, another to fourteen years
for infanticide, another to twelve years for homicide, another to three
years for adultery, another to two years and four months for assault,
and 3 whose cases are pending — 1 for double infanticide, another for
attempted infanticide, and the other for theft.

Of the men, 29 are sentenced to terms of minor imprisonment, rang-
ing from four years to a month and a day, 13 for theft, 5 for robbery,
8 for assault, 3 for rape, and the remaining 117 are for pending causes
and are awaiting sentences for various crimes already mentioned.

The penalty of death is imposed according to the existing code, and
in the various instances when it has been imposed it has occurred on
the Campo del Morro, in this city, or in the town where the crime was
committed.

In respect to the food which is furnished the prisoners, it is quite
good. It is composed of pease and beans, alternately, with potatoes,
rice, bacon, butter, and meat, and four days in the week a half a pound
of bread, furnished by Juan Perez, all cooked and prepared for eat-
ing, and a plate for each prisoner, for which is paid 18 cents. Clothes
are furnished the prisoners as they may need them; light, whitewash-
ing, and painting of the building and other necessary matters the
auxiliary junta of the prison is charged with providing. It is composed
of individuals of the ayuntamiento, who are a vice-president, who
is always the alcaide, now Ramon Patron, besides four vocales, a
secretary — all without salary — and a clerk, who receives 300 pesos
a year. This junta prepares its budget annually, which it distributes
proportionately among .the towns which compose the district, such
towns being the capital, Rio Piedras, Carolina, Loiza, and Rio Grande,

606

"besides the prisoners from the audiencia, who come from the juris-
dictions of Humacao, Caguas, and Vega Baja, whose expenses were
paid until the present by the provincial deputation.

There are at present employed on salary a first chief or director,
Jose Perez y Gonzalez, who receives $800 a year; a second chief or
director, Jaime Alsina Gonzalez, who receives $400 a year; a Dr. Jose
Maria Cueto, who receives $420; an assistant doctor for the hospital,
Luis R. Cordova, at 480 pesos; a chaplain,. Jos6 Martinez Ortiz, at
360 pesos, and four turnkeys, at 300 pesos, besides a female turnkey,
at 300 pesos, which amount is satisfied from the budget already men-
tioned, as also the rent, which is paid to the municipality for the jail
building, namely, 1,500 pesos annually.

The jail building, which is the property of the municipality, was
constructed for a hospital in the year 1877, the contract for its con-
struction having been taken by Juan Bertoli for the sum of $149,800,
which contract he was unable to complete, for which reason various
repairs were required to prepare it for a prison in the year 1889. Its
dimensions are 110 mefers front, 55 meters deep, and 16 meters high,
consisting of two floors — a lower and an upper — and a subterranean
department, fairly large, in the eastern side and two courts connected
on the southern side, each of which measures 38 meters from north to
south and 32 meters from east to west.

The building has been occupied as a jail since May, 1889, without
possessing suitable conditions for that purpose. The prisoners have
their departments, or galeras, on the upper floor, where they are dur-
ing the day and night in want of space where they may be able to
breathe the pure air or see the rays of the sun. On the lower floor
there are large compartments for women on the eastern side, with the
hospital on the western side. The front is occupied for quarters of
the employees. The parts occupied by the prisoners do not possess
conditions of safety, but, owing to the lack of good gratings and doors,
escapes of prisoners occur frequently. Neither do they possess
hygienic conditions, on account of lack of windows for ventilation and
because of the fact that the prisoners are constantly in their depart-
ments, where they eat, sleep, wash their clothes, and have their closets.

In respect to the capacity, if well arranged the building would
accommodate from eight hundred to a thousand prisoners, but with
the bad distribution which exists there is no space for anything; so
that in the year 1896 to 1897 there were constantly from 400 to 500
prisoners, all very much crowded on account of the bad distribution
of the departments which they occupied.

In spite, of the poor hygiene there has been very little sickness,
which was attended to by the assistant doctor or student, under the
direction of the titular doctor.

In respect to the present system, the only thing I am able to say is,
that if the rules should be fully complied with it would be fairly good,
but as the}7 are not fully, observed the manner of caring for the
prisoners leaves much to be desired. The prisoners occupy them-
selves absolutely with nothing, and do not seek distraction in work or
amusement.

All classes are together, those sentenced and those awaiting sen-
tence, and the}" occupy themselves only in vice. It is supremely
important to have established industrial shops to give employment in
something which would improve them and teach industries, knowledge
of which a greater part of them lack. There should be a professor of

607

instruction, and they should be obliged to learn to read and write and
be instructed morally, a respect in which they are quite, lacking. All
these matters are provided in the prison regulations, but on various
occasions when it was desired to establish industries in this penal
institution they were suppressed in consequence of the criticism of
the press of the country.

Jose P. y Gonzalez, Alcaide.
San Juan, P. R. , January 1, 1899.

THE VEGA BAJA JAIL.

The jail of the village of Vega Baja was completed July 4, 1888.
The cost of its construction was 4,600 pesos, and the annual expense
of maintaining it is about 1,400 pesos. The building measures 15
meters front by 20 deep and 5 high, outside measurements. It is
divided by a passageway 8 meters in length by 2 in width, having at
the sides two rooms, one for the hall of justice and the other the
preference room. The hall of justice is 5-J meters in length by 5 in
depth. There are, besides, 4 compartments for prisoners, 2 barto-
linas (cells), 2 privies, and a court and algive in the interior. The
galeras measure 6 square meters of floor and 4^ meters high ; the bar-
tolinas, 3 meters. All persons sentenced to greater or minor impris-
onment or to correctional imprisonment are confined in this j)rison.
The total number of prisoners during the year 1898 was about 405,
and there are now remaining about 34. The employees of the prison
comprise an alcaide, who receives 500 pesos annually; a turnkey, who
receives 250 pesos; a nurse, 150 pesos; a doctor, 300 pesos, and 2
assistants, 24 pesos. The death penalty is never imposed here. The
meals consist of rice, potatoes, beans, meat, and other articles.

P. Gimenez, Alcaide.
Vega Baja, December 27, 1898.

THE AEECIBO JAIL.

The present jail of the district of Arecibo was completed for occu-
pancy in 1867, and took the place of a former building of old con-
struction. The jail occupies the greater part of the space under the
consistorial house, so that it can not be ascertained what was the cost
of the part occupied for that purpose. The entire building cost
30,000 pesos. The average expense of maintaining the prison is 720
pesos and its original capacity is over 90 prisoners.

All persons are imprisoned here who are sentenced to penalties
ranging from minor to correctional imprisonment. The number of
prisoners during the year 1898 was 777, and there are at present for
all offenses 163 prisoners. There are two employees who are badly
paid, an alcaide who receives 500 pesos, and a turnkey, 250. The
death penalty is not imposed in the jail.

The food consists of coffee or ginger in the morning, two messes
daily, one at 10 in the morning and another at 4 in the afternoon.
The first mess is composed of 4 ounces of meat, 5 ounces of rice, with

608

necessary condiments, and a plantain, or its equivalent in similar
products of the country. The afternoon meal is similar, and these
two meals are varied from da}7 to day with codfish, rice, beans, and
food plants of the island.

The condition of the jail is always good when there is not, as at
present, an excess of prisoners, which is proved by the fact that no
epidemic has ever broken out in it.

Gekardo Mendes y Martinez.

December 30, 1898.

THE UTUADO JAIL.

The jail of Utuado was founded the 9th of November, 1896, and took
the place of the municipal depository (which existed formerly), when
the judge of instruction was appointed to sit in this city. The build-
ing which the jail occupies is private property, the annual rental of
which is 600 pesos, paid from the funds of this municipality. In the
budget of expenses for tbe prison the sum of 3,000 pesos is assigned,
but there is at present an expenditure of 20 to 26 pesos daily, due to
the excessive number of prisoners, who are sustained at 20 cents each.

The building is composed of two stories, with 5 compartments, 3
small rooms which serve as dungeons, 3 privies, and a corral, or court,
which measures 9 meters 3 centimeters in length by 7 meters 5 centi-
meters in width, with a capacity for 140 prisoners. All persons are
imprisoned here who have a sentence to serve — those who suffer pro-
visional imprisonment and those sentenced governmentally. There
have been imprisoned during the current year in this prison 856 per-
sons, and at present there remain 139 persons. There is an alcaide,
with an annual salary of 500 pesos ; a turnkey, with 300 pesos ; 2 watch-
men, with 240 pesos each; a barber with 96 pesos, and a servant, or
peon, to carry water to the prisoners, with 120 pesos annually. Since
the creation of the jurisdiction of instruction in this city no proceed-
ing whatever has been taken which would lead to the imposition of
the death penalty.

The meals which are furnished to the prisoners consist of coffee in
the morning, a breakfast of rice, codfish, and plantain at 11, and at 5
in the evening a meal of rice and meat sometimes, and at other times
of rice and beans or pease.

Titular doctors are obliged to visit the prisoners, the medicine being
furnished free, and there is also a barber to cut the imsoners' hair.

NlCOMEDES YlRNET.

Utuado, December 28, 1898.

THE MAYAGUEZ JAIL.

The jail of the judicial district of Mayaguez was founded in the
year 1879 and substituted a prior jail which existed in the street floor
under the municipal building. The building at present occupied by
the jail was formerly used as the slaughterhouse of this city, and its
transformation for its present purposes cost a little over 9,000 pesos.

The annual cost of maintaining the jail is on the average 8,180
pesos, which includes, in addition to the usual expenses of the prison,

609

the cost of caring for sick prisoners in the hospital. The capacity of
the prison is about 200 prisoners, hut owing to the recent burnings
and robberies in the country there is a larger number of prisoners
than ever before seen here. All classes of prisoners prior to sentence
and those sentenced to greater and correctional imprisonment are
confined here, and during the year 1898 the number of those impris-
oned was 1,365. On the 31st of December of that year there were,
for all offenses, 221 prisoners, which is an extraordinary number.
The prison has 4 employees, the alcaide, who receives a salary of 60
pesos a month; a subalcaide, who receives 40; a turnkey, receiving 30,
and an assistant, 20. The death penalty has never been imposed in
this prison.

The meals consist of coffee in the morning, a mess of meat, rice,
potatoes, bacon, and vegetables at 11 o'clock, and another similar to
this at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. The fooil of the sick is regulated
according to their condition and need.

There are no printed prison regulations; there is only a manuscript
copy, of which similar copies exist in other prisons. This prison has,
besides the dungeons and bartolinas (cells), a hall of justice, a hos-
pital accommodating 20 persons, a bathroom, a kitchen, two large
courts, and two small ones. These two last belong the one to the
department for women and the other to the department of preferences.
According to the opinion of persons capable of judging in the matter,
this prison does not possess the necessary conditions for an establish-
ment of this kind, and should be supplanted by a system of cells and
one more in harmony with principles of hygiene and morality.

Eduardo Texidor.

January 5, 1899.

THE SAN GERMAN JAIL.

The construction of the jail of the district of San German was com-
menced in 1837 and a building of two stories was completed in 1844,
the upper floor being designed for the municipal corporation, and is
used to-dajr by the ayuntamiento and its dependencies; the lower floor
for the jail and the residence of the employees.

In 1872 the construction of an addition to the upper floor over the
lower space was undertaken. In this addition two rooms were set
apart for prison purposes under the name of rooms of preference.
These rooms are distinct, the daily sum of 25 cents being the esti-
mated receipts from these rooms as a prison income. The new build-
ing was commenced and completed in 1844 and cost 16,300 pesos,
according to the data found in the municipal archives. The amplifi-
cation of this was constructed in 1872, at a cost of 6,000 pesos. The
public plot and tower over the upper establishment cost 3,000 pesos.
In the year 1S97-98, from the 1st of July until the 30th of June, inclu-
sive, the cost of maintaining the prison amounted to about 2,495 pesos.

The building measures in length 27 meters, in width 17 meters 15
centimeters, and in height 14 meters 18 centimeters, according to
data taken from the original expediente.

All classes of prisoners are confined here, as is the case in other
prison departments. When once sentenced the governor of the prov-
ince fixes the prison in which the sentence shall be served, and he
designates always for that purpose the prison of the department in
' 1125 39

610

which the crime was committed. There is also in connection with the
prison the municipal depository for trifling misdemeanors. Where a
person commits a crime of the serious character of those indicated in
the code, meriting superior punishment, the sentence is served in the
provincial presidio in the capital, without respect to the district in
which the crime was committed.

The number of prisoners confined in this jail during the year 1898
for all offenses was 420, and at present there remain in the prison 34.
There are two employees of the prison, an alcaide and a turnkey, the
first receiving a monthly salary of 45 pesos and 5 for expenses, and
the second 25 pesos. There are 4 pesos set apart for assistants as a
monthly gratification, 1 peso for each. Owing to the fact that the
turnkey must be capable of taking the place of the alcaide in case of
his sickness or absence, there should not be the difference in the two
salaries which exists.

Prior to the year 1845, according to data, there were cases in which
the tribunals imposed the penalty of death, some criminals being
executed by the garrote and others by the gibbet. In some cases the
sentences were executed by the military authorities in this place.
From 1845 to the present no data are known which show that the death
penalty in any form has ever been imposed.

The food of the prisoners consists of rice, meat, cereals, potatoes,
wheat bread, or tubers. The supply of this food is let by contract
annually.

The preference rooms, situated in the upper floor, are very close to
the office wings of the ayuntaioiento. They are lacking in privies in
their interior, those imprisoned being obliged to go outside of the room,
but within the same building. These circumstances and the form of
the building make it possible for those imprisoned to be in continual
relation with those employed and transient. Those of the lower floor
improve the opportunity by means which those in the preference rooms
facilitate. It is desirable to avoid these relations, to avoid also the
necessity for the extraordinary vigilance of the employees of the jail.

There should also be rooms for female prisoners with interior sub-
divisions for cases of sickness. There should also be proper hospital
facilities.

The jail in the lower floor is subdivided into 12 rooms in the form
following: Two for the office and sleeping room of the alcaide, 1 for
the turnkey and a hall of justice, and 4 situated in the front of the
prison. In the rear, 8 rooms, 1 for the municipal depository, 1 used
as a storeroom, which is that to-day set apart for women, 3 for prison-
ers of all classes who do not comply with the requirements for prefer-
ence. Every hall contains 10, 14, or 18 individuals. Two rooms are
set apart for persons confined incomunidad and one for punishments
in the interior of the building. There is only one closet for the entire
building.

During the day all prisoners are together in the court of the prison,
situated in the middle of it, including those imprisoned for slight
offenses and for the first time and those for grave offenses who are
there for the second or third time. For this reason, instead of the
prison being correctional, it causes bad ideas to be inculcated in undis-
ciplined minds.

There is a cistern for drinking water situated in the court of the
prison.

There is in this prison a manuscript copy of regulations, the origi-
nal of which should be found in the jail of the capital at San Juan,

611

dated the 20th of March, 1866, approved by Marchessi. According to
the opinion of some learned persons, the regulations ruling in this
prison are not in conformity with present laws. For this reason arises
a necessity of reforming it or substituting another for it.

Salvador Lugo,

Interim Alcaide.
San German, December SI, 1898.

THE GUAYAMA JAIL.

The jail of the judicial district of Guayama was founded in 1870,
at a cost of 14,443 pesos. The expenses of maintaining the prisoners
during the year reaches the sum of 5,748 pesos 75 centavos. It is 18
meters in front, by 26 in depth, approximately. There are admitted
to this prison offenders who commit all classes of crimes and misde-
meanors. Only those sentenced to greater arrest and correctional
imprisonment serve their sentence in it, and those against whom
slight penalties have been imposed by the municipal judge. During
the present year there have entered into the prison for different
crimes and misdemeanors 860 persons, counting both sexes, and at
present there are 29 prisoners.

The employees are the alcaide, who receives an annual salary of 500
pesos; a turnkey, who receives 250; a doctor, who receives 300, and a
barber, who receives 96.

The death penalty is not imposed here.

The meals which are furnished to the prisoners consist of meat,
bread, rice, codfish, beans, pease, and vegetable products, such as
plantains and other crops of the country, and coffee. The regula-
tions which govern this prison and which serve as a practical guide
of the alcaide in the discharge of his duties were made by the crimi-
nal audiencia of Ponce in 1877.

Francisco Lopez.

Guayama, P. R., December SO, 1898.

the humacao jail.

The jail in the judicial district of Humacao was established in 1849,
at a cost of about 15,000 pesos, and the annual expense for its main-
tenance is 5,840 pesos. It accommodates 100 prisoners. All who com-
mit offenses in this city or district are imprisoned here, of whom,
during the year ending to-day, according to the records, there were
1,143 persons, and there are to-day remaining 89 persons. There are
three employees, namely, an alcaide, who receives 500 pesos annually;
a subalcaide, who receives 400 pesos, and a turnkey, 300 pesos. The
death penalty is not imposed here. There is a project for enlarging
the jail, as its capacity is too limited.

J. Mariano Reges,

Interim Alcaide.

612

PRISON STATISTICS.
Table I.— Penal population, census of 1897. 1

Department.

San Juan..
Arecibo ...
Aguadilla .
Mayaguez .
Ponce

Number
of pris-
oners.

799
48
24
62
53

Department.

Guayama .
Humacao..

Total

Number
of pris-
oners.

1,101

Evidently the entire number of prisoners in all classes of prisons, including municipal jails.
Table II. — Summary of crimes according to race — Presidio at San Juan.

Crime.

Race.

White. Mixed. Black

Total.

Murder

Homicide

Robbery

Theft

Forgery

Incendiarism

Swindling

"Violation

Abduction

Ofensa de obras...
Insult to superior.
"Various crimes - . -

Total

131

113

111

Table III. — Length of sentence by periods of years — Presidio at San Juan.

Period.

Race.

Total.

White.

Mixed.

Black.

25
41
42
13
5
2

38
33
38

14
5
2

10
13

16
6

20 to 30 years...

11
4

Total -.

128

130

' 46

304

Less than 1 year or for life:

1
1

9 months

( i

Life (22 years old)

613

Table IV. —Departmental prison of San Juan.

PRISONERS DURING THE YEAR 1898.

Received
or dis-
charged
during
month.

Total.

January 1. In prison.

Received during month ...
Discharged during month .

Increase .

February 1. In prison

Received during month . . .
Discharged during month .

Decrease .

March 1. In prison

Received during month . . .
Discharged during month .

Decrease.

April 1. In prison

Received during month ...
Discharged during month

Increase

May 1. In prison..

Received during month . . .
Discharged during month .

Decrease .

Junel. In'prison

Received during month ...
Discharged during month .

Increase .

July 1. In prison

Received during month ...
Discharged during month .

Decrease .

August 1. In prison.

Received during month . . .
Discharged during month.

Decrease.

September 1. In prison

Received during month . . .
Discharged during month .

Decrease .

October 1. In prison

Received during month . . .
Discharged during month.

Decrease.

November 1. In prison

Received during month . . .
Discharged during month.

Increase

December 1. In prison .

Received during month . . .
Discharged during month

Increase

107

102

106
81

94
114

248

257

228

14
214

248

18
230

17
213

20
193

54
139

10
149

7
156

614

Table V. — Inmates under sentence.

AGE AND RACE.

Race.

13 to 20.

30 to 25.

25 to 30.

30 to 35.

35 to 40.

40 to 50.

50 to 62.

Total.

White

Mixed

4
4
2

13
11
3

5
6
1

2
1

1
2
3

1
2

30
87

Black

Total

Table VI— CRIMES BY RACE.

White.

Mixed.

Black.

Total.

Theft _

8
10
3
3
1
1
3

1
4
5
1
1

Total _...

Table VII.— LENGTH OF SENTENCE.

Years.

13. 1 Total.

White .-

3
5

8
6
2

3
1

2
1

Mixed .-

Black ....

Total

3 36

Months.

S. Total.

White

1
1
1

5
3
5

2
1

3
1

i 12

1 i 12

Black

! 9

Total

1 33

Table VIII.— RACE AND AGE.

Years.

Total

13 to 30.

30 to 25.

35 to 30.

30 to 35.

35 to 40.

40 to 50.

50 to 60.

White

8
6
8

14
31

11
3

5
4
2

1
8
2

Black...

Total

154

Table IX.— SUMMARY OP PRISONERS.

Under sentence.

Await-
ing
trial.

Total.

Months.

Years.

White

77
31

Mixed

106

Black

Total '

154

233

Males . . .
Females .

319
4

Total 323

615

THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

THE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1898.
Mr. Antonio Rosell, director of the Collegiate Institute:

Q. When was collegiate education established in the island? — A.
On November 1, 1882.

Q. How was it supported? —A. By the government.

Q. What is the system of administration? — A. It is under a director
and secretary of institute. The accounts are approved by the secre-
tary of the interior.

Q. What is the length of the terms? — A. From October to June,
June being occupied with examinations.

Q. Is the institute open to nonresidents? — A. Yes; open to all.

Q. What is the character of entrance examinations? — A. The sec-
ond class of primary scholars are eligible. •

Q. What are the courses of study? — A. There are five successive
groups, as follows: First group, Latin and Spanish (first course), uni-
versal geography, and English; second group, Latin and Spanish (sec-
ond course), geography and history of the United States, and English;
third group, arithmetic and algebra, general elements of literature,
universal history, and English; fourth group, geometry and trigonome-
try, psychology, logic and moral philosophy, English, and French or
German (single course) ; fifth group, physics and chemistry, natural
history, agriculture, and English.

Q. What diplomas are given? — A. Bachelor's degree (after the
French fashion).

Q. On what conditions are degrees granted? — A. On completion of
the course and a final examination.

Q. Is the institute open to both whites and negroes? — A. It is open
for any color or sex.

Q. What advantages are given graduates in government service? —
A. Preference is given to graduates.

Q. What text-books are used? — A. No selected text-books; instruc-
tion is given by lectures.

Q. What languages are taught? — A. English, German, French,
Latin, and Spanish.

Q. Is music taught? — A. No.

Q. Are religious exercises held? — A. Not now. There is a course in
moral philosophy.

Q. Is the library at the disposal of students? — A. The library is at
the disposal of the teachers.

(It was further stated that many of the books in the library are
French publications; that the pay of the teachers is $125 per month;
all, including the director and secretary, received an extra sum of $16
annually, termed a " gratificacion ; " that the ideas which enter into
the management were adopted from the French ; that about 200 pupils
attended last year; that fees are charged as follows: Matriculation,
$10; tuition, $15 per year; diploma, $25; for the government, $25;
printing, $2.50, and $4.25 for the stamp tax on the diploma.)

616

SCHOOL IN SAN JUAN.

San Juan, P. R., October 29, 1898.

The Commissioner, accompanied by the interpreter and stenog-
rapher, visited the public school for small boys in Cristo street, San
Jnan, and the following is a memorandum of the visit:

The school consisted of one room, in which there were 29 small
boys, ranging in age from 8 to 13 years. The room was on the second
floor, front. It was fitted up with a number of maps — one showing
the two hemispheres, two maps of Europe, one of Spain, one of Asia,
one of Africa, another of North and South America, and a map of
Porto Rico. There were also charts for the purpose of teaching
arithmetic, cases of insects, numerous moral maxims, a small desk
of primitive manufacture, and several tiers of rough benches for the
children. On two opposite walls were crucifixes.

When the Commissioner's party entered the school a blackboard
exercise was in progress, the pupils being instructed in the rules of
proportion, and the problem in this branch of arithmetic was being
worked out by a boy of 12 years of age.

Two male teachers were in charge of the school.

The room was about 16 by 20 feet, with a ceiling about 15 feet high.

The children were all clothed.

During the visit a reading lesson was given in Spanish. Six boys
were called before the teacher's desk, and each read in turn from a
reading book, the exercise read being selected by Mr. Solomon, the
interpreter of the Commission.

Dr. Carroll asked to whom Porto Rico belonged, and received a very
prompt and emphatic answer from the boys, who shouted, "Estados
Unidos." He then requested those of the boys who could do so to
point out the United States on a map which hung before them of
North and South America, having the political divisions indicated on
it, and very promptly the boys scampered to the map and. placed their
fingers triumphantly on the United States,

THE -PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 29, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. Will you kindly explain, Mr. Secretary, what your
office is and what your duties are as secretary?

Dr. Carbonell. I am secretary of the interior (fomento). The
salary of my office is $8,000 a year.

Dr. Carroll. How long have you been in this office?

Dr. Carbonell. About three months.

Dr. Carroll. Were you in the ministry previous to that time?

Dr. Carbonell. No, sir.

Dr. Carroll. Were you appointed by Captain-General Macias?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes, sir.

Dr. Carroll. Will you kindly state in outline the system of pub-
lic instruction here in Porto Rico, which I understand comes under
your department?

Dr. Carbonell. The previous sj^stem of instruction in this island
could not have been worse. Since General Brooke has been in com-
mand here the secretary has asked permission to change somewhat

617

the system here, so as to bring it into conformity with the American
plan of education. We have three schools — two of them being normal
schools, one for males and one for females — and the institute, which
is for men. These schools grant the degree of "bachelor."

Dr. Carroll. I would like a general outline of the system and
when it was established.

Dr. Carbonell. We have normal schools for ladies, and we have a
normal school for men and have 551 public schools paid by the
municipalities — that is, ought to be paid by the municipalities, but
usually ai*e not. The school system here is a very old one, except
that the normal schools were introduced in 1894.

Dr. Carroll. I would like first to get at the number and character
of the primary schools as they were established previous to the war;
the part that the State took in the government of them as well as in
the support of them.

Dr. Carbonell. There were 551 ; they were paid by the munici-
pality, but payment was frequently neglected. The municipalities
lately have dared to suppress several schools, which they have no
right to do, as they are still under the old Spanish law.

Dr. Carroll. Did the old Spanish law require that a public school
should be established in every community?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes ; a school for every certain number of inhab-
itants was required under that law.

Dr. Carroll. What were the terms of admission to that school?

Dr. Carbonell. It was compulsory that the boys should go to the
boys' school and the girls to the girls' school.

Dr. Carroll. What was the earliest age at which they entered the
school?

Dr. Carbonell. About 8 years.

Dr. Carroll. Parents sent them at an earlier age if they wished
to, I presume?

Dr. Carbonell. In San Juan and Ponce they had what they called
"the orphans' school," where orphans as young as 4 years were taken
in and cared for and instructed.

Dr. Carroll. As a matter of fact, what was the youngest age at
which children were accustomed to go to the public schools?

Dr. Carbonell. The parents in better condition sent their children
when they were about 5 years old, but poor' people very seldom sent
them before 8 years of age.

Dr. Carroll. In the United States the laws of the States differ,
but generally the educational age is between 5 and 18, and in some
cases 21. If a person remains beyond the age of 18 or 21, in many
places he is expected to pay, and children below the age of 5 are not
received, except, perhaps, in kindergartens. Is there no provision here
for a minimum and a maximum age?

Dr. Carbonell. At 16 or 17 they have to leave.

Dr. Carroll. Has the government provided buildings for these
schools?

Dr. Carbonell. They have few — very few — and generally they
have been only rented by the government.

Dr. Carroll. How is the money for the support of the schools
gathered; by special tax, or is it paid from the revenues of the
province?

Dr. Carbonell. The three superior schools are paid by the govern-
ment out of the general budget, but the other schools are paid by the
municipalities in which they exist. As the municipalities are to-day
short of money, they have suppressed some of the schools.

618

Dr. Carroll. Did not the municipalities levy a special school tax?

Dr. Carbonell. The municipalities also had their budget, and in
that budget was included an amount for the payment of teachers, for
the hire of buildings for school purposes, and for their school needs.

Dr. Carroll. Are fees charged the parents under any circum-
stances?

Dr. Carbonell. Fathers who were in a position to do so usually
gave something to the school-teachers, but that was absolutely a
gratuity. There are no fees established by law.

Dr. Carroll. Are the children required to furnish their own school
supplies, such as text-books, paper, pens, ink, etc.?

Dr. Carbonell. It is obligatory on the municipality -to supply
books and all school materials and also the prizes given at the end of
the school year, but they never do so, and frequently the school-
master is obliged to pay for these things out of his own pocket.

Dr. Carroll. Is there a governing board in each municipality for
the schools?

Dr. Carbonell. There is a board of public instruction, of which
the mayor is president.

Dr. Carroll. How large is it, and how is it appointed, and for what
term of years?

Dr. Carbonell. It usually consists of the chief men of the villages,
such as the priests, the doctor, and the lawyer, but there is no special
limit to the number. When one leaves another is appointed.

Dr. Carroll. What are the special duties of this board?

Dr. Carbonell. To attend to the complaints of the teachers of the
children, of the children as against the teachers, or the parents as
against the teachers; to be present at the examinations; attend to the
methods of teaching in the schools (which they do not do), and to
make a report to the secretary of instruction here at the capital (which
they also do not do). There were during the Spanish rule also two
inspectors of education, whose duties required them to travel all over
the island, looking into the general aspect of the schools. They also
had the power of examining any school that they wished to, also the
accounts of the school. These posts have been abolished, and I am
now awaiting orders from the American Government for their reestab-
lishment.

Dr. Carroll. Who selects the buildings where the schools are
held?

Dr. Carbonell. This same board of education which I have re-
ferred to.

Dr. Carroll. What are the hours of the daily sessions of the
school?

Dr. Carbonell. From 8 to 11 and from 2 to 5, and during the hot
season they have diminished the hours of the afternoon session.

Dr. Carroll. How many days in the week?

Dr. Carbonell. Every day except Sunday and feast days.

Dr. Carroll. Are all the feast days excepted?

Dr. Carbonell. At present the only feast days are those recog-
nized by the United States, together with the special feast day of the
patron saint of the town. Formerly all the feast days were observed.
There were 40 of them in the year, the number of which was after-
wards reduced to about 16. There are also the vacations.

Dr. Carroll. What are the vacations?

Dr. Carbonell. The Christmas holidays, extending from the 23d
of December to about the 3d of January; the Easter holidays, holy

619

week from Wednesday to Saturday, the day of resurrection, and fifteen
days in July after the examinations.

Dr. Carroll. Then you have a school year of about eleven months.
In the United States generally the months of July and August are
vacation months, and the term begins in most cities the first Monday
in September and ends the latter part of June, and then there is a holi-
day of about ten days at Christmas. Good Friday also is a holiday;
also Washington's birthday, and" in some cities Lincoln's birthday;
Decoration Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving Day, and there is -no
school on Saturday.

Dr. Carbonell. Professor Harrington, of the weather bureau here,
has promised to give me an exact statement of the days observed as
holidays in the schools of the United States, and I intend to introduce
them here.

Dr. Carroll. In many places in the United States the. contract
with the teachers is for two hundred school days in the year. Are
there no rules respecting the minimum amount of clothing which
children should wear in order for admission to schools?

Dr. Carbonell. No. In some places children go without clothes
absolutely.

Dr. Carroll. Are children of both colors admitted without dis-
tinction?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do many of the colored children attend school?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes. They have colored teachers for both sexes.

Dr. Carroll. Are there separate schools?

Dr. Carbonell. No.

Dr. Carroll. Do parents raise objection to this?

Dr. Carbonell. No; none whatever.

Dr. Carroll. Is there generally one teacher to each school?

Dr. Carbonell. Only one. In the superior schools there is fre-
quently an assistant to the schoolmaster, who is also a graduated
master or teacher.

Dr. Carroll. Are there no woman teachers?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes; both in the superior and elementary schools.

Dr. Carroll. Are they eligible to appointment to any school, male
or female?

Dr. Carbonell. No. The schools for boys have male teachers and
the girls' schools have lady teachers.

Dr. Carroll. What is the curriculum of the primary schools?

Dr. Carbonell. Reading, writing, arithmetic, very much religious
teaching, and history.

Dr. Carroll. Is the religious instruction given by the teacher?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. I notice that the people here are very fine writers.
There must be a great deal of attention given to that.

Dr. Carbonell. Writing has received quite a large amount of
attention in our schools, but I have reduced it, as I regarded it
unnecessary to devote so much attention to handwriting. They used
to give three years to it, but I have changed that to one year.

Dr. Carroll. What is the length of the curriculum in the primary
schools?

Dr. Carbonell. There is no rule about that. Sometimes a child is
in the primary school because it happens to be the school nearest his
home.

Dr. Carroll. Are they promoted from the primary to the secondary
schools?

620

Dr. Carbonell. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What is the range of studies in the secondary schools?

Dr. Carbonell. Arithmetic, algebra up to quadratic equations,
geometry, elementary trigonometry, logarithms, elementary physics
and chemistry, elementary philosophy, general and Spanish history,
which I have changed into the history of the United States,, universal
geography, and Spanish geography, which I have changed to the his-
tor}7 of the United States.

Dr. Carroll. Is it the purpose of the secondary schools to prepare
for the institute and for college?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Does the institute here confer degrees?

Dr. Carbonell. Only the "bachelor" degree, which is the degree
that entitles a person to enter the universities.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a university in the island?

Dr. Carbonell. No ; our students ordinarily go to Spain or France,
sometimes to the United States.

Dr. Carroll. Who prescribes the text-books in use in the primary
and secondary schools?

Dr. Carbonell. Formerly the Captain-General. Now I do so.

Dr. Carroll. What do you include in the higher schools?

Dr. Carbonell. They include the institute and the normal schools.
The normal schools are for the purpose of granting teachers' diplomas,
entitling persons to teach in both elementary and higher schools.

Dr. Carroll. How long a course is prescribed in the normal school?

Dr. Carbonell. Four years.

Dr. Carroll.. What else is taught besides pedagogy?

Dr. Carbonell. Religion and morals, by a priest. But that has
been suppressed. That is a special course; it has a certain code
which forms the basis of instruction and is taught by the priest. A
course in moral philosophy has been substituted. Universal history
and Spanish history have also been included in the course, but I have
changed that to United States history; the same with respect to geog-
raphy, the Spanish language, the English language, covering a term
of four years; also the French and the German languages. It is left
to the pupil to choose between French and German.

Dr. Carroll. Is Greek or Latin taught?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes ; in the institute.

Dr. Carroll. Is this instruction to teachers furnished free?

Dr. Carbonell. They have to pay an entrance fee — $2.50 for each
subject they take up.

Dr. Carroll. They pay their own living expenses?

Dr. Carbonell. They live outside — not in the school.

Dr. Carroll. Do they promise to teach in order to be admitted to
the privileges of the school?

Dr. Carbonell. No; teaching is not required from them. As a
rule, most pupils enter the normal schools with the idea of obtaining
the diploma of the teacher, even if they do not desire to teach.

Dr. Carroll. Where are the normal schools located?

Dr. Carbonell. There are only two, and they are located in San
Juan.

Dr. Carroll. How many pupils obtain diplomas annually, on an
average?

Dr. Carbonell. I can not give that information, as I have been
here only three months.

Dr. Carroll. Do some go to the university to qualify themselves
further?

621

Dr. Carbonell. Formerly teachers went to Spain to obtain the
diploma of normal professor, but some do not. Spaniards come from
Spain with the title already competent to fill the post of professor here.

Dr. Carroll. Is it required that every teacher in the public schools
shall have a diploma?

Dr. Carbonell. That is absolutely required.

Dr. Carroll. Is any subsequent examination held after they begin
their professional life?

Dr. Carbonell. They are never subjected to any direct examina-
tion, except insomuch as the inspection of the schools is an examination
of the teachers at the same time. Spanish tyranny, unfortunately,
under Captain-General Sanz, gave an order for the removal of all
native teachers, male and female, and substituted soldiers and com-
mon women from Spain, about twenty-two years ago, and unhappily
there are three of these women to-day in this city. They have not
resigned, because they have expressed their willingness to swear alle-
giance to the United States.

Dr. Carroll. How are teachers removed?

Dr. Carbonell. In case of complaint against any teacher the
board of education of each village prepares what is called a document,
in which it sets forth the merits of the case, and which goes to the
secretary for final adjudication.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any difficulty in maintaining discipline in
the schools?

Dr. Carbonell. We have no difficulty in that line.

Dr. Carroll. The children are generally docile and very quick to
learn?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes; but generally, and more especially in the
country districts, children attend school very irregularly; sometimes
because of rain and sometimes because their parents keep them at
home to work.

Dr. Carroll. Is there no compulsory law respecting school attend-
ance?

Dr. Carbonell. There is no real compulsory law; that is, the
parents are not fined for not sending their children to school.

Dr. Carroll. Is there accommodation for all the children?

Dr. Carbonell. There would not be if they all went to school.

Dr. Carroll. Are primary and secondary schools opened in the
morning with religious exercises?

Dr. Carbonell. In the primary schools they are opened with
prayer.

Dr. Carroll. A written prayer?

Dr. Carbonell. With "Our Father," "Ave Maria," and the Creed.

Dr. Carroll. How is the religious instruction given — by means of
the catechism?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes; the catechism used was written by Father
Rapilda, in which they have modified the sixth commandment. Instead
of the words "Do not commit adultery," they have "Do not commit an
act opposed to morals."

Dr. Carroll. What is the purpose of it?

Dr. Carbonell. The idea is not to give the children ideas above
their years. Text-books vary here constant^. Sometimes the gov-
ernment sends over a teacher who has written a book, and in order to
give the book a sale an order is made that his book be used. The
professor of Latin in the institute wrote a book which is sold for $4, and
the professor of philosophy the same, and these books had to be used

622

by order of the government. Under my ministry I have recommended
that there should be no text-books at all; that the instruction should
be purely oral, and that the pupils should take notes from the teacher,
leaving the right in the pupil to buy any book he might desire.

Dr. Carroll. Is it your idea that English should be introduced
into all the schools at once?

Dr. Carbonell. Yes. I would like to get permission to adopt the
plan used by the Germans in Alsace-Loraine — that is, to bring here
lady teachers who do not speak a word of Spanish to teach small chil-
dren the English language in the schools. This plan worked very well
in Alsace-Loraine, and I believe it could be successfully employed
here. If I am authorized to do that, I will bring teachers here.

Dr. Carroll. Do your teachers generally understand English?

Dr. Carbonell. They are all learning it now, but few speak it.
Everybody, in fact, is studying English.

Dr. Carroll. It would seem to me that the first desideratum for
the island in the matter of schools would be comfortable buildings,
built purposely for schools, conveniently arranged and well ventilated.

Dr. Carbonell. Our idea has been to build such schoolhouses in
accordance with modern ideas of convenience and sanitation. In
many of the schools here there are no laboratories or closets.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well also that in the normal schools
the teachers should be taught the principles of hygiene?

Dr. Carbonell. We are just about to name some new professors
and I shall include that branch in the two normal schools. I was
president of the Society for the Protection of Intelligence, and we
brought that institution up to« a standard which has never been
approached in the island. We have graduated eminent teachers of
both sexes. We taught according to the methods of the superior
schools qf France, where I myself was educated.

VIEWS OF A TEACHER.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.

Pedro Carlos Timothee, a native of Naguabo, P. R., and edu-
cated in San Juan:

Dr. Carroll. How long have you been a teacher?

Mr. Timothee. Twelve years; in public and private schools.

Dr. Carroll. Are you now in a primary or secondary school?

Mr. Timothee. In a primary school; but besides, I have classes in
secondary work privately.

Dr. Carroll. What is the range of years for children in the pri-
mary schools? At what age do they normally pass into the secondary
classes?

Mr. Timothee. There is no fixed ago, but it is usually about 9 years
of age.

Dr. Carroll. Are the children divided into grades in the primary
schools?

Mr. Timothee. That is a matter which rests with the teacher. The
pupils are usually divided into several sections, according to their
ability, but that is arbitrary. The largest number of sections is three.

Dr. Carroll. What are those three sections?

623

Mr. Timothee. They depend upon the age of the pupil and the
state of the pupil's knowledge.

Dr. Carroll. What studies would you include in the lowest grade?

Mr. Timothee. They study the same in all three, but the quantity
varies.

Dr. Carroll. Then you have no graded system?

Mr. Timothee. IsTo. Teachers in^Porto Rico have not had the lib-
erty of implanting modern methods, because school regulations have
prohibited that altogether.

Dr. Carroll. Why do I find so many teachers imbued with the
idea of progress? Is it that they have got it from books from the
United States or France or other foreign systems, or how?

Mr. Timothee. When they are going through their studies they are
made acquainted with the methods used in foreign countries — it forms
a part of their studies — but when they come to practice they find
themselves so hedged in by arbitrary rules that they have no freedom
to pursue methods which they have learned.

Dr. Carroll. Are the teachers as a class imbued with these pro-
gressive idea's?

Mr. Timothee. The teachers living in the larger towns and those
who have lately completed their studies are all imbued with ideas of
progress, but those who have, been teaching for twenty years or so are
somewhat more conservative and retroactive.

Dr. Carroll. What is the first, most pressing need of the schools
of Porto Rico?

Mr. Timothee. They have many urgent necessities, but the most
important is the creation of kindergartens in every town to prepare
children for elementary education later on.

Dr. Carroll. Do you consider the provision of public buildings
large enough to accommodate all the children of the district, built com-
plete, with all sanitary appliances, an important need?

Mr. Timothee. So urgent do I consider it that for three year si have
been advocating it in the press constantly. I consider also of urgent
importance that the intervention of priests and Sisters of Charity
should cease in the schools, as they do not benefit.

Dr. Carroll. Have they interfered to any considerable degree with
the teaching?

Mr. Timothee. The state having granted them a protection which
it has not granted the school-teacher, they have been a hindrance to
education, because they exercise a great deal of influence over the
women of the country, and that has always been used against the
influence of true education.

Dr. Carroll. Have they been in the habit of coming into the school
and taking up much of the time of the school in catechising the chil-
dren?

Mr. Timothee. As a rule the cure attached to the municipal board
of education in each town used to go to the schools and examine the
children. He was a superior officer as compared with the school-
teacher, and he and the teacher were nearly always in disaccord.

Dr. Carrot.l. Do you consider that religious instruction in the
schools should be discontinued, and that the scholars should be simpty
instructed in morals?

Mr. Timothee. I think that religion should be removed from the
schools altogether, and lessons of pure morals instituted.

Dr. Carroll. I visited recently a school of small boys in Cristo
street, where I saw a collection of moral maxims. Is that collection
strictly moral, or is it also religious?

624

Mr. Timothee. Religion forms a part of some of the maxims.

Dr. Carroll. To an objectionable extent, do you think?

Mr. Timothee. Religion does not enter into them with much weight.

Dr. Carroll. What other urgent needs do you think the public
schools have?

Mr. Timothee. I will name them one by one. In the first place, the
establishment of gymnasiums for the boys to exercise in; (2) the
establishment in the country barrios of schools for girls or mixed
schools, where, up to the present, only schools for boys have been
established; (3) better methods for elementary instruction in draw-
ing; (4) the salaries of the teachers should be in proportion to the
amount of work they have to do — in some schools teachers have as
many as a hundred boys, and yet have no amount allowed them for
assistant teachers, with the result that they have to neglect their
work; (5) the establishment of public libraries by the municipalities;
(6) the establishing of schools for adults in every city and town are
very necessary; (7) the establishment of a school of fine arts; (8) the
establishment of a business school, schools of agriculture and other
technical subjects; (9) while not within the province of the Govern-
ment, perhaps, yet there should be formed in some way an organiza-
tion among the teachers, male and female, so that they can meet and
exchange ideas from time to time; (10) I think it very necessary to
establish here a school for blind and deaf-mutes.

Dr. Carroll. Is there such a school here?

Mr. Timothee. No.

Dr. Carroll. Is there an industrial school here?

Mr. Timothee. No, except in one school, where there is some tech-
nical teaching of agriculture, but it amounts to very little. There is
one school also which makes some pretensions to teach arts and
industries. Formerly there were schools in the departmental prison,
all of which have been closed. It is not only necessary that they
should be reopened, but that schools should be established in the pre-
sidio. The presidio is a prison in which prisoners are completing their
terms as distinguished from a carcel, in which prisoners are confined
temporarily. It would be advisable that the government of the schools
should not be too much centralized ; that municipalities should be able
to legislate on their own school matters and be accountable to the dis-
trict supervisor, and these supervisors to the central committee at the
capital. There were formerly two inspectors of public schools, who,
owing to the bad state of the roads, have not been able to make inspec-
tions of the schools. It would be well that there should be an inspec-
tor in each district or county. There is one other thing I would rec-
ommend, and that is that all teaching should be done by professional
teachers. Teachers of technical subjects were not usually professional
teachers. Laymen do not take the same interest in their work, since
it is not their profession.

Dr. Carroll. What is the tenth item in the second chapter in
the estimates of the provincial deputation, called "Society for the
Protection of Intelligence?"

Mr. Zarate, of the institute. This is a private society to which any-
body may belong by paying a dollar a month, which has for its object
the sending of promising youths to foreign countries for their educa-
tion. The municipality, thinking well of this society, made it a grant
of 1,000 pesos yearly, and there are to-day in Porto Rico manjr men
with professions who owe their education to this worthy and useful
society.

625

EDUCATION ABROAD.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R. , November 4, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any demand in Porto Rico for a university
for the granting of degrees other than the degree of bachelor of arts?
, Mr. Zarate. I think Porto Rico is too small to support a univer-
sity. As a private individual I should be delighted to see one estab-
lished here, so that my son could be educated without being separated
from me.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think young men will go to the United States
for their education in science, medicine, and other professions?

Mr. Zarate. It is natural that they should go there; for one reason,
that the United States is so much nearer than Europe, and because
to-day the greater number of our doctors and engineers hold their
diplomas from institutions in the United States.

SCHOOLS AND BAD ROADS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arecibo, P. R., January 14, 1899.
Mr. Adolf Bahr and Mr. Bernardo Huicy, members of the
municipal council of Arecibo :

Mr. Huicy. As regards public instruction, owing to the bad state
of our roads and the difficulties which children have in reaching
schools situated at some distance from where they live, it is not pos-
sible to extend the benefits of public instruction to all the people. It
would also be impossible for us to undertake to bring children into
the centers to educate them, because we would then have to provide
them with necessary subsistence, and we have not funds sufficient so
to do. It would be well if the United States should arrange some
plan by which the present state of things in our interior districts
could be bettered as regards education. It may be said that only 14
per cent of Porto Ricans can read and write.

Dr. Carroll. How many schools are there in this, municipal dis-
trict outside of Arecibo proper?

Mr. Huicy. Mne.

Dr. Carroll. Are they pretty widely distributed, so as to afford
accommodation to most of the children?

Mr. Bahr. They are very badly distributed. Our barrios are
sometimes very extensive. In a barrio there is only one school,which
makes long distances for the children to go to school, and for that
reason some children are forbidden to go at all. In some cases
fathers, without excuse, do not send their children to school, and I
think there should be a law making attendance in such cases com-
pulsory.

Dr. Carroll. How would it do to provide stages in these sparsely
settled districts to take the children to school in the morning and
home at night?

Mr. Bahr. I think we could do it in a different way. Instead of

one school establish five schools, and instead of placing in them what

are called here professors have young ladies, who, for a small salary,

say, $20 or $30, would live among these people and be able to teach

1125 40

626

at least reading and writing and the rudiments of arithmetic. That
would he easier for the children, because they would have the school
nearer, and easier for the teachers as well. It is a question of dis-
tribution. Until now the government has required that our teachers
should be persons with titles. That should not be obligatory; all we
need is to get a person who knows enough to teach the elementary
subjects.

Dr. Carroll. How many would you have instead of nine?

Mr. Bahr. We could have thirty.

Mr. Huicv. We understand that perfectly; but twenty-five schools
means a large additional expense, and, although we have the wish,
we haven't the means.

HOW TO IMPROVE THE SCHOOLS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arecibo, P. R., January H, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What is your opinion as to the best way to improve
the system of education?

Dr. Curbelo (a physician). It is, first, to oblige all the schools of
the town to be in one building, instead of having several school build-
ings, as they have here, where it is impossible to inspect and control
the attendance of children. I think there should be one building for
boys and one for girls. That would make it possible to keep track of
pupils better. I think that teachers for the schools should be brought
from the United States.

Dr. Carroll. That would do, perhaps, for a compact city like
Arecibo, but for Ponce I should think there would have to be more
schools. Would you have buildings made expressly for schools?

Dr. Curbelo. Yes, that ought to be done.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that that is about the first step to be
taken.

Dr. Curbelo. They should begin at once to teach English in the
schools.

Dr. Carroll. There are plenty of teachers in the States who would
be glad to come down here and introduce the system they have there
of teaching. It seems desirable, does it not, that there should be
established more than one normal school for the training of teachers?

Dr. Curbelo. I think one would be sufficient in this city.

Dr. Carroll. Yes, but there is at present only one in the island, I
understand.

Dr. Curbelo. That was not really a normal school, although they
called it a normal school, because if the pupils were friends of the
professors they would get their titles whether they knew anything
or not.

Dr. Carroll. Could that be said also of the collegiate institute?

Dr. Curbelo. It could be said of any school with a Spanish teacher,
because it can be readily understood that a teacher with a high degree
of proficiency would not come to this country, leave his position in
Spain, and expose himself to the dangers of this climate for the poor
recompense that is offered. Moreover, they are as backward in the
art of teaching in Spain as they are here.

Dr. Carroll. A great many have spoken in favor of a compulsory
system of education to compel parents to send their children to school.
According to representations made here, a great many people are too

627

poor to buy clothing for their children, and how in such a case could
they send them to school, and how could they get along without the
wages which those children earn after they become 8 years of age?

Dr. Curbelo. You must distinguish between education in the city
and education in the country districts — two things quite different. In
the city everybody, even if he has not sufficient to give his children
proper food, has at least enough to clothe them sufficiently well to
send them to school. These little children, 7 or 8 years of age, whom
you see on the streets selling dulces, should not be allowed to do that
at the expense of their education, but the old people should be granted
concession to sell, and the children sent to school. The poor people,
instead of asking for charity, should be selling these dulces.

Dr. Carroll. What would you do with the blind and infirm?
Would there not have to be houses for them?

Dr. Curbelo. These classes of people do not like to go into houses
of charity. They prefer to live with their relatives and to indulge in
vices which they can cover up in that way.

Dr. Carroll. Are there asylums here for orphans, for the aged and
infirm, for the blind and the crippled?

Dr. Curbelo. There are two houses of that description in the island ;
and with regard to orphans, you must take into account that this is a
kindly disposed people. When a parent dies and leaves orphaned
children, there are always some who are ready to take the children
under their care. As regards instruction in the country, that is a
problem for which I can find no solution. They live so separate, one
from another, that I do not see any way of getting them to school.

Dr. Carroll. A proprietor in San Juan told me that one of the
troubles of the peons was that they were addicted to certain vices,
largely due to their lack of intelligence. He said that one of these
was gambling; that whatever the peons may have left Saturday night,
they are in the habit of gambling away, and that they have certain
vices which he believed could be cured together with these. If he is
right in that, it becomes an important question how the children can
be educated.

Mr. Alfred Solomon. If you can prevail upon the owners of
estates to make the peons live on the estates, and not employ those
who have to walk 3 or 4 miles to work, the owners would lose noth-
ing, and the peons would become more sociable and form nuclei of
small villages, in which schools can be gradually established. If a
few owners at a time could be induced to undertake this system,
others would follow.

Dr. Curbelo. There is such a system in Lares, where they have a
school.

Dr. Carroll. Does it work well there?

Dr. Curbelo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What estate is that?

Dr. Curbelo. The owner's name is Arana.

PRIMARY EDUCATION AND MORAL INSTRUCTION.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P.' R., January 18, 1899.
Mr. Lucas Amadeo. Now as to the subject of education and instruc-
tion. Really I have nothing to say about that, because the Ameri-
cans are past masters in education, and are the creators of great

628

educational plans. Not being a master mind, I will leave the technical
part to those who understand it better, but I would insist on the fur-
ther diffusion of elementary instruction — I mean by that primary
education and moral education — showing the child what his rights are
and what his obligations are; also elements of rural and political and
agricultural economy. That would be my plan for the primary edu-
cation of this country, because it is suitable to the conditions exist-
ing here. The fault of our system of secondary education is that it
produces a horde of so-called writers, who use it for no better purpose
than to consume ink. They are realty a plague to society. They
obtain a superficial knowledge of everything, but not a sufficient
knowledge of anything to earn a living. They take to politics and
writing as a means of earning a livelihood and become a nuisance to
the country; therefore we have a small army of politicians here whom
we would be pleased to lend to any country that wants them. I
would take measures to stop the further creation of these dainty lite-
rateurs, and turn education in the direction of useful arts. This
country is more in need of men who know some trade.

Dr. Carroll. That is becoming, more and more the difficulty in the
United States. Those who become educated desire to go into what
they regard as the dignified professions and leave the trades.

Mr. Amadeo. Instruction must be modified. That is the Qnly remedy.

Dr. Carroll. We have industrial schools, and we are teaching
more and more various arts and industries.

Mr. Amadeo. Make the term of the course from the liberal profes-
sions a harder one, so as to limit the output of professional men.

Dr. Carroll. We are doing that.

Mr. Amadeo. Bachelor's degrees have been conferred on men here
who did not know how to write a letter.

SUPERFICIAL CHARACTER OF INSTRUCTION.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Mayaguez, P. R., January 23, 1899.

The commissioner visited a school for young girls in the Mendez-
vigo street. A lady teacher was in charge of the school, who stated
that she had 130 pupils, with one assistant teacher paid by the munic-
ipality, and two other assistants, one of them her sister, whose remu-
neration she attends to herself; that there are two departments, the
primary and the superior; that the school was intended to be a supe-
rior school, but as there were comparatively few scholars application
was made to the board, which directed that children should not be
kept out on account of grade, so there are two grades in the school;
that there are 96 poor children. The others pay "for their tuition.

The Teacher. By the 96 poor children .1 mean those who come in
by ticket from the municipality. Some of the others are poor, but
were unable to get the ticket from the municipality, but I have let
them come in anyway. It is a public school, but before children can
be entered in it they have to go through certain forms, such as get-
ting the cure's signature, and as it was very difficult, and permission
was sometimes refused, I have taken some without that formality.

Dr. Carroll. Then it is not a free school?

The Teacher. They still have to go through the same steps to get in.

629

Dr. Carroll. The secretary of fomento in San Juan told me that
the schools were free ; that no fees were charged to scholars.

The Teacher. We have authority to take pay pupils. I have to
pay $60 for this house, and the municipality only gives me $40 and
some odd cents for the rent.

Dr. Carroll.' Then you apply some of the money you receive from
the pupils to the expenses?

The Teacher. Yes ; and also for the purchasing of materials which
the poor can not buy. As regards school furniture, we are completely
unprovided with it. For several years we have been trying to get it,
and they have been asking for numerous lists of what is needed, but
it has all ended there.

Dr. Carroll. Are other schools similarly situated?

The Teacher. It is the same in all the schools. I have to spend
some money from my salary on school furniture, and I have told nry
sister that we can not go on in this way, as we will not have enough
left out of the salary to live on.

Dr. Carroll. How many months of school do you have in the year?

The Teacher. There are fifteen days' vacation twice a year.

Dr. Carroll. Then you teach every month in the year?

The Teacher. Yes. From 8 to 11 in the morning, and from 1 to 4
on every day in the week except Sunday.

Dr. Carroll. What do you teach, besides sewing, to the children in
the superior department of the school?

The Teacher. General and sacred history, grammar, arithmetic,
geography, universal history, geometry, health, natural history, and
drawing.

Dr. Carroll. I should be glad if you would ask them simple ques-
tions in geography.

The teacher called upon a class of 15 girls of the superior grade
and questioned them one after the other as follows:

The Teacher. Into how many parts is the terrestrial globe divided?

Answer. Five parts — the five continents.

The Teacher. Into what is geography divided?

Answer. Into astronomical, physical, and political.

The Teacher. What is the universe?

Answer. The conjunction of bodies which forms infinite space.

The Teacher. What do you understand by a star?

Answer. Every one of the luminous points we see in the firmament.

The Teacher. What are these stars divided into?
• Answer. Into fixed and moving stars.

The Teacher. What do you understand by fixed stars?

Answer. Those that have their own light and which appear to be always
stationary.

The Teacher. Can you give me the name of any of the fixed stars?

Answer. The sun.

The Teacher. What do you call the sun with all its stars and other satellites?

Answer. The solar system.

The Teacher. Can you tell me the number of stars.

Answer. It is unknown. To the unaided eye more than 5,000 are visible, but
to the telescope more than 100,000,000 are known.

The Teacher. How are the fixed stars divided?

Answer. Into sixteen magnitudes. *

The Teacher. Of these sixteen magnitudes how many are visible to the sight?

Answer. Up to the seventh magnitude.

The Teacher. How many are visible to the telescope?

Answer. The rest of them.

The commissioner here asked the privilege of putting what he regarded as sim-
ple questions in geography to the class.

Dr. Carroll. Where is Germany?

Answer. In Europe. v

630

Dr. Carroll. What is the capital of Germany?

Answer. Berlin. (The girl who answered was prompted by the one next to her. )

Dr. Carroll. Where is Spain?

Answer. In Europe.

Dr. Carroll. What is the capital of Spain?

Answer. Madrid.

Dr. Carroll. Where is Italy?

Answer. In Europe.

Dr. Carroll. What is the capital of Italy?

Answer. Rome.

Dr. Carroll. Where is the United States?

The Teacher. The study of the United States belongs to a course which has
not been taken yet. They have only studied the astronomical part of geography
and Europe.

Dr. Carroll. Where is Turkey?

Answer. In Europe.

Dr. Carroll. What is the capital of Turkey?

Answer. Constantinople.

Dr. Carroll. Where is the capital of Turkey situated?

(Question not answered.)

Dr. Carroll. Where is Austria?

Answer. In central Europe.

Dr. Carroll. What country is on the north of Austria?

Answer. Germany.

Dr. Carroll. What is on the south of Austria?

Answer. Italy.

Dr. Carroll. Where is Porto Rico?

(No answer.)

Dr. Carroll. Is Porto Rico in Europe?

(No answer. )

Dr. Carroll. What country is north of Porto Rico?

(No answer. )

Dr. Carroll. What country is south of Porto Rico?

(No answer.)

Dr. Carroll. What is Porto Rico?

Answer. An island.

Dr. Carroll. What is Porto Rico surrounded by?

Answer. The Atlantic Ocean. •

Dr. Carroll. Is it surrounded on all sides by the Atlantic Ocean?

(No answer.)

Dr. Carroll. Where is Cuba?

(No answer.)

Dr. Carroll. Is it east or west of Porto Rico?

(No answer.)

Dr. Carroll. To what country does Porto Rico belong?

(One little girl said New York, but others answered correctly.)

Dr. Carroll. To what country did Porto Rico belong last year?

Answer. Spain.

Dr. Carroll. Will the teacher please ask a few questions in arith-
metic? Tell the girls not to be afraid. I am not here to criticise
them, but to ask them a few questions with a sympathetic interest in
them.

The Teacher. How do you reduce numbers to their prime factors?

Answer. To reduce a number to its prime factors, you divide the given number
by one of its simple divisors. The quotient thus obtained is divided again by one
of the primary divisors. This is continued until a primary quotient results, which
is divided by itself.

The Teacher. Take 98, for example. By what would you divide it to get the
prime factors?

Answer. By two.

The Teacher. Why by two?

Answer. Because it terminates in an even number.

The Teacher. That gives what result?

Answer. 49.

The Teacher. And then you divide by what?

Answer. By 7 and then by 7 again.

631

The Teacher. Now 36. By what do you divide that?

Answer. First by 2, then by 2, then by 9.

The Teacher. How do yon find the greatest common divisor by means of the
decomposition into simple factors?

Answer. After dividing the number into its common factors, the sum of all the
common factors is taken.

The Teacher. What is the common factor there [referring to the prime factors
of 98 and 36]?

Answer. Two.

The Teacher. Which is the greatest common factor?

Answer. Two.

The Teacher. I have $20. Some poor people come to us, among whom we
divide $8£ . What amotmt remains of the $20?

(This example was worked out on the board, the 20 and 8f being reduced to
fractions with common denominators, subtracted in that form, and the result
changed to a mixed number. )

Dr. Carroll. I want to ask a few questions in simple addition, and would like
to have the pupils answer them quickly. How much is 5 and 5; 15 and 12; 13 and
13; 27 and 27; 30 and 19; 3 and 12; 19 and 6; 18 and 17?

(Correct answers were given, but not as rapidly as is usual with pupils who have
been well trained in mental arithmetic.)

THE SCHOOLS OF MAYAGUEZ.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Mayaguez, P. R. , January 24, 1899.
• Dr. Carroll. What municipal moneys have been expended the
past year for schools in this municipal district?

Secretary Balsac. Twenty-three thousand dollars, approximately.

Dr. Carroll. How is that amount divided? How much for teachers?

Secretary Balsac. Sixteen thousand dollars, and $7,000 for rents,
books, materials, and other supplies.

Dr. Carroll. How many schools are there in the city itself?

Secretary Balsac. Seven.

Dr. Carroll. How many are there in the municipal district?

Secretary Balsac. Twenty-four.

Dr. Carroll. How many teachers are employed in these schools?

Secretary Balsac. There are 24 professors — 1 for each school — and
5 assistants, making 29 in all.

Dr. Carroll. They receive, then, on an average, $551 a year for
each teacher. Some get more than that, do they not?

Secretary Balsac. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What is the minimum salary?

Secretary Balsac. The minimum salary is $300. Such low salaries
are paid usually to rural teachers.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any arrears of payment of teachers in this
district?

Mr. St. Laurent. ISTo.

Dr. Carroll. How many days are usually occupied by the scholars
in a year?

Secretary Balsac. The whole year, with the exception of two periods,
one after the examinations in August of about twenty days, and one
after New Year's of an equal length, and the 52 Sundays. During
the warm season the sessions are only held during the morning.

Dr. Carroll. Are any fees collected of parents?

Mr. St. Laurent. All who can do so pay.

Dr. Carroll. Is that- collected by the teachers?

632

Mr. St. Laurent. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is the professor in such cases required to report the
amount collected?

Mr. St. Laurent. No.

Dr. Carroll. Is the professor allowed to expend that nionej- as he
sees fit?

Mr. St. Laurent. Yes; absolutely. It is his own property. The
money they receive from the municipality is supposed to be for the
teaching of poor children only.

Dr. Carroll. Then it is only regarded as part salary?

Mr. St. Laurent. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be well, in your opinion, that the schools
should receive much larger appropriations and that all this should be
abolished?

Mr. St. Laurent. I think that should be done.

Dr. Carroll. Is it your opinion that it would be well to have sep-
arate buildings for the schools, built purposely to have the natural
conveniences that schools have in the United States and elsewhere?

Mr. St. Laurent. I think so. We have building lots for that pur-
pose, but not having funds we have been unable to construct them.
We think the number of school buildings should be diminished and
the schools centralized in a few buildings.

Dr. Carroll. Does the school board exercise any jurisdiction over
the employment of teachers?

Mr. St. Laurent. No; the council does.

Dr. Carroll. Does the council have the right to employ and dis-
charge teachers, or does it simply have the right to nominate to the
secretary of fomento?

Mr. St. Laurent. It simply nominates.

Dr. Carroll. Ought there not to be a school board in every city,
who should have entire control of all these matters, without the
necessity of applying to the secretary of fomento for permission to
employ or discharge teachers?

Mr. St. Laurent. Yes; there should be. As Mayaguez was taken
bj^ the Americans before the capital, we took advantage of that to
name our own teachers, because we had Spanish teachers we did not
want. The secretary of fomento subsequently confirmed these.

Dr. Carroll. Should there be in every municipal district a super-
intendent of instruction, whose business it should be to visit con-
stantly the schools in each district to see that the school laws are
applied; that proper instruction is given the children, and proper
facilities ; and to supervise in a general way the duties of the teachers
and the conduct of the teachers?

Mr. St. Laurent. Yes. I consider that a very correct measure to
take, and we have already considered the matter among ourselves.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think it would be well that proper facilities
should be afforded for the instruction of children; that it should be
made obligatory for them to attend a minimum number of dajTs every
school year?

Mr. St. Laurent. That is the law already, but you have to take
into account that the peasants live so isolated that it is quite impos-
sible to make them conform to the regulations.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose the rural schools for that reason are not
kept open as many days in the year as the city schools.

Mr. St. Laurent. That is probably the case. The schools are open
every day, but they don't have a full attendance.

633

VISIT TO ANOTHER SCHOOL.

Mayaguez, P. R., January &£, 1899.

The commissioner visited an elementary school for girls, called the
School of the Divine Providence. The ages of the pupils ranged from
6 to 14 years.

Dr. Carroll. We visited a superior school yesterday, but it also
had primary scholars. Why are these two schools so close together?

The Teacher. The reason this is so near is that the other is a
superior, while this is an elementary school. The pupils from this
school pass to the other.

Dr. Carroll. But the other has more elementary scholars than
superior scholars.

The Teacher. In my opinion it is a very bad arrangement. The
elementary scholars ought to come here first. Any elementary pupil
can get into this school if she has the necessary ticket from the alcalde.
This ticket gives the name of the scholar, her address, etc.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any fee charged here?

The Teacher. Not in this school, but there is in the school you
visited yesterday.

Dr. Carroll. What is the reason for the distinction?

The Teacher. Wealthy persons generally send their children there
and pay for their tuition. I sometimes have children of wealthy
parents who pay.

Dr. Carroll. Do they pay at their own option, or do they receive
additional facilities for their children?

The Teacher. None at all. The reason that some parents send
their children and pay for their instruction is that they don't care to
have their children mingle with children of color.

Dr. Carroll. Where were you educated?

The Teacher. I was born in Italy, but was educated here.

Dr. Carroll. Have you been in the normal school in the capital?

The Teacher. Yes. My diploma is that of the superior school. I
have taught school fifteen years.

Dr. Carroll. What do you teach the smallest of these children?

The Teacher. The alphabet; how to write figures and syllables.
We are in absolute need of all kinds of supplies.

Dr. Carroll. Will you give the pupils an exercise in reading?

The reading lesson was given from a small primer. In the course
of the reading lesson the word " arbolus" occurred, and the commis-
sioner asked the little girl who read it what its meaning is. She was
unable to answer. The commissioner interrupted another of the
pupils to ask the meaning of the word " cinco " and was told in reply
that it meant " cinco pesos." A similar question was put by the com-
missioner as to the word " canario," and he was told correctly that it
was a bird, and a further question as to its color was answered cor-
rectly.

The school consisted of 18 very small children, whose average age
was perhaps 7, and 26 larger ones, whose average age was somewhat
higher. The room in which the school was held was square and about
15 feet long, its ceiling about 10 feet high. The older children are
taught doctrine, aud when the commissioner inquired regarding this
study the teacher said that she was at a loss to know whether the
study was obligatory or not. The further exercise was conducted as
follows :

The Teacher. What is a verb?
Answer. A word which denotes action.

634

The Teacher. What are the stages of the verb?

Answer. Five — voice, mode, tense, number, and person.

The Teacher. What is meant by the voice of a verb?

Answer. There are two voices, active and passive. One denotes action and one
denotes being acted upon. In Spanish there is no passive voice.

The Teacher. What is mode?

Answer. The general manner in which the classification of verbs is expressed.

The Teacher. What is conjugation? Give to the verbs their designations and
the changes which they undergo.

Answer. We have three conjugations in Spanish, which are: the first terminat-
ing in ar, the second in er, and the third in ir.

The commissioner pointed to a sentence in the primer and asked
one of the pupils to indicate a verb. The article "el" was pointed
out. On asking a second pupil the adverb "pronto" was pointed
out. A third pupil was then asked to point out a noun, which was
done correctly. The commissioner then asked that a vowel be indi-
cated, which was also correctly done. In like manner an adjective
was correctly pointed out. Still another of the pupils was asked to
point out a preposition in the sentence, "I have put a basket of
apples on the table." She answered, "a basket of apples." Another
pupil answered the question correctly. A sentence was pointed out
by the Commissioner commencing with the words ' ' la nina " and he
asked that a noun be pointed out. One of the pupils answered that
the noun was la nina. When further asked which of the two words
"la" and "nina" was the noun, she replied "la."

Dr. Carroll. Do you drill the pupils in the parts of speech with
a view to teaching them the value of verbs, adjectives, etc.?

The Teacher. Yes; but in the fifteen years I have never become
accustomed to visitors, and always get nervous, and my nervousness
seems to be transmitted to the pupils.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that perfectly. I have very seldom
known teachers who did not get a little nervous when visitors came
in, for fear the pupils would not do as well as they desired them to.
If I had any criticism to make, it would be the criticism I have to make
on all schools in the island — that is, too much attention is given to
theoretical education and too little to the practical.

The Teacher. The first misfortune of our schools is that the school-
teacher is treated without any consideration. They have no moral
power with the pupils.

Dr. Carroll. Have they any power over the pupils to discipline
them?

The Teacher. None at all. If I should impose any punishment on
a child, the father would go at once to the ayuntamiento and I would
very promptly receive a document from that body about it. The
child would know all about that and I lose all influence over the child.
That is what always happens.

Dr. Carroll. What do you do with incorrigible children?

The Teacher. I write the parents not to send them. I really have
no power to do that, but I do it.

Dr. Carroll. Who has power to do that?

The Teacher. The junta (school board).

Dr. Carroll. Does the board ever exercise it?

The Teacher. However, I can not complain. The girls here are
very good girls.

635

FAVORITISM.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cabo Rojo, P. R., January 27, 1899.

Mr. Rodrigo Ramirez (a clerk in a business house). Education is
completely abandoned here. Most of the teachers have no titles.
We want titled school-teachers.

Mr. Pagan. As a member of the board of instruction, I wish to rec-
tify that statement. Two of the schools having become vacant, the
board of education, by virtue of the powers conferred upon it, nomi-
nated two persons whom they considered competent to fill the places
until the minister of instruction should open the examination for two
teachers to be sent from the capital.

Mr. Ramirez. This gentleman [pointing to a person who was pres-
ent at the hearing], who possesses a title, has tried to get a school for
quite a long while, but without success. They have given it to a man
who had no title. The gentleman to whom the school has been given
is a relative of the alcalde, and that is the reason it was given to him.
This gentleman has a title and is in a better position to fill the place.

(The teacher who had been referred to said : ' ' For forty- two years
I have had a title, and they won't give me a school.")

Mr. Ramirez. Mr. Pagan is also a relative of the alcalde.

Mr. Pagan. Although I am a relative of the alcalde, that does not
prevent me from speaking the truth. I am a member of the board of
education, and I have no knowledge that this gentleman (the teacher
previously referred to in the hearing) ever applied for a school. The
clerk just now informs me that his petition was put in a few days ago
and immediately sent to the capital for action.

The Teacher. I have here a receipt of a petition dated January
4, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. When were these places filled by substitutes?

Mr. Pagan. Three or four months ago.

Dr. Carroll. When did this gentleman make application for a
school?

The Teacher. The 4th of January.

A Second TeacHer present. I had a school temporarily, but they
took it from me and put in a person who has no title at alb

Dr. Carroll. What was the reason for the change?

Mr. Pagan. The law exacts that a teacher shall have a knowledge
of universal geography, and in spite of this gentleman's title we did
not consider that he had a sufficient knowledge. The gentleman we
put in his place has a title of "bachelor," though not a schoolmaster's
title, and we considered him better fitted to fill the position.

Dr. Carroll. Is the present teacher a native of this place?

Mr. Pagan. Both gentlemen are.

The Second Teacher. Although I may not have the capacity which
this gentleman says I have not, I have opened a private school and
have 57 pupils of the best families of the town. Having been so
many years a school-teacher and possessing the proper title, to be
removed from my position and replaced by a mere boy without titles
of the profession is a proof that there has been favoritism and per-
sonal considerations in the matter.

Mr. Ramirez. I would like to take you around from house to house
to prove that every position given here has been given by a clique.

636

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask Mr. Pagan if these applications
have been sent to the minister of instruction for approval?

The Second Teacher. I asked for the position of schoolmaster,
and the council gave it to me, but the board of education turned me
down for personal reasons. The former teacher was a Spaniard, and
I was put in as an interim instructor.

EDUCATION FOR GIRLS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Fajardo, P. R., January 31, 1899.

Mr. George Bird (ex-consul of the United States at Fajardo). I
think that the schools in Porto Rico ought to educate the women. The
reason Porto Rico is so far behind is that native women from the
country have not been educated, and of course have not had impressed
upon them the necessity of giving education to their children. I think
the rural schools should be served by women instead of men. The
people in the rural districts live scattered in the mountains, and there
will have to be small schools at frequent intervals which will accommo-
date the few children. You can get women to work for a smaller sum
than men, and women can take both sexes, whereas parents will not
send their girls to school and trust them to male teachers.

Dr. Carroll. How much would they require?

Mr. Bird. I think if you teach them only elementary subjects — arith-
metic, geography, and grammar — you could get women in the island
who would do it for $15 or $20 a month.

Dr. Carroll. What do you pay male teachers?

Mr. Bird. Twenty-five dollars. For that amount you can not get
a competent man, and that is why the schools do not give any result.
Not receiving much salary, the teachers could be allowed to live in the
schoolhouses.

Dr. Carroll. Don't you think that the first thing in order to put
the schools on a proper foundation is to provide proper buildings for
them?

Mr. Bird. Yes, in the cities; but in the country it is not possible,
because the rural population is scattered.

Dr. Carroll. But you will have to have some place for the chil-
dren, and while you won't have such a costly one as in the town, you
ought to have public buildings for your public schools. I think that
is a fundamental principle.

A SCHOOL IN ARROYO.

The commissioner attended a session of the Collegio de San Ber-
nardo, a public school in Arroyo, February 3, 1899. The principal
teacher of the school, Mr. Henry Huyke, conducted exercises in geogra-
phy, grammar, and arithmetic.

The first exercise was one in geography. He drew a rough outline
of the northern coast of South America, and questioned the children,
all of whom were boys ranging in age from 8 to 15, as to the geo-
graphical features of the continent of South America. The questions,
all of which were asked and answered in the English lano-ua^e, called

637 •

for the capes, rivers, political divisions, location of countries and cities
relatively to each other, comparative sizes of the countries, etc. The
teacher then extended the map, adding Cuba, Porto Rico, and a gen-
eral outline of the United States. Questions were asked about Porto
Rico, its capital, and principal productions, and then about Cuba in
like manner. The names of the States of the Union were then given
by groups, together with the names of their capitals and their loca-
tions, the names of the principal cities, which were stated to be New
York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, and Buffalo, and their
locations, respectively. Boundaries of various States were given
rapidly, as called for, and one boy stepped to the blackboard on which
was drawn the map used in the exercise, and, beginning with the
capes on the coast of Maine, named all the capes on the coast line of
the United States, indicating with a chalk mark the location of each
and naming, at the same time, the State on whose coast the cape was
located. The book used in teaching geography was prepared by Pro-
fessor Huyke himself, in three parts, written in Spanish and English
and used by the professor in manuscript.

An exercise in arithmetic and grammar then followed. Professor
Huyke wrote upon the blackboard the following:

I has buy 37^ quintals of sugar in $149. What ist the price of 54| quintals?

The professor asked if the sentence as written was correct gram-
matically. He was promptly told by one of the boys thatNit was
incorrect. Another boy stepped to the board and changed "has" to
' ' have " and stated the reason for the change ; another stated the
principal parts of the verb "to have," told what kind of a verb it is,
and explained the use of auxiliary verbs. It was then asked whether,
with the change made, the sentence was correct. A chorus of voices
said no, and the word "buy" was changed to "bought" and the rea-
son for the correction stated. The word " at" was then substituted
for "in" and the word "is" for "ist," and reasons given in like
manner. The principal parts of a large number of verbs were then
called for in rapid succession, and were correctly given. An exercise
then followed showing that all the boys had been thoroughly trained
in the use of nouns. Many nouns were named and parsed and gram-
matical rules stated with facility. An exercise was given in the for-
mation of plurals of nouns by means of the blackboard. General
rules were called for as to various classes of nouns and illustrated by
examples. Exceptions to the general rule for the formation of plurals
were written by the professor on the blackboard in such a way as to
make it appear that they followed the rule; these, such as "man,"
which was written "mans;" "goose," which was written "gooses;"
"mouse," which was written "mouses;" and "penny," which was writ-
ten "pennys," were promptly corrected and stated to be exceptions.
An exercise followed in the use of the indefinite article, distinguish-
ing between cases where the article "a" should be used, and when
"an" should be used. Reasons were given for the use of " a " before
"knife," "an" before "hour," "a" before "useful," and numerous
other illustrations.

The example in arithmetic was then solved by the boys in four dif-
ferent ways on slates, and correct answers very promptly given.

The entire exercise given before the commissioner was characterized
by great eagerness on the part of the boys to answer questions, and
when given an opportunity responded with evident pride and satis-
faction in their knowledge of the subject at hand and their ability to
tell about it, and all about it, in the English language.

638

MORE SCHOOLS NEEDED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

COAMO, P. R., February 6', 1899.

Mr. Herminio Santella. The number of schools here is very insuf-
ficient. This is not only true of Coamo, hut of the whole island.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to have you speak for Coamo only.

Mr. Santella. In this district of from 12,000 to 14,000 people there
is only one school for girls, and in the town only one for boys. I
think mixed schools should be established, to be taught indiscrim-
inately by male or female teachers. The town is too poor to attend
to this matter and will not be able to charge its budget with the nec-
essary amount to keep up the schools. I think, therefore, the gov-
ernment should intervene in the matter. It would be advisable to
have here a male and a female teacher for the teaching of English,
in order that the language may be more widely spoken. Since the
Americans took possession of this town, I and several friends have
gotten together to try to bring here an English teacher, but have not
been able to get one. The school where I teach I have an attendance
of 80 pupils a day. We have only 10 square varas in which to seat
the pupils. All of our buildings where we have schools are deficient
in hygienic conditions. It would be advisable to have only one school
building in the town at which two or three hundred children could
attend, and have the classes taught by several professors or lady
teachers, instead of having several small schools.

Dr. Carroll. I think these school matters will very shortly be
attended to. You won't be able to get all the reforms you want all
at once, but they will come very soon and in a gradual way.

EDUCATION AND MORALS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., February 9, 1899.
Rev. A. J. McKim (agent of the American Bible Society). In meet-
ing the difficuties which surround the education of the children and
the moral education of the people, we are constantly met with denials
of their immorality and assertions of a comparatively elevated con-
dition in the capital. That is certainly true if reference is made
only to the wealthy classes, but it was the poor to whom our Saviour
preached the gospel, and our laws are made to protect and develop
the resources of the poor, since the rich are well able to care for
themselves. School facilities are scarcely adequate for a population
so large as that of San Juan. The conveniences for education are
extremely limited, no suitable houses having been provided, but only
tenement houses being adapted to this purpose. Since the coming of
General Eaton the schools have taken on a new life, and on the 6th of
February, with American flags, they assembled in the principal square
of the city to swear allegiance to our country. Let us hope that they
may in due time be prepared to appreciate the value and dignity of
American citizenship.

639

POOR PAY FOR TEACHERS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 3, 1899.
Juan Cuevas Aboy (a school-teacher for eighteen years). School-
masters are badly paid here. I earn $60 and house rent. This bad pay-
ment of the schoolmasters causes them to be looked on as social infe-
riors. The}^ do not hold the social position they should. Any other
employment is thought more of than that of the schoolmaster. They
have to teach from 50 to 60 children, which is too many for one man.
We wish to have the number of pupils limited by law, as in the United
States. It is also very necessary that education shall be gratuitous
and obligatory. In short, we wish the status of the schoolmaster to
be improved, and in that way the Government can improve the status
of the citizen. We were not paid for month before last until the 14th
of last month, and up to the present we have not been paid for the
month of February. Out of the $60 I receive I have to pay an assist-
ant 115 a month.

RURAL SCHOOLS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 2, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose the schools are about equally divided
between boys and girls?

Mr. Rosich. They are very unequally divided. A great defect is
that in all the rural districts there are no schools for girls.

Dr. Carroll. Are there no girls that want to be educated?

Mr. Rosich. That is where the great defect is. There are fourteen
rural schools, but none for girls. This year we have started three
girls' schools as against fourteen boys' schools.

The Secretary. The difficulty is with' the teachers. The low
salaries do not admit of a lady teacher going out, because if she is
single she has to take her family and live out there, whereas a man
can go alone.

Dr. Carroll. What is the salarj^ paid a lady teacher in the country?

Mr. Rosich. Twenty-five pesos a month, and 6 pesos for a house,
and a peso or a peso and a half for office expenses.

Dr. Carroll. That is very small, is it not?

Mr. Rosich. It is hard to see how they can live at all on that amount.
The rural teachers have not the same sources of income as the town
teachers have. The town teachers get fees from rich people, but in
the rural districts there are no rich people.

Dr. Carroll. Is it against the law or custom for men to teach girls?

Mr. Rosich. So much so that it would be very severely criticised.
The law of public instruction contains a statement to the effect that
it is not allowed ; but nothing is thought of a professor going to a
house and giving private lessons.

Dr. Carroll. You have only one school building, I believe, that
the city owns.

Mr. Rosich. One, and one being constructed.

Dr. Carroll. Is the one you have a large one?

Mr. Rosich. Yes.

640

Dr. Carroll. Is the whole of it occupied for school purposes
exclusively?

Mr. RosiCH. The teacher lives there.

Dr. Carroll. How many superior schools have you?

Mr. Rosich. One for each sex.

Dr. Carroll. You have no normal school?

Mr. Rosich. No.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any superior classes in some of the other
schools?

Mr. Rosich. Only in the private schools. The system of superior
instruction has not given results here, and the press and the public
are always crying out for its abolition.

The Secretary. The poor people only want a mere elementary
education for their children, and then want to send them to work.
The rich people send their children to the institute.

Dr. Carroll. Does the municipality encourage and support to any
extent private schools?

Mr. Rosich. Occasionally subventions have been given to private
schools in order to enable them to give secondary instruction to some
of the pupils.

Dr. Carroll. Can you tell me how many scholars there are in the
public schools of the district?

Mr. Rosich. We get a report every three months, which I will
send for.

Dr. Carroll. What have you to say as to the capacity of the teach-
ers? Are they generally good teachers?

Mr. Rosich. In the rural schools they are quite poor, but you can
not get any better teachers for the salary paid, which is the salary of
workingmen only.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think it would be well that the city should
entirely control the schools within its limits, that a larger amount of
money should be appropriated to their support, and that the fee system
should be abolished and suitable salaries given to teachers?

Mr. Rosich. I have always been in favor of the proposition that
when education is made obligatory it ought to be entirely gratuitous.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that there might be a larger appropri-
ation made from the insular treasury to the public schools and that
the hiring and dismissal of teachers, the hiring of houses, and that
which pertains to the management of the schools should be in the
hands of the municipality.

Mr. Rosich. Yes; your idea is a very good one.

Dr. Carroll. Of course there would be a general supervision on the
part of the board of public instruction in the department of fomento.
For example, the board ought to give certificates to teachers as to their
qualifications, and after teachers get these certificates they ought to
depend upon the municipalities for their employment and the terms
of their employment.

Mr. Rosich. Yes; if the municipality had certain limits imposed,
upon them, such as not being allowed to name a teacher who had not
a title and, when once employed, not allowed to remove the teacher
without cause.

Dr. Carroll. That is according to the rules which prevail in the
United States. Teachers there are hired for the school year and can
not be discharged before the end of the school year except for cause.
They may be reengaged or not for another year. In other words,
their contract is by the year.

641

Mr. Rosich. At the end of the year what happens? Are they with-
out employment?

Dr. Carroll. They are generally reengaged; hut if not efficient,
they are not reappointed, and they go to other schools of less impor-
tance, where perhaps the salary is less, so that they are seldom without
employment.

(The report on attendance sent for by Mr. Rosich was brought to
the attention of the commissioner at this point.)

Mr. Rosich. This is the December report, and shows a total of 2,543
« pupils of both sexes.

Dr. Carroll. Is this the average attendance or the number on the
roll?

Mr. Rosich. This is the number who are entered on the roll. The
report shows an attendance of 1,646. There are schools where there
are 60 on the rolls and only 20 attended.

REFORMS SUGGESTED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 3, 1899.

Mr. Edwardo Neumann. The municipalities here have large sums
in their budgets for the purpose of renting schoolhouses. It would be
wise for them to contract with building societies in the United States
to construct a suitable schoolhouse in each district, and the sums set
aside in the budgets for renting could be applied to the payment of
the interest on these loans and could be reduced considerably. Sev-
eral of the country schools are very badly conducted, owing to the fact
that the teachers do not possess a sufficient degree of intelligence or
morality to enable them to carry out their work as it should be done.
These masters, as a rule, accept their positions as a means of liveli-
hood, not as a vocation. They were the favorites of the Spanish Govern-
ment, which gave the positions in exchange for votes and not because
of fitness for the places. This point deserves the close attention of
the Federal Government, because of the 900,000 inhabitants of Porto
Rico, 600,000 live in the country and are scattered; and if they do not
receive proper education, the work of civilization will be very much
retarded. The scattered way in which the people live is one of the
reasons why education is not as widespread as it should be. I think
that the Government should construct extensive schools in all the dis-
tricts in which to take a certain number of pupils as boarders, to pre-
vent the children from being employed as they are at present; that
is, the teachers send them out to get coffee and tobacco and make use
of them as workers instead of attending to their education. If they
could not take all the children in, they could take some in for a year
and then let them give place to others ; they could all then get some
of the benefit. In towns like San Juan, Mayaguez, and Ponce they
should also add a department of trades and arts, teaching the chil-
dren also the elements of agriculture — how to cure tobacco and how
to cultivate coffee, giving them a knowledge which will be useful to
them in the struggle for existence later on.

As regards secondary education, the concentric system should also
be employed, although, under the American system, the schools will
take another form. It would also be convenient to extend night
schools for adults, in which they could be taught subjects useful to

1125 41

642

them in their daily life, such as drawing, geometry, and other tech-
nical subjects. The present boards of education should be abolished.
They are usually composed of storekeepers and men who know noth-
ing about education. In their place boards should be constituted
from teachers and professors, people who understand teaching, and
all matters of education should be referred to them. The present
boards are useless. There should also be an inspector-general .for the
whole island, and under him department inspectors who would report
to him.

I have been teacher for more than twenty years. I understand the
system of education in the United States, which is a mixed one, being
derived from the French and German systems. I have also read the
works of pedagogy of great masters, principally the works of Man-
ning. What this country is suffering from to-day is the confusion in
the plan of education, the want of uniformity. The different grades
of education are not perfectly marked out. One of the disadvantages
of the system is that there are too many pupils to a school ; there should
not be more than 25 or 30. With, regard to the teaching of orphans,
it has been in the hands of Sisters of Charity. I think, however pious
and good and useful they may be in the hospitals, they do not possess
the necessary educational faculties. I think it would be very wise to
establish kindergarten schools here, in San Juan, and in Mayaguez for
the present, these three being the chief towns. There should be a
good school of this description in each of these cities.

From that I will now pass on to elementary schools. Since the year
1880, when General Despujols issued a decree, education in this town
has improved somewhat, although it has not arrived at a satisfactory
basis yet, notwithstanding that the teachers think it has. One of the
greatest obstacles to proper educational service is the fact that from
80 to 100 pupils are frequently crowded into one school, which is against
all rules of pedagogy. The plan of the studies is more theoretical
than practical, and the schools are not held in buildings adequate for
their needs, and instruction up to the present has been based upon
the Catholic religion, which should disappear entirely from the schools.
These could be substituted by Sunday schools, under charge of the
various fathers of families or of the priests connected with these
churches.

A limited number of schools, under the direction of competent
teachers from the United States, should be established for the teach-
ing of the English language, so that the pupils themselves in a few
years would be able to give instruction in that language.

The text-books used are quite deficient according to modern ideas
and methods. They consist of questions and answers. The text-books
now used in the United States could be translated into Spanish and
brought here for general use. These books are written after the
Comenius system or the concentric system, very much in vogue at
present in Germany. The Comenius system is Austrian.

Elementary instruction should be divided into three classes, and
children should know how to read easily before being admitted into
elementary schools. Children going into the elementary schools are
classified wrongly here. They are made to take up the whole of the
programme at once, whereas by classifying elementary instruction in
three grades, they could be taught the simplest course first, a little
higher course next, and the third still more amplified until they had
gone over the entire elementary course. I am not going to make a
programme for education now, but I think that only practical sub-

643

jects should be taught in elementary schools, and this opinion is in
accord with what Mr. Spencer, the great sociologist, has written.

Superior schools have given very poor results in this country. They
are not really superior schools, but only amplifications of elementary
schools. These schools should be replaced by the magnificent system
employed in the city of Boston at present. High schools are also
very deficient. It is the custom here to confer the bachelor's degree
on a pupil who, when he leaves the schools, can hardly write a letter.

MORAL EDUCATION.
STATEMENT OF MR. P. SANTISTEBAN Y CHARIVARRI, SPANISH MERCHANT.

San Juan, P. R., October- 28, 1898.

Civil administration is a branch most difficult to deal with satis-
factorily .in a country whose social customs have not yet arrived at
the acquisition of a complete moral education. Nevertheless this
can be taken in hand with some hope of success if it is possible
to bring into communities people who are now living isolated in the
mountains, following the immoralities induced by their uncivilized
condition of living and the vices of vagabondage, gambling, etc.

There should be established primary schools and workshops where
the poor might learn a trade and acquire the habit of industry.

For civil and judicial positions only the most industrious and honest
citizens should be chosen. These, at the same time, should be in an
independent position so as to be able to exercise their duties with a
greater degree of independence. The civil government should have
a confidential delegate whose duty should be to preside over the
municipalities if these are to be granted universal suffrage as dis-
tinguished from a limited suffrage.

To conclude, this country, which has owned slaves, requires per-
haps more than any other that its inhabitants should be given some
sort of education to enable them to understand their duties to each
other and to themselves. The principles of domestic economy and of
moral public and private life should be taught.

COMPULSOR Y ED UOA TION.
STATEMENT OF CELESTINO MORALES.

G-urabo, P. R., November 7, 1898.
Education in this island is obligatory and free for the poor classes,
who take advantage of it in relatively small numbers. The govern-
ment? which to-day rules us would exercise a paternal role over the
moral and intellectual progress of this people by applying the form
and means used in the United States for the same object, justifying
thus the granting to us of all the favors extended to its citizens there.
Given the case here of a mother of a family who, having no means of
support or method of gaining food for herself or her children, uses the
labor of these for that purpose to the prejudice of their education, the
doubt arises in the mind of the inspector, who should apply the law,
whether the education be of greater importance than food. There is
great need of workshops where those being educated may learn a
trade, so as. to provide them with the means of earning a livelihood
for themselves and their families. There are many schools conse-
crated to the teaching of the Roman Catholic religion to the prejudice
of other schools. This evil should be prevented by the establishment
of free worship.

644

SECULAR EDUCATION.
STATEMENT OF ANTONIO SANCHEZ RUIZ.

Aguada, P. R., November 12, 1898.

Worthy of consideration above all other points is that of schools,
if it be considered that good habits and morals are synonymous with
good education and social culture and that the absence of institu-
tions of instruction would in a short time disrupt that society. There-
fore I opine that schools should be instituted even in the most hidden
corners of the province, dividing among the rich and poor the bread
of intelligence so as to form worthy and illustrious citizens who one
day would help to create the material happiness of the country. I
think that to this end instruction should be entirely lay and desti-
tute of all religious flavor; that the obligation of education shall
not continue, as now, a pure formula, but that infractions by persons
obliged by law to guard the moral and material well-being of child-
hood be punished. Taking into account the delicate mission of the
teacher, exemplary conduct, polite morals, and morals above sus-
picion should be exacted from him, so as to fit him to instill his pupils
with respect for law, authority, and their superiors and making
them understand their reciprocal duties and rights. On the other
hand, the charges bearing on the municipalities are so heavy that it
would be well for the state to take care of institutes and superior and
elementary schools, leaving to the municipalities the care of auxiliary
and rural schools only. Owing to the lack of funds, these munici-
palities frequently can not settle their accounts with the teachers, and
this is a motive for the noncompliance of many of these function-
aries with their duties.

The system of education should be absolutely nonclerical and obli-
gatory. Morality and good habits should be exacted from teachers.

VILLAGE ORGANIZATION.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR CELESTINO D0MINGUEZ.

Guayama, P. R., January, 1899.
As 80 per cent of the people of Porto Rico do not know how to read
or write, and as education does not seem to have got out of the towns,
while the greatest number of inhabitants live disseminated in the
mountains, making the teacher's task a difficult one, it seems to me
that the government should form nuclei of villages in each precinct
(barrio), assisting the peasants to remove their dwellings and group-
ing them around a central building to be built on a chosen site. This
building should have boys' and girls' schools and schools for adults after
working hours. The same teachers can instruct both adults and chil-
dren. Unless the government makes education free and obligatory and
sees that attendance is strictly enforced, it is sure to fail, owing to the
indifference of the peasantry. It must appoint inspectors to attend
to these matters and establish fines for their noncompliance. The
peasantry of Porto Rico is intelligent, sober, and will respond to the
efforts of the government. If they have been called lazy, the accu-
sation is an unjust one. A walk through the country will show them
working on the cane fields, coffee plantations, and roads. Hardly an
acre of land is to be seen uncultivated. Besides, a small island like this,

645

which has paid a budget of five millions, and perhaps double the
amount, for municipal taxes, can not have other than an industrious
population. The greater number of families living on the highlands
eat no meat, but live exclusively on vegetable diet. This has pro-
duced the disease called "anaemia," which is almost universal, and
which makes them appear lazy — a title by no means deserved. As
regards the town schools, the laws ruling in the United States should
be applied, and attendance be made compulsory.

SCHOOL REFORMS.
STATEMENT OF JOSE M. OETIZ.

Maunabo, P. R., February 24., 1899.

(1) The contracting of loans by the island — if its resources permit —
payable by sinking fund and for long periods, for the construction of
schools, hospitals, and other public buildings in all the towns of the
island, modern methods to be employed in their construction, form,
distribution, and sanitary conditions.

(2) Prohibiting teachers and their families from living in school
buildings. Among other evils resulting from the practice is that of
the families taking for their private use the best rooms set apart for
teaching.

(3) Gratuitous and compulsory system of education. More pains
in its diffusion, especially in rural districts, and better attention to
the needs of education of females, until now much neglected. The
creation of schools of arts and trades, with teachers of intelligence at
the head of each department.

(4) Installation of a polytechnic school in the capital of the island.

(5) Careful revision of the course for bachelor of arts, the suppres-
sion of the Latin course, and in its place the introduction of three or
four terms of some living language ; also a course in sociology.

AMERICAN SCHOOLS.
STATEMENT OF MANY CITIZENS.

Isabbla, P. R., February 19, 1899.
Public education is, in this country, expensive and deficient. If in
some towns the schools are well served, in the majority they do not
recompense the towns for the immense sacrifices they impose on the
ratepayers. Education in Porto Rico is still submitted to the slavery
of religious fanaticism, which makes it necessary to forbid religious
teaching, substituting for it moral teaching and physical develop-
ment— in a word, all the reforms called for by modern progress. It
would be an act of justice to oblige the municipalities to pay the
teachers' salaries, leaving them the right of naming or removing the
teachers when not complying with their duties. As the lamentable
financial state of the municipalities does not allow of their duly
extending and attending to the schools, it would be well if the Gov-
ernment would take under its charge all the elementary schools until
the municipalities have got onto a satisfactory footing again. This
would give the Government an opportunity to constitute the schools

646

on the basis of the American system, which has produced such bene-
ficial, moral, and material results. Rural schools should disappear, as
they have not given any results nor have they compensated the monej7
spent on them. Education should be declared free, and the munic-
ipalities should offer premiums to the teachers who make the best
showing at the year's end.

Table I. — Schools of Porto Rico.

[By the secretary of the interior.]

Schools of the North district:

Public 258

Private. 25

Total 283

Schools of the South district:

Public 252

Private 16

Total.... 268

Total in the island 551

Scholars attending schools of the North district:

Boys . . 9,942

Girls 4,657

Total 14,599

Scholars attending schools of the South district:

Boys 9,132

Girls 4,207

Total r 13,339

Total of the island. 27,937

Annual expenditure for schools of North district $167, 347

Annual expenditure for schools of South district 164, 020

Total annual expenditure : 331, 367

SCHOOL POPULATION OF THE ISLAND.

North district:

Boys 31.141

Girls 29,649

Total.. 60.790

South district:

Boys 34,224

Girls 30,681

Total 64.905

Total of the island 125, 695

Children of school age 125.695

Attending school 27, 938

Total not attending school _ 97, 757

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1S9S.

647

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Table III. — Additional summary.

Number of primary schools - — 516

Private schools in addition 26

In the coming academic year there will be in this form:

Principal 28

First grade. 76

Second grade 194

Rural 317

615
Districts with schools (among which there are some with one school for girls

and another for boys) 273

Academies, seminaries, and other educational institutions:

Seminary for the priesthood — 1

Provincial institute of secondary education . . 1

Provincial institute R. R. Escolapios (Reverend Escolapian Fathers) 1

College of MM. del Corazon de Jesus (Mothers of the Heart of Jesus) . 1

Infants' School - — 1

College of San Ildefonse 1

School of Arts and Industries 1

Private Academy of Drawing 1

Normal School of Girls 1

(This is in the capital. In the other towns there are some infant
schools. There is also a kindergarten in the capital and another in
Ponce. In the capital there is a pedagogic museum which is now
being formed. )

Number of children attending the schools 19,000

Public-school teachers in active service , 516

Teachers retired on pensions... 12

Funds for education in the bank $5, 164. 29

To be collected 40,000.00

The Spaniards took away _ .. 34, 147. 30

Sum of money for schools for the year 1899 213,630.00

No school has modern supplies. The furniture is only medium, where the school
is furnished, but there are some which are in want of everything.

Number of schoolhouses. — Only four or six towns have schoolhouses.
Graduate or collegiate teachers. — If this means teachers with titles, there are 800
more or less.

Technical schools. — There are none.

Note. — To the funds for education, which are in the bank, should be added the
sum received to-day from the municipality of San Juan ($340.87, American
currency).

Bureau of Education,

Porto Rico, June 7, 1899.

Private instruction.

Municipal districts.

First elemen-
tary.

Second ele-
mentary.

Attendance.

Official appro-
priation for —

Boys. Girls.

Boys.

Girls.

Boys.

Girls.

Per-
sonnel.

Mate-
rial.

29
20

180

600

1
1
1
1

105

300

168-

1
1
4

103
189
79
18
64

l
l

240
300

Total

697

273

1,620

168

651

SUMMARY.

First elementary schools:

For boys - - J

For girls <*

Second elementary schools:

For boys - - - - 13

For girls - - - - - °

Auxiliary schools:

For boys -- - - --- j»

For girls -- - - - 0

Total schools - - 36

Official appropriation:

For personnel - - - * '?2q

For materials - - - - 168

Total , - — - 1,788

Average attendance :

Boys - - 697

Girls. 373

Total — - - - - 970

Bureau of Education, San Juan, P. B., March 17, 1899.

TEXT-BOOKS GENERALLY IN USE.

Grammar: Real Academia Espanola.

Arithmetic: Martinez Garcia, Monclova, Emiliano Diaz, Ollero, Comas.

Geography: Paluzie (Universal), Corton, and Janer (Porto Rico).

Reading: Juanito, Fabulas, Manuscrito.

Christian doctrine: Gil Esteves.

History: Fleury, Calonge.

Geometry: Vallin and Bustillo.

Agriculture, industry, and commerce: Regulez.

History of Spain: Ibo Alfaro.

Writing: Sistema Garnierd.

Hygiene: Del Valle Atiles.

Elements of physics: Julian Lopez Catalan.

Elements of natural history: Julian Lopez Catalan.

Bureau of Education,

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1899.

THE CHURCH AND CHURCH PROPERTY.

THE CHURCH AND THE STATE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 27, 1898.
Father Juan Perpina e Pibernat, ecclesiastical governor and
capitular vicar of Porto Rico. I begin by stating that the expenses of
the church have been borne by the state and the people of this island
since the discovery of the same. Part of these expenses were formerly
met by tithes and the first fruits under the old Israelitish plan. What
was further necessary in case these tithes did not meet the expenses
of the church was supplied by the government. In addition to this,
municipalities gave $25 a month to each priest in their immediate
jurisdiction. This state of affairs continued until the royal cedula of
1858, which decree, I think, though I am not sure, was given for the
district of the Cathedral and San German, and was later extended to
all the districts. By this royal order and subsequent dispensation
gifts were created for the chapters and the parishes. This royal decree
of 1858 abolished tithes and first fruits and made the government take

652

under its charge the entire pay of the clergy. When I came here in
1860 the bishop was in receipt of either $18,000 or $20,000 per year, I am
not sure which. The last bishop, who recently left the island, had a
salary of about $10,000, that amount being arrived at by gradual
diminution from the amount first mentioned. The ecclesiastical judge
attached to the bishop's court is in possession of, or was in possession
of, $2,500 per year, and the fiscal officer attached to the bishop's court
was in receipt of $3,000 annually. The bishop's secretary has never
received anything, but the bishop rewarded him by other means in his
power, such as appointment as a prebend. This is in contradistinc-
tion to the custom adopted in France, where these officers get salaries.
In virtue of Article VIII of the royal decree previously referred to, the
dean of the chapter is paid annually $3,000. The dignitaries of the
church (a special class) have received $2,500 each annually.

Dr. Carroll. Who are included in the class of dignitaries?

Father Perpina. There are three cathedrals or bishoprics — one is
in Cuba, one is in Santiago, and one is here. None of them are in
possession of a full complement of dignitaries or members of the
chapter.

Dr. Carroll. Are Porto Rico and Cuba in the same ecclesiastical
province?

Father Perpina. No; Santiago de Cuba is a metropolis in church
matters.

Dr. Carroll. With what province is Porto Rico connected?

Father Perpina. With none.

Dr. Carroll. Is Santiago the metropolitan see of this ecclesiastical
province?

Father Perpina. Santiago is the headquarters to which all ecclesi-
astical matters are referred as the metropolitan of this island. The
number of church dignitaries here is three. I should add here that
Santiago has an archbishopric. The three dignitaries are the dean,
the archdean, and the canon (chantre) ; it is he who attends to the
singing. Canons receive $2,000. There are five canons — two who are
elected without competitive examination and three who are elected
by competitive examination. The competitive canons are the peni-
tentiary, who attends to punishments; the lectoral, whose duty is to
explain the holy writings, and the magistrado, who has under his
charge matters concerning preaching. The penitentiary has charge
of confessions and all matters pertaining thereto, with special powers
of confession conferred upon him by the bishopric and the Pope — that
is, he has higher powers of absolution than any other priest. The
examinations for these posts are very severe.

The racioneros and half racioneros — that is to say, priests who have
not canonical rights, but are only concerned in the administration of
canonical matters — receive the salary of $1,500 a year each. There
are four of them. The half racioneros get $1,200 each.

The parishes are divided into entrado, which means "entrance;"
ascenso, which means "ascendance," and termino. The parishes of
termino are usually vicarages — that is to say, the priests in charge of
them have charge over other priests in the vicinity. The termino
vicars are all paid $125 a month in pesos. The ascenso parishes were
paid 75 pesos a month and the entrado 50 pesos a month.

Dr. Carroll. Did they have houses also?

Father Perpina. I will speak of that later.

There are a great many parishes which have their own parish houses,
paid for by the people of the parish and which belong exclusively to

653

the parish, and I wish here to prefer a complaint to the representa-
tive of the United States with reference to the town of Dorado. A
rich man there by the name of Lopez built a church and a parish
house and presented them to the parish, which facts can be proved
and are generally known by everybody. The mayor placed there by
the American forces has taken possession of the house and turned out
the priest in charge.

Dr. Carroll. Out of the church and house?

Father Perpina. From the house alone ; but you will understand
that this is private property and no one has the right to turn the priest
out of it, and I protest against the same. My protest has already been
made to the priest himself at Dorado, but not to the central power
here.

Dr. Carroll. I have no administrative powers here in the island
whatever. I think it would be well for you to call the matter to the
attention of General Brooke, who has full authority to attend to the
matter.

Father Perpina. The royal cedula referred to has become, by rea-
son of existing circumstances, a fatal thing to the church — that is, the
present occupation of the Americans has made the working of that
cedula fatal, and I will give you the reason. As has been shown, this
royal cedula deprives the clergy of their tithes and first fruits and
other small means of income which they had from the mayors of the
different towns, and also took away from them the right of collection
of fees for the administration of sacraments, and they are now abso-
lutely without means of income of any kind whatever. The fact of
the United States absolutely not recognizing the clergy, and wishing
to establish immediately the separation of the church and the state,
has left the clergy without any means of support. The people of the
different parishes all over the country, having been accustomed to
regard the priests not as ministers of God but as employees of the
Government, are not now disposed to make them payments for the
administration of their office, and this state of affairs leaves them with-
out bread.

I, as head of the church, would have advised the United States to
establish a separation between the church and state, because that is its
Constitution, but not immediately and suddenly as it has done. The
Catholic Church is destined to take care of the morals and the good
conduct of the people of this island, and if their means of subsistence
is taken away suddenly, I will have no clergy to look after the spirit-
ual welfare of the people, and I consider that such a state of affairs
will result in the moral degeneration of the people of the island. I, as
head of the church, wish to beg of the commissioner that he recommend
that the payment of the clergy be continued until such a time as a bishop
could be brought here to the church and the church constituted under
new auspices. This payment need not take the form of salary, but
could be made as a sort of gratuity. I propose a plan under which that
can be done, namely: That the municipalities take the place of the
state and they pay out of their funds such salaries or gratuities as the
Government may desire the clergy to receive ; that in case the munici-
palities do not care to do this, the state can take it upon itself to do
so — this measure being only temporary, as before stated. I am
inclined to fear that if the municipalties are asked to contribute to
the church they will refuse to do so. I respect the Constitution of
the United States because Catholics have to respect the reigning
power, but I think a plan might be arranged until a. permanent eccle-

654

siastical government could be introduced here. I, as head of the
church, will not consent that the municipalities, if they should make
donations to the clergy, make them in the form of salary. We will
accept them only in the form of gratuities; the church does not want to
be dependent upon the municipalities. I think it is unnecessary to
say that church property, including the buildings and the land, will
remain the property of the church. I take that as an understood thing.
From time immemorial the propeily of the church has belonged to the
church. In most cases the churches have been built by the x^eople,
though now and then the state has helped in the erection of church
buildings, but I understand that such property will be respected.

Dr. Carroll. I understand from Father Sherman that the property
is not held by the church, but is vested in the municipality, and that
there is no way by which it can be confirmed to the church.

Father Perpina. Father Sherman is mistaken ; such is not the case.

Dr. Carroll. How then is the title to church and parochial houses
held — by trustees or otherwise?

Father Perpina. The church has no title in the sense of documents ;
it has always been an understood thing that these properties belong
to the church.

Dr. Carroll. Was not the property bought of some one?

Father Perpina. Most of the lands held by the church were gifts,
and the people who gave them did not bother about giving written
titles. Most of the churches in the island were built on ground granted
by the government. The government would say to a church, on the
establishment of a new town, " We will give you such and such a plot
of ground in the middle of the town and you build a church."

Dr. Carroll. Would not such a proposition, or decree, on the
part of the governor be evidenced by some writing?

Father Perpina. Much of this property has been held by the
church for several hundred years, and a paper lasts a hundred years
and is then dust. Moreover, everything in the way of gifts to the
church has been done in good faith without documentation.

Dr. Carroll. Then is not the title to some of the church property
still in the original donors as a matter of record?

Father Perpina. I do not know anything more about the question
than this : A pious man would say, ' ' Here is a piece of land ; I make
you a present of it; build a church." There may still exist some
documents, but who knows where to find them?

Dr. Carroll. I apprehend no difficulty in the confirmation to the
church of the property given to it, unless some of the heirs of the
donors should make a legal claim, in which case it would be a matter
for the courts. It would seem to be advisable that the church should
inquire into its title so far as possible with the view of having it con-
firmed in a legal way. It will not be the purpose of the United States
to confiscate, for an}7 purpose, property which rightfully belongs to
the church.

Father Perpina. I will leave that matter for the bishop who comes
here to attend to. I could not undertake it without launching myself
into an overwhelming sea of perplexities; moreover, such a work
would require the services of a secretary, and I have no money with
which to pay one.

Dr. Carroll. Are the municipalities likely to lay claim to these
buildings as municipal property?

Father Perpina. I have no fear of that at all, unless some persons

655

from wrong motives look for opportunity to open unjust suits against
the church. I do not anticipate such troubles, however.

Dr. Carroll. Why have the municipalities ceased to pay the
amounts you have referred to to the clergy?

Father Perpina. That was a payment made before the royal cedula
was published. That decree wiped out all payments of that kind
and salaries were then paid out of the custom-house receipts of each
district. The island is divided into a certain number of districts and
the clergy have been paid from the custom-house of the district.

Dr. Carroll. Do the clergy receive fees, matrimonial and others?

Father Perpina. They are not allowed to receive anyl)y law, but
there have been abuses. Where these abuses have become known
the clergy have been punished.

Dr. Carroll. Is there no matrimonial fee?

Father Perpina. Yes, but it is very small ; any report to the contrary
is false. When people have come to ask the sacrament of marriage
or baptism and said they were unable to pay for it, the same has been
performed gratuitously, at least in my time, and as far as I know.

Dr. Carroll. Is there a considerable number of civil marriages
here?

Father Perpina. All marriages are solemnized by the church.
We do not recognize anything as marriage which is performed in any
other way. A person who is a Catholic is married always by the
church; if not married by the church he is not married at all, as we
view it.

Dr. Carroll. Are many persons living here in the relation of mar-
riage between whom the church ceremony has never taken place?

Father Perpina. Many, many, many.

Dr. Carroll. Are they generally negroes?

Father Perpina. Yes ; they are generally negroes. There are also
married people who have two wives and live together like Moors.
This is a very immoral country.

Dr. Carroll. Are those persons outside the pale of the church?

Father Perpina. Yes ; the church would not bury such a person in
consecrated ground.

Dr. Carroll. Does the church have parochial schools?

Father Perpina. No; previously in some small parishes where
there were no schools the government allowed the clergy to establish
parochial schools, but since the introduction of general education the
schools have been taken out of their hands. They have only their
system of schools for the education of young men for the priesthood.

Dr. Carroll. Has it been the policy of the church to raise up a
native priesthood?

Father Perpina. The tendency of the bishop has always been to
form the clergy from among the people themselves.

Dr. Carroll. Are many of the present clergy natives of the island?

Father Perpina. Before the coming of the Americans to the island
the priests were nearly all from Spain, for the reason that the natives
appear to have no desire to take up clerical matters. It would be
greatly to the interest of the bishops if they should educate their priests
from natives, because foreign priests are always desiring to go back
to the Peninsula.

Dr. Carroll. Are there colored priests?

Father Perpina. That is forbidden. '

Dr. Carroll. Forbidden by whom?

Father Perpina. By the clerical constitution of Spain. There are,

656

however, some persons who have colored blood in their veins who are
in the priesthood, but they are persons who pass as white.

Dr. Carroll. Are the colored people allowed the benefits of the
sacraments on the same basis as the whites?

Father Perpina. In that respect there is perfect equality.

'Dr. Carroll. What was the reason for the discrimination against
colored men in the priesthood?

Father Perpina. I do not know the reason, but for myself I do not
consider it desirable to see colored men with priestly robes adminis-
tering the sacraments, and if I were a bishop I would never ordain a
colored man.

Dr. Carroll. Is there a race prejudice that would prevent it?

Father Perpina. There is none. There has always been, though,
a breach between the colored and the whites since the emancipation
of the slaves in the island. I think the colored people have been con-
ceded many more liberties than they should have received, and what
they have not been conceded they have taken.

Dr. Carroll. How many services are held in the parish churches?
Are they held only on Sundays, and if only on Sundays, how many
services a day?

Father Perpina. That is a question that can not be answered in the
way it is asked. The church is open every day. On Sunday there is
only one mass, but anyone desiring a special mass can have it cele-
brated by paying for it. On week days there are two masses; the
mass on Sunday, however, is a more solemn mass. The church is
open all day.

Dr. Carroll. Is there a sermon every day?

Father Perpina. There is no rule about that ; sermons are not
preached as a matter of course. The magistrado preaches the lenten
sermon. Sometimes a man provides in his will for certain services
for a particular church, and that money is invested to pay the priest
for the purpose named. San Francisco Church has several such pro-
visions for services, and consequently has more sermons than others.

Dr. Carroll. What are the principal ecclesiastical days of the
year?

Father Perpina. Our ecclesiastical days are not peculiar to the
island, but are the same as those indicated in Catholic books every-
where. I think they are the same precisely as those observed in the
United States.

Dr. Carroll. I have been told that the women were very faithful
to the church, but that the men seldom attended the sacraments or
the confessionals.

Father Perpina. As is generally the case in other places — for
instance, in France and Spain, the woman is more generally religious
than the man; but it is not true that the men of Porto Rico are
entirely indifferent to religion or that the women do not try to
influence the men in religious matters. There are men here who are
extremely pious and good Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. What about the positions left vacant by those priests
who have gone to Spain?

Father Perpina. As soon as it may become known that the clergy
will be supported I can fill the parishes. The Spanish Government
took from the Dominican and Franciscan monks, who were established
here, in the year 1837 the property which they then held, and instead
of selling this property to private individuals they rented it and have
been receiving the rental or interest from those who hold the property ►

657

I think that these rentals should no longer be paid to the Spanish
Government, but should be paid to the church to which they belong.

Dr. Carroll. Are the properties extensive?

Father Perpina. Those sold outright were extensive, and as to them
there is, of course, no remedy. I can not give the particulars of the
property nor the amounts that have been paid; all I know is that
they are the property of the church. You should inquire for a list of
the property which paid censo, formerly belonging to the Dominican
and Franciscan monks.

The budget of worship for 1897-98,

[Collated by order of the Vicario Capitular.]

CATHEDRAL CLERGY.

Pesos.

1 bishop 9,000

1 dean 1 . 3,000

1 archdeacon . . - 1 - - - - 2, 500

1 "chantre" (music) — -.- 2,500

1 penitenciario (discipline) 2, 000

1 secretary - 2, 000

1 magistral - 2,000

2 canons, at 2,000 pesos each 4,000

2 racioneros, at 1,500 pesos each 3,000

2 half racioneros, at 1,200 pesos each , 2, 400

Assistant clergy j.„ 6,000

For music 4,000

42,400

PAROCHIAL CLERGY.

12 cures serving in parishes de termino, at 1,500 pesos each 18, 000

21 coadjutors perpetual for the same parishes, at 600 pesos each _ . 12, 600

12 sacristans for the same parishes, at 150 pesos each 1, 800

17 cures for parishes de ascenso, at 1 ,000 pesos each 17, 000

17 coadjutors perpetual for the same parishes, at 600 pesos each . . 10, 200

17 sacristans for the same parishes, at 150 pesos each 2, 550

59 curas de ingreso, at 700 pesos each. . . 41, 300

13 coadjutors, at 600 pesos each - - - 7, 800

59 sacristans for 59 parishes de ingreso, at 150 pesos each 8, 850

1 priest in pharge of the church of Santo Domingo in San Juan 480

1 coadjutor in San Juan ... 360

1 priest in charge of Our Lady of Balbanera 500

1 priest in charge of the Church of the Carmelite Mothers - - 600

Maintenance of congregation of missioners - 6,000

128, 040

Note. — The foregoing estimates are not an exact statement of expenses, as some
of the positions therein mentioned were always unoccupied, in which case the
amounts not paid remained in the royal coffers.

ECCLESIASTICAL JUDICIARY.

Pesos .

1 judge ..2,500

1 fiscal - 1,700

4,200

Note. — When either of the two officers above mentioned are in enjoyment of
other ecclesiastical salaries, they can only claim one-half of the salaries reserved
as above.

. 1125 42

658

The budget of worship for 1S97-9S— Continued.

EXPENSE OF BULLS.

Appropriation to the commissary of indulgences -.. 350

Appropriation to the notary 270

620
Conciliar Seminary - - 3, 000

CATHEDRAL AND PARISHES — MATERIAL.

Appropriation for expense of material for the cathedral 3, 000

Appropriation for 12 parishes ' ' de termino, " at 300 pesos each 3, 600

Appropriation for 17 parishes ' ' de ascenso, " at 250 pesos each 4, 250

Appropriation for 59 parishes " de ingreso," at 200 pesos each. 11. 800

For expense for the church of Santo Domingo _ - . 500

For expense for the church of Carmelite Mothers 200

23, 350

ECCLESIASTICAL JUDICIARY — MATERIAL.

Expense of office:

Secretary for judge - - 75

Secretary for fiscal - - - -- 60

135

SUMMARY.

Amount required to meet expenses of the clergy for one year, salaries and supplies:

Pesos.

Cathedral clergy 42,400

Parochial clergy. ..-._. 128,040

Ecclesiastical judiciary . . . - - - - - - 4. 200

Expense of bulls -- -- 620

Conciliar seminary -- . - . - — 3. 000

Cathedral and parishes — material - 23. 350

Ecclesiastical judiciary — material. 135

201,745

CLERICAL FEES.

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1S98.

Pedro Piza, a Catholic priest, sought an interview with the com-
missioner with the object of ascertaining how he could disclaim alle-
giance to the Roman Catholic Church. He volunteered the following-
statement :

The Catholic Church has been much neglected on the part of the
clergy. All the church property and buildings have been left in a
state of poverty and disrepair. With respect to preaching, priests
have not complied with their duties, and consequent indifference has
resulted on the people's part. To show that the people are not inher-
ently indifferent to religious teaching, I can state that when I took
over the parish of Utuado a maximum attendance at the two daily
masses was fifteen persons. When I left the parish, the minimum
attendance was a hundred persons.

In spite of the law of 1858 the clergy has continued to collect heavy
fees for the celebration of sacraments, leading to their nonobservance

659

by the country people in general. The fees collected have averaged
about as follows:

Matrimony:

Simple service , $10. 00

More elaborate service ;. . .._ . 16.00

Burial:

Simple service 14. 00

More elaborate service 22.00

Masses 1 . 00 '

These rates have been further increased, according to the ability of
the person interested to pay.

SUBVENTIONS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 4, 1898.
Senor Don Jose Lopez y Ortiz de Zarate, an official of the insti-
tute and secretary of the board of health :

Mr. Zarate. I have brought you a statement of what the state paid
to the clergy of the island. As regards the fees charged by the clergy,
it is impossible to give that. I paid a wedding fee of 16 pesos when I
was married.

Dr. ■ Carroll. The secretary of the treasury, Mr. Blanco, stated
that these fees had been abolished by law and that the priests had no
authority for making such charges.

Mr. Zarate. The fees are illegal. All functions of the church were
supposed to be administered free of every charge, but many abuses
have been committed, which have produced numerous complaints, but
these complaints have been pigeonholed.

Dr. Carroll. To whom were the complaints made?

Mr. Zarate. To the central ecclesiastical authorities.

Dr. Carroll. Can you give us any information regarding the prop-
erty of the church — that property particularly which the church may
have acquired by will or otherwise in recent years?

Mr. Zarate. The church is the owner of a large amount of prop-
erty in this and other cities of the island. Several properties are still
under obligation to pay what is called censo, which is a charge on the
property usually contracted by the free will of its original owner, who
would leave- the property to his heirs subject to this annual charge.
The clergy continue collecting this. The church also owned several
agricultural estates, notably in San German, where the church owned
an estate called the Porto Coeli ; but when the state took over the
responsibility of maintaining the clergy, the lands belonging to this
estate were nearly all sold to private parties.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any idea of the income that the church
receives from its investments and the annual dues you have referred to?

Mr. Zarate. I have not; but I will see the ecclesiastical collector
and try to get a statement of it.

Dr. Carroll. Do you know what convents there are in the island?

Mr. Zarate. There is only one to-day; it is under the charge of
the Carmelite nuns and is situated in San Juan in front of the cathe-
dral.

Dr. Carroll. How is that supported; by charity?

Mr. Zarate. They are very poor; we may say they have hardly

660

any funds. By an unforeseen accident the funds were carried off to
Spain.

(Dr. Carroll at this point directed the attention of Mr. Zarate to an
item in the budget of the provincial deputation providing for the
payment of certain Sisters of Charity, and asked him to state the
purpose of it. )

Mr. Zarate. This is salary paid by the municipality to twenty-
three Sisters of Charity, at 18 pesos a month each, for their services
in the beneficencia and the insane asylum.

Dr. Carroll. What is the seventh article of the first chapter of
the third division of fomento in the estimates of the provincial depu-
tation?

Mr. Zarate. This is a pure business matter and a scandalous
robbery. The amount of 12,940 pesos was paid to the Escolapian
Fathers for the management of a college situated in the suburbs of
San Juan, known as Santurce. In addition to this amount, each pupil
paid 25 pesos a month to the priests for instruction.

Dr. Carroll. Why are they called Escolapian Fathers?

Mr. Zarate. Because they belong to the order of San Jose de
Calasans, which founded this society of Escolapian Fathers.

Dr. Carroll. What is the eighth item, called "Secret Heart of
Jesus?"

Mr. Zarate. It is an amount of 3,000 pesos paid by the municipality
of San Juan to uncloistered nuns who manage a girls' school, in which
each pupil pays from 35 to 40 pesos a month for instruction — also a
piece of robbery. The municipality was obliged, in case the number
of pupils did not come up to the regulation number, to pay out of its
treasury such a sum as would complete the amount that they would
otherwise have received.

Dr. Carroll. Was this in pursuance of a contract that this amount
of 3,000 pesos should be paid?

Mr. Zarate. Yes; the Government pledged it.

REAL ESTATE OF THE CHURCH.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 7, 1898.

Mr. Manuel de Caneja (Canonigo Lectoral). I have been
directed by the vicar-general, in view of my having been secretary of
the bishopric for twenty-three years, to come here to answer questions
relating to his office.

Dr. Carroll. The information furnished by the vicar-general and
this gentleman (Senor Zarate) has been so full that I have but few
additional points to be covered. I asked Mr. Zarate the other day a
question which he preferred some one else should answer, respecting
what property the church has received by will and otherwise in the
last few years.

Mr. Caneja. Real estate is not possessed to-day by the church, with
the exception of the church buildings and parish houses in the vari-
ous parishes of the island. What real estate was possessed formerly
by the church was taken possession of by the government, and prop-
erty to-day owned by the church and dedicated to pay the interest on
holy works, such as charities, alms, etc., is in the form of censos, or
mortgages, on real estate.

661

Dr. Carroll. Have you any idea as to the amount of income from
these sources annually for the entire island?

Mr. Caneja. I wish it to be thoroughly understood that the amount
collected from these mortgages is not, strictly speaking, income for
the general use of the church, but is in the form of legacies willed by
persons who have desired, for instance, to have certain masses cele-
brated on anniversaries of their death, or sermons, or some form of
religious celebration maintained. These amounts are collected sepa-
rately by each clerical district ; for instance, "that of the cathedral,
perhaps amounting to $3,000. To give you the total amount I should
nave to refer to the documents of each clerical section, as most
churches have their own income, although small, from these sources.

Dr. Carroll. There is, then, no invested fund or property from
which the church receives income?

Mr. Caneja. No. As I said before, there are parish houses which
in most cases belong to the parish church, but not in all cases.
These are chiefly of stone, but sometimes of wood, and were built in
most cases by subscription of their respective congregations, or by
general donations, in which the municipalities sometimes lent a hand.
The censo is the right of the church to collect a dividend on the
income of certain houses. This, as I have said, has usually been
acquired by will and is a right which is a permanent charge upon the
property. The owner of the property subject to the censo, on the
sale of the same, sells the property subject to that charge. This is
perpetual unless the interested party wishes to redeem the same.

Dr. Carroll. Which can be done, presumably, for a sum agreed
upon?

Mr. Caneja. It must be for the exact amount which was deeded.
This censo, although perpetual with regard to the church, is not per-
petual with regard to the owner of the property affected by it — that
is to say, he can have it transferred from one property to another —
and it is common for owners of houses subject to censo to apply to
the bishop to have the tax removed from one property to another.
Should the property proposed constitute a due guaranty the church
never refuses to make the transfer. When the amount of the censo
is accounted the church does not consider it is entitled to hold the
sum realized for its own uses, but has to invest it again in some form,
so that it will produce an income by which to respect the will of the
testator.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask in whom the titles of churches
and parochial houses is vested?

Mr. Caneja. As the parish priests have lived continuously in the
parish houses since their construction without title, the title thereto
can be considered one of possession only and not of documentation.
As regards the churches, the hypothecary law of Spain in one of its
paragraphs expressly prohibits the inscription of churches; conse-
quently the title of these is also one of possession only.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask what services are held regularly
on Sunday? What are the usual services at the cathedral?

Mr. Caneja. When the church was at its full enjoyment of powers
here, with its various officials, the celebrations of the holy sacraments
were conducted with full pomp and magnificence, and 12 masses were
sung every Sunday. Owing to the reduced number of the clergy now
officiating, most of them having gone away on account of lack of
means of support, not more than three masses are celebrated, of
which only one is sung. To-day the solemn mass is sung accom-

662

panied by the organ only. Formerly it was sung accompanied by
musical instruments and a choir.

Dr. Carroll. Do the people commune at the high mass or only at
the two stated masses'?

Mr. Caneja. They can partake of the sacraments at any of the
masses they wish, but they usually prefer to do it at the early mass,
as the sacrament has to be celebrated while fasting, and no one cares
to fast longer than is necessary. We priests have to do it as a matter
of duty, except on Holy Thursday, when eveiybody participates in
the sacrament at the holy mass held at 10 o'clock.

Dr. Carroll. About how many communicants are there under the
present regime.

Mr. Caneja. Communion is celebrated in various churches in San
Juan, the churches of Santa Ana, San Jose, San Francisco, the
church of the Carmelite Monks, the chapel of the San Franciscan
Order, the chapel of the Beneficencia, the chapel of San Ildefonso,
the chapel of the Orphanage, the chapel attached to the hospital used
by the order called Siervas de Maria, the chapel of the arsenal,
Christ Church, the Santa Rosa Chapel and Cemetery, the chapel of
the cemetery, and the chapel of the prison. Those are the principal
ones. It is impossible to give you an idea of the number of commu-
nicants of all of them.

Dr. Carroll. I simply was inquiring about the number at the
cathedral.

Mr. Caneja. There are from one to two hundred a month there,
but a larger number in the churches of San Jose and Santa Ana,
because of the larger number of priests attached to them. '

Dr. Carroll. How often are confirmation services held?

Mr. Caneja. We don't have them, because the bishop is not here.
When he was here he held confirmation services in a parish every
Sunday, and as he paid his visits through the island, remaining four,
five, or eight days in a town, he conducted those ceremonies.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask about baptism. I suppose it is
universal in the island?

Mr. Caneja. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is it performed at the house where the child is born
or in the parochial houses?

Mr. Caneja. In the churches. Under very strict laws it is com-
pulsory for baptisms to be performed in the churches, the exceptions
being those of utmost necessity or the approach of death.

MARRIAGE FEES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Aguadilla, P. R., January 21, 1809.

Dr. Carroll. According to the returns I have received from the
municipalities, the number of illegitimate births is almost equal to
that of legitimate births. How do you explain that?

Mr. Torregrosa (a lawyer). That is of very remote origin. It
dates from the time of slavery. It is owing a great deal to the per-
nicious influence and example given by the slaveowners, who, when
they saw a good-looking colored girl, would take her for their own
purposes and the people gradually imitated that. In the country
districts you will find that condition very general. Another reason

663

is the apathy of £he clergy, who never take journeys into the country,
who never preach moral precepts to the people, and who never take
any interest in the home life of the people. The people could easily
have been taught, as they are docile.

Dr. Carroll. Do they ever hesitate to get married because of the
fees?

Mr. Torregrosa. That was also one of the reasons.

Dr. Carroll. What are those fees? I understand that they are all
illegal, but that the clergy have been accustomed to charge them in
spite of that fact.

Mr. Torregrosa. They used to create difficulties on purpose to be
in a position to smooth over difficulties afterwards aud collect more
for the marriage.

Dr. Carroll. In Utuado they told me the fees generally charged
were about $6 ; seldom less than that.

Mr. Torregrosa. Here they charge as high as $16.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose it is almost impossible for the poor to raise
that amount?

Mr. Torregrosa. Yes; quite impossible.

Dr. Carroll. Are the people here generally interested in the church ;
are they quite faithful to their church duties?

Mr. Torregrosa. Among the men of the country generally there is
a state of almost complete indifference. The women, however, are
more pious. In this city, especially, the women are noted for their
piety.

CHURCHES AND CEMETERIES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Mayaguez, P. R., January 24, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Under whose control is the cemetery as to sepultures ;
to whom is application made?

Don Cartagena (president of board of public works). To the
municipal judge. If any person not a Catholic is buried there, the
cure opposes it.

Dr. Carroll. Where does the priest want people who die outside
of the Catholic Church to be buried?

Don Cartagena. There is a separate part for Freemasons and
Protestants. It is a part of the cemetery, but it is not consecrated.

Dr. Carroll. Does the priest oppose the burial of persons in ground
not consecrated?

Don Cartagena. No. The part where the Protestants are buried
is in a very bad condition.

Dr. Carroll. Has the municipality taken any steps looking to the
secularization of the cemetery?

Don Cartagena. Not yet. They have not allowed Freemasons to
be buried there, but in the cases of Masons who have left money, their
friends have had them buried in the Catholic portion. Anything of
that kind can be arranged with money.

Dr. Carroll. How many churches are there in this city?

Don Cartagena. One here, and another being built by private per-
sons.

Dr. Carroll. How many cures are there?

Don Cartagena. Four.

Dr. Carroll. How are they supported now?

6G4

Don Cartagena. I don't know.

Dr. Carroll. Probably by voluntary support, as they get nothing
from the municipal budget.

Don Cartagena. Absolutely nothing.

Dr. Carroll. What fees do they have?

Don Cartagena. They ask fees for marriage, burial, and other
offices.

Dr. Carroll. When the cure gives a license for sepulture, does he
charge for it?

Don Cartagena. He does not give the permission. The municipal
judge does that.

Dr. Carroll. Does the license for burial cost anything?

Don Cartagena. Nothing.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN HUMACAO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Humacao, P. R., February 1, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. How does the title of municipal property appear?

Mr. Masperrer (mayor). It is registered as the property of the
municipality.

Dr. Carroll. What appears as property of the municipality besides
the alcaldia?

Mr. Masferrer. The city hall, valued at $25,000. The church was
built by the people, but was taken by the Spanish Government accord-
ing to its custom. It is not registered, but belongs to the municipality.
The same is true of the custom-house. It was built by private par-
ties— merchants and others — and taken by the Government.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any record of that?

(No one present could answer the question.)

Mr. Masperrer. The church is valued at 145,000. The municipal-
ity also owns the plaza principal, which cost $10,000; another build-
ing, used as a meat market, valued at $8,000; another building, used
to-day as barracks for the American soldiers, valued at $20,000; also
a building used as a slaughterhouse, valued at $3,000; a building-
used as a smallpox hospital, valued at $3,000; the cemetery, which
has a wall around it and a deadhouse, valued at $5,000 (not regis-
tered) ; a building lot worth $300. That is all of the municipal prop-
erty.

Dr. Carroll. How was the church built?

Mr. Masferrer. The municipality in its annual budget would assign
a sum in the nature of a special municipal tax, and all were required
to pay it.

Dr. Carroll. Who owned the site of the church?

Mr. Masferrer. It was municipal property. The whole of the city
district was the gift of a lady, according to tradition, for the forma-
tion of the city. We have no documents to substantiate the tradi-
tion, but it has never been disputed.

Dr. Carroll. Have the courts recognized that tradition in cases
involving questions of title?

Mr. Masperrer. Yes ; for more than sixty years it has been an
accepted fact.

Dr. Carroll. How long ago was the church built?

Mr. Masferrer. About the year 1870.

665

Dr. Carroll. Would there be any objection on the part of the peo-
ple of this town to having the title of this property made over to the
church?

Mr. Miguel Argueso. I think not. The building was erected for
use as a Catholic church and should be used for that purpose.

Mr. Antonio Roig. As the Catholic church in the island is rich
and the city of Humacao poor, I think the church should be sold to
the ecclesiastical authorities.

Mr. Argueso. If the ecclesiastical authorities should refuse to pur-
chase, we would be left with a church building on our hands with
nobody to attend to it, and so would lose the benefit of worship here.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think it would be fair to the church to com-
pel it to pay for a building constructed for its purposes exclusively
and which it has used without payment of rent for many years? I
would like to have the general opinion here in regard to that.

Judge Fulladosa. The church here was built by the people and
for the people, as Catholics, when there were no other religions here.
It is not possible to transfer it, nor can it be used for any other
purpose.

Dr. Carroll. I think a legal way can be found by the United
States to settle this matter. It may be a cause of trouble. This
church building seems to be neither church property nor municipal
property. The control of it seems to be somewhat vague. It would
seem to me that all this class of cases should be settled. I am not a
Roman Catholic myself, but it is my opinion that the churches should
be confirmed to the church, because they were built for the Catholic
Church and for Catholic worship, and unless the title rests exclu-
sively in the municipality it ought to be confirmed to the church.
That is my opinion in regard to the question.

Mr. Roig. Who will attend to the repair of the church if it is trans-
ferred?

Dr. Carroll. That would be a matter for the church; if not repaired
it will fall down and the people can not use it. Of course, if the title
of the property is conceded to be in the municipality and it is not trans-
ferred to the Catholic Church, the city ought to exact some responsi-
bility about its being kept in repair. -

A Gentleman. The municipal council has no power in the premises ;
it can neither sell the property nor give it away.

Judge Fulladosa. The church was built for the Catholics, for their
use, and I think they should attend to its repairs. After a while the
council may change and a Protestant become a member of it, who might
object to the municipality contributing to pay for repairs to the church.
As to transferring the title, I do not think it could be transferred to
any society or corporate body.

Dr. Carroll. What do you think ought to be done?

Judge Fulladosa. I think that Catholics ought to pay for the repairs
of the church, as I have said, and if they fail to do so the property will
have to fall.

Dr. Carroll. But the title of the property ought to be vested some-
where.

Judge Fulladosa. The building does not belong to the municipality
as a municipality, but to the municipality as a Catholic body, because
it was built under Catholic laws for Catholics.

Mr. Thomas Ortero. The church belongs to the 15,000 people of
the district and they only can resolve the question.

Dr. Carroll. If the municipality bought it and paid for it by tax*es,

666

I should say it belonged to the municipality. You can not distinguish
between a Catholic and a non-Catholic municipality.

A Gentleman. Those who helped to build the church did not do so
because they wanted to; the object of providing for Catholic worship
did not enter into it at all. A tax was levied and all had to pay it.

Judge Fulladosa. My point is That when the church was built the
people paid their assessments without protest; consequently they
acceded to the levy.

A Gentleman. With respect to the fact that there was no protest,
it would have been regarded little less than treasonable for anyone
to have protested.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any casa parochial?

Mr. Masferrer. No.

Dr. Carroll. Is the title to the cemetery registered?

Mr. Masferrer. No.

Dr. Carroll. Who administers it?

Mr. Masferrer. The municipality in conjunction with the priest.

Dr. Carroll. Have you taken any measures to provide for the
burial of non-Catholics?

Mr. Masferrer. The municipality has asked the authorities at San
Juan for the secularization of the cemetery. At present we have a
little ground apart from the cemetery in which we bury persons who
are not Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. Is the consent of the cure necessary in order to bury
a person in the cemetery proper?

Mr. Masferrer. Yes; his permission is necessary.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN YABUCOA.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yabtjcoa, February 2, 1899.
. Mr. Martorell, mayor of Yabucoa : The title of the church prop-
erty in Yabucoa is not vested in the municipality , but in the state.
The property has always been used for public worship, and the church
should be given the title of it, if possible. This can not be done by
the municipality, but may be done by the state.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN GUAYAMA.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Guayama, P. R., February 3, 1899.
Father Baldomero Montanes (the parish priest of Guayama) :

Dr. Carroll. As the special commissioner of the President of the
United States, it is important for me to inquire into the church ques-
tion, as into all other questions relating to the condition of the island,
because the church question, at present, is more or less complicated
with the state question. Under the American idea church and state
are separate, but there is a property question involved here which is
a very important one, and in every municipality to which I go I am
taking testimony with reference to it. Have you been rector here a
number of years?

667

Father Montanes. For twenty-one years I have been parish priest;
five years parish priest here, and then I was transferred to another
district, and this last time have been here four years. I have been
in Mayaguez, Cabo Rojo, Caguas, and Aguadilla.

Dr. Carroll. You are familiar with the history of this building, I
suppose?

Father Montanes. No ; because there is a great deficiency of data.
This church dates its first construction back to the last century.
After that it was destiwed and was replaced by a provisional chapel
built of wood. In the year 1872 this building was finished and dedi-
cated to public worship. The building is menaced with deterioration
owing to a leak in the roof, which should be repaired. I gave the
apostolic delegate this information, which I sent him on request.

Dr. Carroll. They told us at the city hall that money from the
city treasury built the church and therefore they felt that the build-
ing belonged to the municipality and not to the church.

Father Montanes. I do not claim that it belongs to us as a body,
because under the Spanish law church property belongs to nobody,
but to religion. Under that law, even if a private man builds a
church, from the moment it is built and consecrated to Catholic wor-
ship, he loses his ownership over it.

Dr. Carroll. In what code is that found?

Father Montanes. I can not inform you where that law is found.

Dr. Carroll. Is it in one of the codes, or is it part of the Spanish
religious constitution?

Father Montanes : It will be found in the canonical law, but in
Spain that law forms a part of the State law. A short time ago an
official in the capital gave certain instructions about the cemetery,
and he quoted the same law that I am speaking about as upholding
the position. He even quotes foreign law and United States law to
make good this principle. The capitular vicar, who is our chief to-day,
gave those instructions.

Dr. Carroll. They didn't claim at the city hall that they wanted
to use the church for any other purpose, but that if they are to turn it
over to the church, while they would not want back all that they had
put into it, they would ask a portion of it.

Father Montanes. What is the municipality? It is a body repre-
senting the people, and if the people are Catholics it represents
Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. Under the Spanish law, but not under the law of the
United States.

Father Montanes. In the municipality are two or three enemies
of the church, beginning with the alcalde, who call themselves
Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. What is the mayor's reason for enmity toward the
church?

Father Montanes. He is a freethinker. He likes liberty of thought
and boasts of it.

Dr. Carroll. Is he in the communion of the church?

Father Montanes. He is considered a communicant of the church
until the church formally expels him, but as to his ideas he is not
really a communicant. He and two or three other councillors origi-
nated the idea of renting the church and the cemetery. This town
is in exceptional circumstances, owing to the war. In this town more
soldiers died than in any other, and per force of circumstances they
had to bury them here, and the mayor was the person who gave the
authority to bury them. If the Catholics of Guayama were what they

668

ought to be, they would already have taken other steps than they
have taken.

Dr. Carroll. Do you hold that the repairs of the church should
be made by the municipalit}-?

Father Montanes. It should be paid for by the Catholics, and as
the ayuntamiento represents Catholics, it should pay for the repairs.

Dr. Carroll. No; the municipalities are now under the control
of the American Government, and the American idea with regard to
state and church is now in force in this island.

Father Montanes. Haven't the ayuntamientos been elected by the
people?

Dr. Carroll. But what the people might do as Catholics and what
they might do as municipalities are separate things under the present
government.

Father Montanes. Suppose we, as Catholics, to-day got together to
elect a Catholic ayuntamiento. Whatever may happen from now on,
at least up to now everything has been Catholic. We can only guide
ourselves by what has been. In that light we can only look upon the
property of the church as being Catholic.

Dr. Carroll. But if the property belongs to the church — and I am
not in a position to discuss that — it seems to me to be the duty of the
church to keep it in repair, and not the duty of the municipality.

Father Montanes. Yes; as soon as it is formally declared to be the
property of the church.

Dr. Carroll. But in the meantime you are occupying it, and it is
to your interest to keep it in habitable condition.

Father Montanes. Are the ayuntamientos not able to subvention
the church for repairs?

Dr. Carroll. If they keep a church in repair, they would expect
to charge rent for it. It seems to me important that this church prop-
erty question should be settled now. In course of time there will be
an influx of Americans here; some Americans are Protestants and
some are Catholics, and the population of this town will be a mixed
population, and if this question is not settled there will be heard voices
of objection to allowing the Catholics to occupy the church. You
stated, when we were in the church, that the average number of persons
at masses was 32. That, of course, is a very small number in a munici-
pal district that embraces 15,000 people. How do you account for it?

Father Montanes. Although there is laxity, the fact that every
Catholic in the country, when he comes to die, wishes to receive the
Catholic sacrament, proves that they are not apostates. There is an
immense amount of indifference and coolness, but, as I say, when it
comes to the deathbed they always want the rites of the church.
Even the free thinkers themselves, when they are going to die, call
for the priest.

At the Alcaldia:

Dr. Carroll. You speak of appropriating $50 for repairs to the
church. Is the church property in the name of the municipality?

Mr. Dominguez (mayor). It is municipal property and is in the
inventory, but it is not registered, because it has not been customary
to register public property. The church was built in 1873.

Dr. Carroll. Was it built by funds from the municipal treasury,
raised by assessment?

Mr. Dominguez. The church was built by the surplus of the
municipal budget every year and the collection of old taxes which had
been considered uncollectible. The people were asked whether the

669

surplus should be used for church purposes and they agreed to use it.
in that way.

Dr. Carroll. What is proposed now as to the settlement of the
title of church property? Are the people willing that the title should
be made over to the Catholics?

Mr. Dominguez. We have not taken that matter up yet, and I can
not tell you what the feeling will be. I think when the matter is
treated of in the council they will not consent to make a present of
the church to the ecclesiastical body.

Dr. Carroll. Do you regard this as distinctly municipal property,
or was it not turned over to the state, the state making appropria-
tions for the support of the church?

Mr. Dominguez. I consider that the church belongs to the munici-
X>ality as long as we have it in our inventory. The clergy have never
registered it, and the hypothecary law says that until a better title is
shown, it is the property of the party having some form of title.

Dr. Carroll. This church question will be an important one when
Porto Rico passes completely under the control of the United States,
which makes separation of church and state necessary, and I have
been inquiring as to what is the best way in which this question of
church property should be settled. As the churches were built, in all
instances, for the Catholics and Catholic worship, and were intended
for people who worship that way, it would seem that the buildings
should belong to them. If the property is retained as municipal prop-
erty or under municipal management, as non-Catholics increase the
question may arise as to whether the church should be allowed to use
the property, and it seems to me that the question should be settled
as soon as the new government is established.

Mr. Dominguez. In that case, we will have to take the voice of the
meeting and the vote of the council, and inscribe the property.

Dr. Carroll. There is no question as to your right to hold the
building or whatever belongs to you. The question might arise in the
future as to the use of the building or the amount of rental that should
be charged, and non-Catholics might say that they have as good a
right to it, a part of the time, as the Catholics, and so a great deal of
contention might arise.

Mr. Dominguez. This is a Catholic country, and the municipality
does not wish to interfere, for the present, with the functions of the
Catholic priest; but we mean to assert our right to the property, and
we want the right to mortgage it, if we so desire.

Dr. Carroll. You make a very small appropriation for the church.
I suppose that is because it is a municipal building and you feel that
you ought to do something for it ; but would it not be well, in carry-
ing out the spirit of separation between church and state, to compel
the occupants to pay that amount by way of rental?

Mr. Dominguez. This budget was made while the Spaniards were
in possession, and next year there will be no amount. They will have
to attend to it next year.

Dr. Carroll. How much would the municipality require to be will-
ing to transfer the property to the Catholic Church? Would they
require all thej^ had put in it, or a nominal amount which would rep-
resent the interest of the city?

Mr. Dominguez. I think they would dispose of it at a large reduc-
tion to settle the question. Thirty thousand dollars, I think, would
be acceptable. It would be $30,000 we never reckoned on, and we
could use it.

670

CHURCH PROPERTY IN ARROYO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arroyo, P. R., February 3, 1899.
Father Montaner, Mr. Virella, and others:

Dr. Carroll. How is church property held in Arroyo?

Mr. Virella. It was constructed by the people.

Dr. Carroll. Is the title to it inscribed in the records?

Mr. Virella. No; these buildings were all turned over to the state,
and the state has them under its charge.

Dr. Carroll. Was it built by taxation?

Mr. Virella. No; by popular subscription.

(The cure of Arroyo was present at the hearing, and Dr. Carroll
questioned him as follows:)

Dr. Carroll. With your permission, I would like to ask you a few
questions. When was the church built?

Father Montaner. It was begun in 1852 and finished in 1856.

Dr. Carroll. Who owned the lot on which it was built?

Father Montaner. Don Rafael Cintron.

Dr. Carroll. Did he make it over to the municipality, or to the
state, or to the church?

Father Montaner. He made the donation for church purposes.
The whole history of it is in the archives.

Dr. Carroll. Have you been asked by Archbishop La Chapelle for
information regarding the title of the church property?

Father Montaner. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. You say the property was transferred to the state.
Was that about the time of the royal decree abolishing tithes and
providing for the support of the church from the state treasury?

Father Montaner. Yes ; the church passed to the state as a result
of that order.

Dr. Carroll. Then the church really holds the title to the property?

Father Montaner. There is no title in the sense of a written title.

Dr. Carroll. What has been the tradition with regard to the
ownership of the church property? Was it regarded as belonging to
the state, to be administered for the church, or was it otherwise?

Father Montaner. The tradition is that the lot was given to the
people to build a church for Catholic worship for Catholic people in
the island. The fact that the state took possession of it does not
make any difference, as, when the state took possession, it bound
itself over to take the responsibility of sustaining the cult for which
the church was built.

Dr. Carroll. Do you understand it to be the general desire of the
people of Arroyo that this property should be confirmed to the Catholic
Church for its own purposes and uses?

Mr. Virella. The wish of the people is that the church should be
confirmed to the church for the purposes of Catholic worship.

Dr. Carroll. If you leave it an open question, it will cause a great
deal of difficult}'' in j^ears to come, when Protestants may settle here,
and, perhaps, become members of your city council. It seems to me
better that this church question should be settled at the same time that
the new government is instituted. If it was intended for the Catholic
Church, let it be confirmed to the Catholic Church. What I desire to
know is whether there would be any very great objection among the
people of this municipality to this course?

671

A Gentleman present. I think that the church should be con-
firmed to the Catholic people, not to the municipality, for the reason
you have stated.

Another Gentleman. What about repairs to the church property?

Dr. Carroll. I think, if confirmed to the Catholic Church, it, the
church, will have to take care of repairs. If it does not, it will fall.
I don't think the municipality can assume any responsibility with
regard to the repairs of the church.

Father Montaner. If the people let it go to ruin, let it go to ruin.

Secretary op the Ayuntamiento. I wish to remark that the
clock in the church tower was bought by the municipality and not
by the church.

Dr. Carroll. Then I would suggest that the church return it to
the municipality, and let the church run on its own time and not on
the time of the municipality. Have you two cemeteries here?

Secretary. We have only one, but it is divided into two parts —
one part for Catholics and the other for persons who are not Catholics.
The cemetery was built by the municipality, and we wish it to be
common property for the burial of anybody and everybody, without
regard to religious matters.

Dr. Carroll. But that would conflict with the Catholic idea con-
cerning the burial of people in consecrated ground, would it not?

Secretary. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Then they would consider it a desecration to have
non-Catholics buried in consecrated ground.

Father Montaner. The cemetery has a great number of private
tombs; and if non- Catholics are buried there, these tombs will be ren-
dered useless, because, according to the idea of Catholics, to do that
would be a desecration. The municipality has recently set apart a
portion of ground for non-Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. Is that portion as desirable as the Catholic part?

Mr. Virella. It is about the size of this room. It is too small; and
if they put up another mausoleum there, it will fill up the whole space.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose the municipality can add to it?

Mr. Virella. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Does the Catholic portion have a great deal of unused
space now?

Mr. Virella. No; it is all full.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN COAMO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Coamo, P. L, February 6, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Is the church also public property?

Mr. Segundo Bernier. The church belongs to the state.

Dr. Carroll. How was the church built?

A Gentleman present. The money was obtained from the city
estimates, but was raised by a levy, the same as any tax. Some of it
was obtained by diverting money raised for the purpose of an
aqueduct.

Dr. Carroll. To whom did the land belong on which the church
was built?

Mr. Bernier. To the town.

Dr. Carroll. How long has the church stood there?

A Gentleman present. Some years ago all the municipal docu-
ments were destroyed, and we have no records now.

672

Dr. Carroll. Is the municipal property registered?

Mr. Bernier. No.

Colonel Santiago. When I was mayor we prepared a document
for the purpose of registering the municipal property, but the city
hall was burned and that document was burned with it.

Dr. Carroll. Then, there is no title to the church property?

A Gentleman present. It was a legacy. The land was a legacy
for the purpose of founding a city. The city has some documents on
which to found its title. The city has been owner of the land for two
hundred years and more. It was founded in 1616.

Dr. Carroll. Does the city charge the occupants of the land rental?

A Gentleman present. The land is divided into three classes and
the lots are put up at auction. Those who bid the highest rent them.
Where houses are built on the lots the city charges no rental.

Dr. Carroll. Then, those who have the houses and have title to
the houses may hold the land forever?

A Gentleman present. Yes; but the municipality reserves the
right of taxing the land if it wishes.

Dr. Carroll. The municipality would have the right to do that,
as a municipal corporation, whether it owned the land or not.

The Mayor. That right never has been taken advantage of.

Dr. Suarez. I do not think the facts regarding the legacy have
been accurately stated. Fifty acres comprise the legacy, and the
remaining 150 acres were purchased.

Dr. Carroll. Is it the general desire of the people of this town
that church property shall be confirmed to the church by the United
States Government?

A Gentleman present. No; let it remain the property of the town.

Dr. Carroll. There is a difficulty about that. Under the policy of
the United States there is entire separation between church and state,
and while the people of Coamo are all of one way of thinking, per-
haps, with regard to religion, it seems to me the question should be
settled.

A Gentleman present. It being the property of the people, I don't
think it should be given to the church, but should be reserved for
the Catholics of this district.

Colonel Santiago. That is a good idea.

Dr. Carroll. How can the municipality hold church property?
If it is the property of the municipality it is secularized, and you
must be prepared to lend it not only to the Catholics but to anybody
else who comes in, just as you do your theater.

Mr. Manuel Betances. The church can belong to the municipality
the same as any of its other buildings, with a right to lend it to the
priests for Catholic worship, charging a rent or not, as it sees fit. At
all events, the church belongs to the people and should remain the
propertj7 of the people.

Mr. Dassalacque. The great majority of people here would view
with pleasure an income from the church property in the way of
rental or otherwise.

Colonel Santiago. The church was built by the Catholics, and I
think that constitutes a very good reason why it should belong to the
Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. That is my own idea, but I think you will have to
settle it now; otherwise it will become a bone of strife and contention
here when your town comes to be settled by those of different faith or
of no faith. If the town continues to hold church propertj7, or the

673

church continues to he the property of the people, who will pay for
the repairs made upon it?

A Gentleman present. In case it belongs to the municipality, the
municipality will pay for the repairs.

Dr. Carroll. In case, the municipality does not get any rent for it,
what then?

Colonel Santiago. I think the church should be vested in a society
or trustees, as they have in Europe. This society in Europe is called
succession of such and such a church. .

Dr. Carroll. In other words, it takes a private and voluntary basis?

Colonel Santiago. Yes ; and such a society has always been formed
here to look after the interests of the Catholic religion.

Dr. Carroll. What object is to be obtained by reserving the title
of the property to the municipality?

A Gentleman present. None at all; and my opinion is that the
municipality should sell the church to the Catholic succession.

Dr. Carroll. You would not expect in that case to get the full
value you have expended on it, would you?

A Gentleman present. We would try to get the most we could out
of the succession.

Dr. Suarez. I don't think the municipality can remain owner of the
church, for in that case it would have to repair the church, and in
spending the public money it might be spending the money of some
one who might not agree to such a use of the church.

A. Gentleman present. I think that as the church was built for
and has belonged to the Catholics for more than one hundred years,
it should be turned over to the church. By that I don't mean that it
should be turned over to the Catholic priests. They have spent no
money on it, and done nothing for it. A priest may come to-day and
go to-morrow, but the people remain, and the people should have the
title to the property. Moreover, I think it would be a profanation to
church property to make it a part of municipal property and charge
rental for it.

Dr. Carroll. For the church to hold it as such it would be neces-
sary, of course, under your laws, for it to be incorporated.

Colonel Santiago. The society I referred to is not legally consti-
tuted yet.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that; but I understand that for a num-
ber of people to hold property it is legally necessary for them to be
formed into a corporation.

A Gentleman present. The members of such a society would have
to draw up their rules and regulations, and have them approved by
the government.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN AIBONITO.

[Hearing at the alcaldia before the United States Commissioner.]

Aibonito, P. R., February 6, 1899.

Mr. , municipal judge, and Mr. Manuel Caballer, mayor

of Aibonito :

Dr. Carroll. By whom is the church property held?

The Municipal Judge. In 1887 the Spanish captain-general
started a subscription here to which the town gave $15,000, and per-
sons from other districts also subscribed ; the state made up the dif-
ference, and the church was finished two years ago.
1125 43

674

Dr. Carroll. Was the quota of the town raised by subscription or
by taxation?

Mr. Caballer. The church cost $34,000, of which the state gave
$12,000 from the state treasury. The rest was raised by subscription.

Dr. Carroll. Is the title to the property inscribed?

The Municipal Judge. No; it is not.

Dr. Carroll. Is it the general wish of the people of Aibouito that
the property should be made over to the church?

Mr. Caballer. I think it is, as the people have been brought up
Catholics, and are fervent Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any dissent to that expression of view of
your alcalde?

(There was no one present who dissented, and all appeared to be in
accord with the alcalde in that view.)

Dr. Carroll. I think that ought to be done.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN PORTO RICO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., February 10, 1899.
The Very Rev. Father Juan Perpina e Pibernat, capitular vicar
of the diocese of Porto Rico :

Dr. Carroll. After having seen you before, I went to the United
States and made a preliminary report to the President, in which I
touched upon the question of church property here and recommended
that unless a title of record was shown by municipal or other corpora-
tions, the church property of the island should be confirmed to the
Roman Catholic Church. I have, since my return, visited the leading
municipalities of the island, and in most cases I have inquired into
the matter of church property.

Father Perpina. We have had from time immemorial the right of
possession — that is, we have owned the church by possession, and that
is sufficient alone to confirm our claim.

Dr. Carroll. I found that the claim of the municipalities to this
property rests on the money of the city that was put into its erection
and info the repairs of the church buildings. It was claimed in every
case that the people of the town had built the church. It was admitted
that it had been built for Catholic worship, and, as nearly as I could
understand the matter, when churches were built and dedicated they
were turned over to the state, and the state allowed the church to use
them for church purposes.

Father Perpina. Not to the state, but to the Catholic Church.

Dr. Carroll. I did not understand that the title was made over to
the state, but that the state and church being combined and the state
providing for the care of the priests, the state exercised in that way a
certain control over this church property.

Father Perpina. I have finished here, and I won't go into this mat-
ter; you must go into it with the delegate. They have deceived you
completely. In one word, this is a matter for the delegate, and I wish
you to argue it with him or to place it before him. My argument is
the following: The churches were turned over to the Catholic Church;
they have used them from time immemorial, and therefore they belong
to the church. I wouldn't credit the information of certain persons,

675

because they have probably misinformed you, especially as the pres-
ent ayuntamientos are bad. A Catholic Church from the moment it
is consecrated and blessed by the Catholic clergy belongs by that fact
alone to the church.

Dr. Carroll. I told the alcaldes that I had recommended that the
property should be transferred, and asked them if they were willing
to have it transferred, and they said they were.

Father Perpina. It does not matter to me whether the ayuntamien-
tos are willing or not to turn over the churches. The moment the
churches were blessed, that moment they became ours without the
right of anybody to intervene. The same is true of the cemeteries.
General Henry recognizes the fact that the blessing of the cemeteries
made them church property, and has turned them over to the church.

Dr. Carroll. If the municipalities, which are the only corpora-
tions which claim the churches, are willing that they should be turned
over to the Catholic Church, it makes the way of the United States to
the solution of this property question easier than it otherwise would be.

Father Perpina. There might be some bad municipalities that would
not want to do that, and they have no claim whatever to assume
authority to say yes or no. Why open this question at all? The
treaty of peace confirms to the church all their property. From the
moment the treatj^ was signed, we are by that fact owners of the
church property.

Dr. Carroll. There are two views of that. There are those who
hold that what was the property of the state could not be the property
of the church at the same time, and that this is state property and not
church property.

Father Perpina. I advance two arguments. One is that the moment
a building is consecrated bj^ a Catholic priest the building belongs to
the church. Otherwise we would never want to have it consecrated.
We have another argument, which is the law of possession. Who
will take away our property, which we have held from time imme-
morial? The titles of the cemeteries and churches are not registered
because the hypothecary law prohibits the registering of titles of any
church property and that with a view of exempting church property
from all classes of taxation. How could we register titles if it were
contrary to law — if the law prevented it?

Dr. Carroll. Have you had no registration in the case of any
church property?

Father Perpina. No; no class. The mortgages on church prop-
erty— the censos — were registered because they were in the form of
mortgages on property. The law directed them to be registered.

Dr. Carroll. Is that a provision of the civil law?

Father Perpina. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Under the head of registration of property?

Father Perpina. Yes.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN CAGUAS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Caguas, P. R., February 28, 1899.
Dr. Carroll. Why do you include the church among the parcels
of municipal property?

Mr. Sola. Because it was built by municipal funds.
Dr. Carroll. When was the church built?

676

Mr. Sola. In the year 1830.

Dr. Carroll. Has it always been considered as municipal properly?

Mr. Sola. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Have you always paid for the expense of repairing-?

Mr. Sola. Always.

Dr. Carroll. When the concordat between the Pope and Spain
went into effect, was this property not transferred to the state for
church purposes?

Mr. Sola. I can not answer that.

Dr. Carroll. I have understood that the church property gener-
ally was regarded as belonging to the insular government, and that
the church was allowed to use it for the purpose of public worship.

Dr. Cruz. There is a provision of law by which the governments of
the municipalities were ordered to take possession of the property out
of the hands of the priests.

Dr. Carroll. Is it the desire of the people of this municipality to
control the church property, or would you fall in with a proposition
to transfer to the Catholic Church all churches of the island?

Dr. Cruz. No. The municipality should control it as municipal
property. That is the sentiment here.

Dr. Carroll. Under the laws of the United States church and
state are entirely separate, and it would hardly be proper for a munici-
pality to control the church. It might rent it or it might sell it, but
in our country the church and state are kept entirely separate, and it
seems to me that as all these churches were built for Catholic worship
it would be well to transfer the property to the church, so as to separate
between church and state.

Dr. Cruz. It could be rented.

A Gentleman present. I think it ought to be ceded, but we don't
want the church to belong to the priests.

Dr. Carroll. Would you be willing to have the church transferred
to a board of trustees to hold the church in this place for the purpose
of Catholic worship exclusively?

(This suggestion of the commissioner seemed to be' received with
general approval. )

Dr. Cruz. We don't want Rome to have a hand in it.

Dr. Carroll. You see there is a difficulty about having a munici-
pality continue to own and manage church property. The time may
come when there may be people in the municipality opposed to Catho-
lic worship, and then a strife might arise as to the possession of the
church.

Dr. Cruz. We are satisfied with your plan, but they have been try-
ing to make the people believe that the treaty of peace will turn the
churches over to Rome ; that is, Rome as represented by the priests.
But we want it understood that the people built the churches and
they should have the title to them. The same thing can be said with
regard to the cemeteries which have not been secularized, and con-
flicts are arising every day. They were built by the people and
ought to belong to the people.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a cemetery for non-Catholics?

Dr. Cruz. No. The municipality should, establish one.

Dr. Carroll. The cemetery ought to be secularized, in your
judgment?

Dr. CRUZ. We want to invite your action in this direction.

Dr. Carroll. I understood that General Henry has issued an order
that none but Catholics shall be buried in consecrated ground, and I

677

understand that all the ground within the walls of your eemeteiy is
consecrated ground. Is that so?

Dr. Cruz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Then, if the cemetery were secularized, how would
you satisfy the Catholic conscience, which would regard it as a dese-
cration to bury anyone in consecrated ground who did not die in the
Catholic faith?

Dr. Cruz. The municipality should prepare another plot of land
and dedicate it for that purpose.

Dr. Carroll. In the cemetery at San Juan they bury both Catho-
lics and Protestants in the same ground.

Dr. Cruz. That should not be, because that gives rise to conflict.

Dr. Carroll. How would it do to allow the Catholics to consecrate
the grave of everyone who dies in the Catholic faith, and leaving the
rest as unconsecrated ground? That would meet the difficulty, would
it not?

Dr. Cruz. If it would not give rise to conflict.

Dr. Carroll. That is the rule in Mexico.

A Gentleman present. They can take a cemetery and divide it,
putting a door between the two parts.

Dr. Carroll. The complaint is made in San Juan and other places
that the provision made for non-Catholics is not at all satisfactory.
In San Juan it is outside of the walls, and in a place where, it was
stated to me the other day, it was '"'not fit to bury a dog." If this
cemetery were secularized, how would you administer it? Would you
require that a certificate from the priest, for example, be furnished in
the case of persons who die in the Catholic faith, or how would you
proceed? How are you going to distinguish between the bodies? The
present method is, as I understand it, for the municipal judge to give
a certificate of burial, which is indorsed on the back "Ecclesiastical
burial" by the parish priest, if the deceased is a Catholic. Would
you want to proceed in that way?

Dr. Cruz. I do not think that would be necessary.

Dr. Carroll. How, then, would you distinguish between Catholics
and non-Catholics?

Dr. Cruz. I think the statement of the family would be sufficient.
Then if tluyy wanted to ask the priest to perform the ceremony, they
could do so.

Dr. Carroll. Then you would not inquire particularly whether a
man was a Catholic or not?

Dr. Cruz. We are not fanatical, and while we are Catholics, we
don't want to be controlled b}^ priests. The priests, instead of facili-
tating things, put every difficulty in the way of everything they can.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN CAYEY.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cayey, P. R., February 28, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Who owns the church property?

Mr. Munoz. The church was constructed by the municipality a
great many years ago.

Dr. Carroll. Is it held by the church or the municipality, or by
neither?

Mr. Munoz. It belongs to the religion.

678

Dr. Carroll. Then the city does not claim it?

Mr. Munoz. Yes; everybody is claiming it, but the parish priest
has taken it.

Dr. Carroll. Has he the title to it?

Mr. Munoz. No; lie has no title.

Dr. Carroll. Does it appear at all in the office of the register?

Mr. Munoz. No.

Dr. Carroll. Has the municipality been in the habit of appropri-
ating money for the repairs of the church?

Mr. Munoz. Yes; as can be proved by the minutes of the munici-
pality.

Dr. Carroll. Do the people of this municipality desire that this
property should be confirmed to the church, under the laws of the
United States?

(Several answered in chorus : ' ' No ; it should be held by the people. ")

A voice. The cemetery, too.

Dr. Carroll. You know that under the Constitution and laws of
the United States church and state are entirely separate; and if the
municipality were to continue to hold and manage church property, it
might give rise to dissension. I presume you are all of one faith now,
but in course of time it may be that there may be among you those
who are not Catholics, and there might arise, therefore, strife and con-
tention between the Catholics on the one hand and the non-Catholics
on the other; and the non-Catholics might say, "If it is public prop-
erty, we have a right to enjoy our share of it.1' Wouldn't it be better
to have this question settled at once and have this property made over
to the church, if you like?

A Gentleman present. There are many here who are not Catho-
lics, and they have contributed the same as others to build the church.

Another Gentleman. This question can not be settled in such an
offhand way; the. comparatively small number of persons at this hear-
ing can not be presumed to represent the majority opinion in the town.

Dr. Carroll. That is true; but I want to get an idea of the public
opinion, and I am asking these questions in every place I go. Inmost
places they say they are willing to have the property transferred to
the church. It maj^ be, in some cases, that the people would like to
have something paid by the, church for the church property.

A Gentleman present. At present the great majority of the people
are Catholics.

Another Gentleman. You have to take into account that the
Catholic religion was a religion by force. It was not permitted not to
be a Catholic, and there were a great many people who were Catholics
who are now freethinkers; there are a great many freethinkers here
and a great many Free Masons also.

Mr. Planellas. This is a matter in which there has been a mis-
taken view taken; the subject is not one of belief, but one of right.
The church was built for Catholic rites, and it must belong to the
priests.

Mr. Luis Munoz Morales. I agree with Mr. Planellas that the
church was built for the Catholic clergy and should be turned over to
the clergy, but I think that hereafter onty Catholics should be taxed
for its repairs; to-day all are taxed.

Dr. Carroll. I am clearly of the opinion that the municipality
ought not to pay for repairs to the church unless it charges rental for
the church. If church property is to be enjoyed exclusively by the
church, then let the church pay for repairs. I find in nearly all the

679

municipalities which I have visited that they have stopped that
appropriation ; they no longer make an appropriation for the repairs
of the church.

Mayor Munoz. The same is true here.

Dr. Carroll. How is it about the cemetery?

Mayor Munoz. We have made a claim that the cemetery should be
continued as municipal property.

Dr. Carroll. In other words, you desire to have the cemetery
secularized, so that everybody can be buried in it without regard to
what religion he ma}^ have professed?

Mayor Munoz. Yes.

A Gentleman present. With the cemetery the question is differ-
ent. It was built with municipal funds, representing the people,
whereas the church was built by funds representing the Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. Are persons of different faiths buried in the ceme-
tery at present?

May or Munoz. Yes; we have a small plot in the cemeterj^ for
people who die out of the Catholic faith.

Dr. Carroll. Is it within the walls of the cemetery?

Mayor Munoz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. In San Juan, it is said, a great deal of complaint has
been made because non- Catholics are buried outside the walls of the
cemetery.

A Gentleman present. How about the tower, if the church is
turned over to the church?

Dr. Carroll. Was it dedicated with the church?

A Gentleman present. As the priests bless everything, I don't
know.

Mayor Munoz. I wish to call attention to the fact that we had a
shutter made to keep the rains from injuring the clock, and the
parish priest has refused to let us put it up.

Dr. Carroll. Then, evidently the parish priest considers that the
tower belongs to the building and the building to the church, and
not to the city.

Mayor Munoz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Well, I rather think the claim of the priest is good;
that is, at common law. I don't know how it would be under Spanish
law.

A Lawyer present. It i^ the same under the Spanish law.

Dr. Carroll. How about the parish house?

Mayor Munoz. The priests also claim that that is theirs.

Dr. Carroll. How was it built?

Mayor Munoz. With municipal funds.

Dr. Carroll. Not by voluntary contribution?

Mayor Munoz. No ; we have a document here which shows that it
was bought outright with municipal funds.

Dr. Carroll. Are you charging any rent for it?

Mayor Munoz. No.

Dr. Carroll. Who keeps it in repair?

Mayor Munoz. I don't think it has ever needed any repairs ; the
priests have never asked for any.

Dr. Carroll. Is the property inscribed in the records?

Mayor Munoz. The municipality has no property inscribed.

Dr. Carroll. What disposition is it proposed to make of that
property — to sell it to the church?

Mayor Munoz. The town generally wishes a school to be constructed
there.

680

Dr. Carroll. Was that building ever consecrated?

Mayor Munoz. No.

Dr. Carroll. I think, without doubt, it is the property of the
municipality.

A Gentleman present. There exists a note in the minutes thai,
the municipality acquired the house for the purpose of allowing the
priest to live there, and the house has always been known as the
parochial house.

Another Gentleman. You must also consider that the town has
been a Catholic town by force.

Dr. Carroll. I would like an explanation of just how the funds
were raised for the church?

Mr. Luis Munoz (a lawyer and notary) . Toward the end of the last
century the church was constructed with funds raised by public sub-
scription and gifts of materials. The tower was built in the same
way — not by municipal funds. I think, as I said before, the church
property should be turned over to the church, and the tower, as form-
ing a part of the church, should go, too, with the building itself. The
parish house was also built by subscription. Once there was some
question about it, and the city tried to obtain rent for it from the
priest, but private influence intervened and the rent was not paid.

Dr. Carroll. It was stated here that the house was bought out-
right with funds from the municipal treasury, and not by subscription.

Mayor Manuel Munoz. The house was bought with municipal
funds.

Dr. Carroll (to Mr. Luis Munoz). Do you agree with the mayor?

Mr. Luis Munoz. Yes; I accept the correction. In that case the
municipality can retain the property as its property and resolve later
what it will do with it.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN PONCE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March .2, 1899.
Mr. Luis Porrata Doria, mayor of Ponce:

Dr. Carroll. One important question that must arise here under
the Constitution of the United States, which requires separation of
church and state, is that of church property. I want to get all the
light I can on that subject, so as to be able to solve the question.
These churches were doubtless built for Catholic worship. This is
the only place in the island, I find, where church property is registered
as municipal property. I had supposed that the best way to solve
this question was to have the church property turned over to the
Catholics for occupancy and use. Would that, in your judgment, be
the best method in order to prevent strife in the future, when the
municipalities come to have bodies divided in faith, between Catholic
and non-Catholic, and when the non-Catholics may say they have as
good right to use the churches as the Catholics? Would it or would
it not be well to remove all contention and strife in the future by
turning over to the Catholic Church the churches in the island, thus
making the property Catholic property?

Mr. Doria. I will say in the first place that I favor the absolute sep-
aration of church and state. The actual building is the exclusive
property of the city of Ponce, and it has absolute right to require that
it be handed over to the municipality to do with it as it likes. For

681

that reason the municipality has had it inscribed ; but to-da*y we have
to meet the tenth clause of the treatj^ of peace, in which the United
States binds itself to recognize the church and church property, and
the Catholics to-day advance the theory that everything that has been
consecrated by the church is church property. Certain members of
the council have already tried to bring the matter up, but I have put
it aside so as not to give rise to dispute and trouble at present. If it
had not been for the treaty, my first desire and wish would have been
to remove the church from where it is and with its materials pave the
streets of Ponce, and that Catholics who desire to have a church of
their own should build one for that purpose. The municipality might
give them a site on which to build it, or the3r could find their own site.
I, as alcalde and president of the council, finding the church registered
as municipal property, will not hand it over to anybody.

Dr. Carroll. Perhaps the council might vote to transfer it.

Mr. Doria. That is a matter for them. As regards the cemetery,
we are in the same situation. I have found the solution to that ques-
tion. I have charged the architect to find a site for a new cemetery,
and will close the old one as being unhealthy.

Dr. Carroll. The municipality has the right to engage in the cem-
etery business, but not in the church business.

Mr. Doria. The church is claiming that the cemetery is theirs
because they threw a little holy water on it. Thej^ have no right to
the one or the other.

Dr. Carroll. If you construct a new cemetery, then, I suppose
you would not have it consecrated?

Mr. Doria. No; for if they threw holy water on it they would claim
that, too.

Dr. Carroll. They might consecrate Catholic graves; that would
be all right.

Mr. Doria. If anybody wants a grave consecrated, let him have it
consecrated. If I have to give the church up, the land on which it
stands belongs to the municipality and the church will have to take
the building somewhere else. I am not hostile to the church, because
it baptized me — not with my permission, it is true, but it did baptize
me nevertheless. The church is an eyesore to the town.

Dr. Carroll. Is there more than one church here?

Mr. Rosich. There is one Catholic and one Protestant church.
There are two chapels, one in the beggars' asylum and one in the
Tricoche Hospital, in both of which they have a daily mass.

Dr. Carroll. Does the church dispute the title of the municipality
to the church?

Mr. Rosich. Not at present, because it is registered.

Dr. Carroll. What is the purpose of the municipality with refer-
ence to that church? Is it to continue to own it?

Mr. Rosich'. We have not taken any action on that. We allow the
church to use it free of rent.

Dr. Carroll. Who pays for the repairs?

Mr. Rosich. Before the municipality paid half and the state paid
half, but to-day nobody pays for it. I think the municipality has a
perfect right to say that the church must get out or pay rent:

Dr. Carroll. I have understood from lawyers in San Juan that
under the concordat of the Pope with Spain church property could not
be inscribed.

Mr. Rosich. The property of the municipality in this instance is
clearly founded, and not like that in other towns where there wrere
donations.

682
•

Dr. Carroll. Was it built with funds of the municipality?

Mr. ROSICH. I don't know.

The Secretary. The church is not registered. They have a docu-
ment in the registrar's office awaiting registry, and they have sent us
these bills for the cost of the registration. We sent these bills to the
central government, and the authorities there relieved the munici-
pality from the necessity of paying the registration fee. The regis-
trar has never refused to register the property. These six amounts
stated here are for the Catholic cemetery in the playa, the Catholic
Church, the Trieoche Hospital, the civil hospital, and the Protestant
cemetery. The amounts are 1379, $598, $156, §81, §1.3, and §4.

Mr. Rosich. The order came from General Henry allowing us to
have this property registered without paying for the registration.

Dr. Carroll. When was the church built?

Mr. Rosich. It is a little difficult to say, because the church is a
very old one, and here in Porto Rico they used to build the church
first and the town afterwards. I think it was built about; the first of
this century.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose vou have an expediente stating how it was
built?

Mr. Rosich. Xo ; there is none.

Dr. Carroll. It is a matter, then, simply of tradition how it was
built?

Mr. Rosich. Yes.

(The secretary produced a paper, which the commissioner examined.
It proved to be an order from the secretary of government stating
that according to General Henry's order the municipality need not
pay the registration fee.)

Mr. Rosich. According to -this the property must have been regis-
tered already, as I had supposed it was.

Dr. Carroll. Is the cemetery controlled entirely by the city?

Mr. Rosich. In secular matters it is, but not in spiritual matters.
That is to say, the priest can say who is to be buried there, and the
municipality digs the graves and rents niches; but the priest has the
right to refuse burial in the cemeterj^. If the priest does not turn up
to object, however, they bury them there anyway. In the playa there
is no priest, and they bury anyone in the cemetery there.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that non-Catholics have been buried in
the consecrated cemetery. Several years ago there was an English-
man buried here under the auspices of the British consul, in accord-
ance with an order from the Governor-General.

Mr. Rosich. Yes; he was an English doctor.

Dr. Carroll. What is the wish of the people here regarding the
cemetery? Do they wish to have it secularized or are they satisfied to
have a division between Protestants and Catholics in burial matters?

Mr. Rosich. I don't presume to interpret the opinion of the town,
but the present burial ground has been denounced by the health
department, the military and the civil, and I think the proper thing
would be to build a necropolis outside of the town and bury persons
there without respect to religion.

Dr. Carroll. And let the Catholics have their graves consecrated,
instead of the whole cemetery?

Mr. Rosich. Even separatinc; a portion of ground for them, if they
like.

Dr. Carroll. The dead would not fight over it, whatever you do.

Mr. Rosich. Mentally balanced men don't believe that the quarrels
of life co bevond the grave.

683

CHURCH AND STATE.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 4, 1899.

Dr. Vidal. I understand that at present with regard to religion we
are under the American law, permitting' everybody to worship as he
likes, but not giving to anybody the right to give public evidence of
his religion. Nevertheless, religious processions are held in the city,
and soon we will be at the end of Lent and i.he plaza will be crowded
with people. It makes a tremendous propaganda for a certian reli-
gion at the expense of others. The public plaza is reserved exclu-
sively for the use of the clergy on that occasion, and no carriages are
allowed to pass.

Dr. Carroll. What do they do there?

Mr. Cortado. They conduct services in their church and require
the greatest- silence, and the whole object of this is to be able to col-
lect charities for the Catholic Church.

Dr. Carroll. Do you mean on Good Friday and Easter?

Dr. Vidal. The whole of holy week. Many times during feast
days the troops occupied the plaza to allow the free passage of the
religious processions. I am neither one thing nor the other. I am a
freethinker.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask, for my own information, what a
freethinker is?

Dr. Vidal. I believe only in the religion of science, the religion
which explains scientifically the creation of man.

Dr. Carroll. Do you believe in the existence of God?

Dr. Vidal. According to what you call God. If by God you mean
the universe, yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you believe in the Scriptures as a revelation?

Dr. Vidal. . Absolutely not.

Dr. Carroll. Then a freethinker in Porto Rico means about the
same as a freethinker in the United States. Are there many free-
thinkers in Porto Rico?

Dr. Vidal. All men that have studied at all are freethinkers, and
most of the doctors studied in France and sot their ideas there.

CHURCH PROPERTY IN YAUCO.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yauco, P. R., March 6, 1899.
Mr. Torres and others:

Dr. Carroll. Is the church looked upon as belonging to the
municipality or to the church?

Mr. Torres. As belonging to the city; but we do not know what is
*oing to be done about it.

Dr. Carroll. When was it built?

Mr. Torres. In the year 1851.

,Dr. Carroll. From what funds?

Mr. Torres. The old church had $6,000, and the balance of $3,000
ivas obtained by a special tax imposed through the municipality.

Dr. Carroll. Was that in the nature of a tax or of a public sub-
scription?

G84

Mr. Torres. It was an enforced contribution. The people were
taxed and compelled to pay their proportion of the $3,000.

Dr. Carroll. Then the municipality has an interest of about 83,000
in the present property. Would the town probably be willing to
transfer the church properly to the church, to be held and used by the
church exclusively?

Mr. Torres. The people would not mind doing so if they were given
some recompense.

Dr. Carroll. Would you expect to have the $3,000 returned to
you?

Mr. Torres. I think it would be necessary to consult everybody
first.

Mr. Cianchini. I believe the town would grant it for nothing. The
neighborhood is Catholic, and I think there would be no opposition.

Mr. Torres. That is not my opinion in the matter.

Dr. Carroll. What about the cemetery? Is that also claimed by
the church?

Mr. Torres. There are two cemeteries here — one exclusively for the
burial of Catholics and the civil cemetety for other persons. They
both belong to the municipality; the people paid for them.

Dr. Carroll. Where is the civil cemetery situated? Is it apart of
the other cemetery, or is it distinct from it?

Mr. Torres. They are divided by a wall.

Dr. Carroll. Is it equally eligible with the Catholic cemetery?

Mr. Torres. The Catholic cemetery is larger. Each has a separate
entrance.

Dr. Carroll. At San Juan a great deal of complaint has been
made because of the provision made there for the burial of non-Cath-
olics. The non-Catholic part is outside of the wall, next to the sea,
and is not a nice place for burial at all.

Mr. Francis Mejia (ex-mayor of Yanco). A great many of the
municipalities have asked for the secularization of the cemeteries,
and a general order was issued saying that the clergy had to intervene.
This municipality has written to the government, asking to be
relieved of the necessity of attending to the repairs and cleansing of
the cemetery.

Dr. Carroll. Have j^ou had any answer to that?

Mr. Mejia. Not yet.

Dr. Carroll. The usual procedure, I believe, is for the munici-
pality to issue the permit of burial, and then, in the case of a Catholic
burial, that is indorsed on the back by the cure.

Mr. Mejia. That is the procedure here.

INSCRIPTION OF CHURCH PROPERTY.

[Correspondence between the registrar of Ponce and the secretary of justice.]

To the Secretary of Justice.

Honored Sir: I beg to submit to you the following matter in con-
sultation. Your decision, to a certain extent, will be equivalent to an
alteration of the existing law, which, apparently, should have no
place in current procedure.

The ayuntamiento of this city asks for the inscription of the parish
churches and cemeteries of the town and playa (port), as being their
property.

685

Paragraph 2 of article 25 of Hypothecary Procedure (Reglainento
Hipotecario) prohibits the inscription of Catholic churches.

I am thereby placed in a difficult position. The aforesaid prohi-
bition was originated by the constitutional rights granted by Spain to
the Catholic religion. That right being now abrogated and replaced
implicitly in this island by the constitutional rights of the Republic,
which grants freedom of worship, I, as registrar, am of the opinion
that the Catholic churches, in merely civil relations, have been divested
of their special character and can be granted inscription in the reg-
istry, as can the cemeteries. I do not, however, feel authorized to
put my opinion into practice without first submitting the matter to
your superior knowledge.

Jose Sastrano Belaval,

Registrar of Property.

POXCE, P. R., April 8, 1899.

The Registrar of Property, Ponce:

Sir: I am of the same opinion as yourself respecting the matter
referred to above.

There is no doubt that churches dedicated to Catholic worship are
subject to inscription, such as article 2 of the hypothecary law deter-
mines, notwithstanding the prohibition established in article 25, j>ara-
graph 2, of the rules of procedure you mention.

Where a state religion (such as existed in Rome and which gave
rise to the precept in question) exists, churches dedicated to the offi-
cial creed (res sacrae) can not be made the subject of a contract, being-
understood to be "extra comercium." Therefore, not being subject
to contract, they are not subject to registry.

Spanish legislation accepted the principle of Romanism and its nec-
essary consequences, excluding Catholic churches from things subject
to registry. The paragraph quoted is a logical confirmation of Arti-
cle II of the Spanish constitution, which declares the Roman Catho-
lic to be the religion of the State.

But the Constitution of the United States forbids the establishment
of any state religion, causing, therefore, those churches to lose their
legal condition of " res divini juris," and allowing of their inscription,
as well as that of churches of any other denomination. You can there-
fore proceed to inscribe them, following the procedure prescribed in
article 26 of the aforementioned regulations.

H. Diaz Navarro,
Secretary of Justice.

Porto Rico, May 12, 1899.

CHURCH AND STATE UNDER A3IERICAN RULE.
OPINION OF THE SECRETARY OF JUSTICE.

Honorable Brigadier-General,

Commander in Chief of the Department.

Sir: I have the honor of reporting on the petition of Sehor Perpiha,
capitulary vicar and head of the Catholic Church in this island.

This gentleman bases his request on General Orders, No. 1, series
1898, which says: "Provincial and municipal laws in so far as affect.

686

ing.the determination of private rights of individuals or property,
shall be maintained in force when not incompatible with the change
of conditions brought about in Porto Rico, in winch case they can be
suspended by the governor of the department;" and, on Article VIII
of the Paris treaty of peace, which declares that the cession of Porto
Rico by Spain to the United States shall in no way prejudice the
title or rights attributed b}r custom or law to the peaceful possess-
ors of eveiy class of property in the provinces, cities, public and
private establishments, civil or ecclesiastical corporations, or any
other corporate body which had the legal standing necessaiy to acquire
such property or rights.

Both these dispositions are founded on a principle of international
law subscribed to by all nations, accepted by the English and Ameri-
can courts, and explained and sustained by the famous author,
Marshall, with remarkable clearness.

The principle is the following: When a territory is occupied by
virtue of cession or conquest, the laws governing private interests
shall continue in force, but, on the substitution of the sovereignty of
the conquered nation by that of the conqueror, the political laws gov-
erning the sovereignty of the former shall ipse facto give place to
the laws governing the sovereignty of the latter.

In Porto Rico the official character and remuneration of the func-
tionaries of the Catholic religion as employees of the states is founded
on article 11 of the Spanish political constitution, declaring that faith
to be the religion of the Kingdom.

This principle gave rise to the concordat between the Spanish Gov-
ernment and Rome, and necessarily made provision for the salaries
of the clergy through the budget law, itself a law of public or political
character.

By virtue of that principle of international law previously quoted,
and as the Constitution of the United States does not admit of
e'mploj'ees for purposes of religion, those dispositions were all virtually
derogated from the moment that the American flag floated over this
island.

It is quite evident, therefore, that General Brooke, on issuing Gen-
eral Orders, No. 1, and the Paris Commission, on drawing up Article
VIII of the peace treaty, in no wise intended to give them the scope
which Senor Perpina's interpretation of them supposes.

Neither General Brooke nor the Peace Commissioners could have
had the intention of establishing principles contrary to the American
Constitution. Their declarations that vested interests should be
respected can only refer to purely civil or private interests.

Perhaps the argument might be advanced that as the United States
Government has collected the income, the expenditure thereof should
be for the object set forth in the budget.

This does not hold, as owing to the change of sovereignty the
expenses of administration have been considerably reduced, the
amount originally appropriated by the budget for the payment of the
clergy having, together with the rest, suffered considerable reduction.

It must also be taken into consideration that as soon as the clergy
were divested of their character of state officials, they were released
from the obligations which they formerly were under to the state,
which no longer exercises intervention in matters of clerical organiza-
tion, discipline, or service.

The suppression of obligations carries with it the suppression of
corresponding rights.

687

It is my opinion that the Catholic clergy are not entitled to receive
official salary or emolument from the moment that the United States
assumed sovereignty over the island.

Very respectfully, Herminio Diaz,

Secretary of Justice.
Porto Rico, June 1, 1899.

CONDITION OF THE CHURCH.
STATEMENT OF MR. P. SANTISTEBAN Y CHARIVARRI, SPANISH MERCHANT.

San Juan, P. R., October 28, 1898.

In this country the Roman Catholic religion predominates. For-
merly the Catholic Church here was the owner of great wealth, which
produced sufficient income to sustain its cult, to build religious edi-
fices, endow charitable asylums, establish schools of instruction in the
arts, establish gymnasiums, etc. , for the poorest class of people. Since
the Spanish Government took over all its wealth and in exchange paid
the expenses of worship and the clergy, Catholic institutions have
diminished and indifference and atheism have increased in propor-
tion. This is prejudicial to healthy principles of morality, industry,
and other qualities which should be the basis of the culture of the
people.

The Spanish Government on relinquishing sovereignty over this
island has left the church. throughout the island without means of
support and as the clergy to-day own no property which produces
income, as they previously did, the greater portion of the interior
towns will remain without priests and their inhabitants be exposed to
the consequences of a country without religion to hold their con-
sciences in check. Subscriptions and charity for the maintenance of
religion in this country would not reach a sufficient amount during
the first ten years to support the clergy, as want of habit of giving
alms to God's temples makes this source of income a doubtful one.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR EUSTOQUIO TORRES.

Guayanilla, P. R., November 7, 1898.

It is evident that the Porto Riean people, perhaps in name, or per-
haps as a consequence of Spanish dominion during which the church
was part of the state, is essentially Catholic. For many it will per-
haps be a matter of grave import that the new Government differs
from the previous one on that point, and it may be the work of several
years and much hard labor for missionaries of other faiths to uproot
beliefs so long rooted and sustained by habit and tradition.

Nevertheless, I venture to assume that persons of the highest cul-
ture in the island — generally Free Thinkers — will receive with good-
will the principle of religious liberty which separation of church and
state brings about. But to conciliate all opinions it would be well to
allow those municipalities in which the majority of the parishioners
vote to sustain the church from its municipal funds to do so, provided
the majority of the governing body so votes also.

688

LIBERTY OF WORSHIP.
STATEMENT OF ESCOLASTICO PEREZ.

Cidra, P. R., November 10, 1898.
As in the United Stales, so in Porto Rico, liberty of worship and
for everyone to search for and contribute to religion according to the
dictates of his conscience.

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
STATEMENT OF ANTONIO SANCHEZ RUIZ.

Aguada, P. R., November 12, 1898.
Absolute separation of the church from the state. The Catholic
religion may be conserved without failing in the respect, owing to other
religions compatible with true Christianity, and which may guarantee
liberty, equality, fraternity, work, and progress as symbolized by the
stars of the American flag.

SELF-SUPPORT FOR THE CHURCH.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR CELESTINO DOMENGTJEZ.

Guayama, P. R., January, 1899.
No person of any degree of education in this country, if asked his
opinion on the matter, would den}* the great advantages of a separation
of church and state. The clerical power in every country in the world
has been a drag on progress, and nobody ignores the fact that Spain
owes her decadence to this. The nations at the head of civilization
and progress to-day are those where liberty of conscience is permitted.
In this island the clerical influence has been so powerful, so strong,
and so oppressive that when the American troops arrived everyone
thought that their influence would be destroyed, and rejoiced accord-
ingly. The hunger for liberty was so great that the country has seen
and will see with pleasure the disappearance of clerical influence,
which has weighed on our intelligence and our feelings like a sheet of
lead. It is necessary that the clergy be relegated to their churches if
they have them, and that they live on what their congregations care
to give them. They must not have any interference in cemeteries or
marriages, and although we do not ask that they disappear from the
country, which is Catholic, we do require that they play no other part
than that filled by them in the United States.

SUPPORT OF CHURCH BY MUNICIPALITIES.
STATEMENT OF JOSE M. ORTIZ.

Maunabo, P. R., February 24, 1899.
(1) Absolute separation of church and state; liberty for munici-
palities to support the religion they choose, to the extent their means
may permit; also that of dismissing ministers they are not in accord
with.

689

(2) State not to be allowed to favor, directly or indirectly, any
religion; nor to grant subventions to educational institutions directed
by clergy, religions bodies, or members of mystic orders.

(3) Put an end to superstitions and religious fanaticism, without
failing to respect real religious beliefs and worship.

THE CEMETERY IN SAN JUAN.

The cemetery of San Juan is situated at the base of Morro Castle,
just outside the city wall, and is reached by a winding passage, under
the wall, in the form of a tunnel. There are three divisions in the
cemetery, two of which are reserved for Catholic burials, and the
third, lying nearer to the sea, for the interment of non-Catholics. One
of the Catholic portions of the cemetery, a comparatively recent addi-
tion, lies adjacent to the tunneled passage; the other is separated
from this by a gate, and the Protestant division is reached bypassing
through a second gate in the stone wall inelosure, which extends along
the entire sea front of the two Catholic divisions. In the newer
Catholic portion graves and pantheons are sold outright, while in the
other, with the exception of the burial corridor, in which niches may
be sold in perpetuity for the interment of persons who have died from
a contagious or infectious disease, graves and niches are rented accord-
ing to a fixed tariff. Both the Catholic and the non-Catholic portions
of the cemetery belong to the municipality.

Upon the death of a person, a permit of burial is obtained at the
city hall, and the body is interred either in a grave or niche. At the
expiration of five years of interment, a notice is sent to the personal
representatives of the deceased calling their attention to the fact that
that period has expired, and calling upon them for instructions as to
their desires regarding the continued sepulture of the deceased. If
the family do not buy a grave, or lease one, in response to that notice,
the keeper of the cemetery is directed to remove the body and put it
in the huesera, which, in San Juan, is a space about 10 feet square, in
one corner of the cemetery, surrounded by a stone wall, without a
roof. The bones consigned to the huesera are thrown into it in a heap,
and when this is full, or it is deemed convenient to make room for
more, a deep pit is dug in the cemetery and the contents of the
huesera dumped into it. This practice of disinterment has been com-
mon throughout the island, and the keeper of the San Juan cemetery
informed the commissioner that the ground had been used over and
over again for sepulture, and that it was customary to take bodies out
of unrented graves at the end of two years.

The following was the tariff in force for the economic year 1897-98
in San Juan :

For sale in perpetuity of graves for two bodies

For sale in perpetuity of each lot or family pantheon 300

For sale in perpetuity of a lot for one burial 150

For each niche of the burial gallery, in which a person who has died of an
epidemic or contagious disease may be buried, the alienor losing all actions

and rights . 200

Rental for five years of each niche of the basement of the chapel 75

For each year's renewal of said rental ._. 25

Rental for five years of each niche of the gallery 30

For each year's renewal of said rental 10

For each railing, with or without a tomb 10

For every tonjbstone over a grave, of whatever class 5

1125 44

690

The municipal authorities informed the commissioner that the
receipts from sales and rentals barely met the necessary expenses of
maintaining the cemetery.

The tariff for sepulture in the cemetery at Ponce in force during
the economic jTear 1896-97 was as follows:

For the sale of a niche ... $80

For the rent of a niche for five years . . . 20

For ground sold for pantheons, per square meter .. 12

THE LAW AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE.

AVOIDING MARRIAGE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Utuado, P. R., January 18, 1890.

Dr. Cakroll. Is it not true that, while a great many live together
in the marriage relation without having had any ceremony performed,
they are generally true to each other and a man has one wife and a
woman has one husband while they both live?

Mr. Lucas Amadeo. It is very frequently the case that there are
no ties of any kind, and the man goes his way and the woman goes
her way and the children go their way. Very often a woman has
children by several men, to none of whom she was married.

Dr. Carroll. That is true even in the United States, without ref-
erence to marriage.

Mr. Amadeo. This country has broken away from the old restrain-
ing influences of religious bodies; morality has never been taught
here, and the people have been without any restraining influences
either of morality or of religion, and being without such influences
the people have acquired habits of vice to which they were at one
time strangers.

Dr. Carroll. To what special reason was it due that the church
ceased to exert its influence over the masses in that respect?

Mr. Amadeo. It is a product of the century. This century has
been tending more and more to free thought in religious matters. In
countries where the church has an iron grip on the people, and at the
same time teaches them morality, the masses have not degenerated
much, but in this country, where the church has to a large extent lost
its grip because of the degeneracy of the times and because morality
was never taught, the masses have degenerated. The movement
started with the French Revolution.

Dr. Carroll. But the church has never ceased its teachings respect-
ing marriage. It has always, on the contrary, frowned on such rela-
tions as exist here between many of the people.

Mr. Amadeo. Fifteen or twenty years ago living in concubinage
was punished by law and by the church; but as during the time since
then the imported priests have been of the worst description, they
have relaxed their attention in that direction, and the municipal gov-
ernment has taken no cognizance of it.

Dr. Carroll. What punishments did municipal governments mete
out for such offenses?

Mr. Amadeo. The church used to denounce persons living in that
condition to the municipality, and the municipality used to oblige
them to marry and legitimatize their families.

691

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask what special disadvantages do
the children that come from these relations, and are recognized as
illegitimate, stand under before the law.

Mr. Amadeo. In the first place, they do not inherit, but under a
new statute, if they are recognized by the parents or by the father,
they do inherit to a certain extent.

Dr. Carroll. What provision, if any, should be made under the
new government respecting these classes? Should they be legitima-
tized or should the law really take no cognizance of the matter?

Mr. Amadeo. That must in no way be done. It would be to put a
premium on illegitimacy, and it is necessary that the family should be
constituted legally, either by the church or by the state.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be well to have a law that where persons
who have lived together shall marry their children already born
should be legitimatized?

Mr. Amadeo. That is now the law.

REASONS FOR DECLINE IN MARRIAGE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San German, P. R., January 26, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. I notice from the statistics of marriage in this dis-
trict, just handed me, that there has been a decrease in the last few
years in the number of marriages. What is the cause of it?

Mr. Acosta (mayor). The general misery of the people. There
was so much of it that no one would take on further responsibility.

Dr. Carroll. What is the outlook, then, for your future population?

Mr. Acosta. They get married on their own account now. They
find it cheaper and more convenient.

Dr. Carroll. How much does it cost to get married?

Mr. Acosta. It used to cost $12 or $16, but was not supposed to cost
anything. If persons wanted to be married at night, they had to pay,
but not if married in the da3rtime. To-day the priests charge because
they have no salaries, but, as formerly, do not charge anything in the
daytime.

Dr. Carroll. Have there been any civil marriages here?

Mr. Acosta. Four or five in the last few days.

Dr. Carroll. How much does that cost?

Mr. Acosta. Eight or ten dollars.

Dr. Carroll. Has that always been the fee charged?

Mr. Acosta. Every marriage costs, if performed during office hours,
from $4 to $6, but at night they have to pay more.

Dr. Carroll. What do the clergy charge now?

Mr. Acosta. According to the ability to pay.

Dr. Carroll. Were there any civil marriages before the 1st of
December last ?

Mr. Acosta. When the civil-marriage law was first introduced here
there were seven couples who took advantage of the law. These civil
marriages took place only because the church put an impediment in
the way. The people as a whole are not accustomed to civil marriage.
In one case the parties were too nearly related, and the priest asked
'$50 to remove the difficulty. As they did not wish to pay that amount,
they got married civilly.

692

ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVIL MARRIAGE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

HUMACAO, P. R,, February I, 1899.
Mr. Joaquin Masferrer, mayor of Humacao, and Mr. Salvador
Fulladosa, judge of first instance and instruction:

Dr. Carroll. Have there been any civil marriages here?

Mr. Masferrer. Very few.

Dr. Carroll. In case of civil marriage is it required that the par-
ties to the marriage shall present their baptismal certificates?

Mr. Masferrer. Yes.

Mr. Fulladosa. According to the present law, those who wish to be
married civilly have to deny that they are Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. I want to get at the facts in regard to civil mar-
riage, with a view to having it made open to all who wish to be mar-
ried that way. I am told that it is the custom in some places for the
cure to charge a considerable sum to get a certificate in such cases.

Mr. Fulladosa. The charge is 1 peso. That is one of the rights
of the church. They have charge of the records, and charge 1 peso
for making a copy.

Dr. Carroll. Why is it necessary to have baptismal certificates
in order to marry two persons?

Mr. Fulladosa. To enable the official marrying them to ascertain
for certain the ages of the contracting parties and whose children they
are.

Dr. Carroll. Age generally speaks for itself.

Mr. Fulladosa. Also to show whether or not they are related
within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity.

Dr. Carroll. The church can marry or refuse to many whom it
will, but the state has its own rules of consanguinity and there will
be no appeal to any ecclesiastical authorities as to questions of that
kind.

Mr. Fulladosa. The law as it exists at present does not allow
cousins to marry; consequently, if cousins wish to marry here, they
have to pay heavily for a dispensation. There has been no modifica-
tion of that law. In the civil register we have a record of births,
deaths, and marriages, and certificates can be obtained there if the
date is subsequent to 1884, that being the year in which the civil reg-
ister was instituted, so that persons born since 1884 do not have to go
to the cure for a certificate of birth.

Dr. Carroll. Why would not a declaration of the time of birth,
witnessed by persons who are cognizant of the fact, be sufficient for
civil marriage?

Mr. Fulladosa. That is done here by what is called an expediente.

Dr. Carroll. I am asking with a view to an order making that
sufficient. Such an order would render civil marriage free in fact as
well as in name.

Mr. Fulladosa. That would be a good reform.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose the great majority of people wish to be
married under church auspices, but some prefer civil marriage, and
if the church lays any obstacle in their way it should be changed.

Mr. Fulladosa. To-day the women are most opposed to innova-
tions; men accept innovations very easily, but as soon as all hin-
drances are removed I think everybody will accept the new order.

Dr. Carroll. Very often people fail to get their rights except

693

through competition, and if civil marriage is made free the church
will remove the obstacles, as it will desire to marry more than the civil
justice.

Mr. Fulladosa. Very likely.

VIEWS OF A PRIEST.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Guayama, P. R., February 3, 1899.
Father Montanes :

Dr. Carroll. I want to ask a few questions with regard to the sub-
ject of marriage, which is an extremely important subject in this
country.

Father Montanes. I consider it of immense moment, as concubinage
is a sore in the country, and is putting an end to family relations.

Dr. Carroll. Everywhere I have gone I have received testimony
to the effect that the failure of many people to marry is not due to
their unwillingness to marry, but is due to the obstacles which the
church lays in their way. It is asserted by them that the poor people
are unable to pay the fees which are necessary in order to have a
religious marriage.

Father Montanes. The Free Thinkers mostly have told you that.
It is not true. It is true that there are certain exigencies, but that
does not depend on the priest, but on canonical regulations. For
example, they have to present their baptismal certificate so as to show
their age, if they have been born in a different district ; then they have
to produce the consent of the parents, according to their age; then
they have to satisfy the priest as to their knowledge of Catholic doc-
trine, so as to enable him to know whether they are in a fit state to
enter into Catholic marriage ; then the bans have to be proclaimed three
successive Sundays; then they exact the confession, as the Catholic
religion considers marriage a sacrament. They have to confess to
prepare themselves, and this constitutes the great obstacle with the
Free Thinkers, so much so that several have married civilly, so as not
to have to confess. These are the obstacles. If the parties seeking
marriage are related, they have to get a dispensation from the bishop.
The bishop can charge them or not, as he sees fit.

Dr. Carroll. The poor people complain of the money it costs; not
of other obstacles.

Father Montanes. It costs them now because we have no other
means of living; but before we charged them nothing for any of the
sacraments. Now that our salaries have been taken away, we have
to have some means of livelihood.

Dr. Carroll. I had a great deal of testimony from persons who
said they had paid considerable fees, and had to pay them in order to
be married through the church.

Father Montanes. In Guayama you can ask the people, one by one,
and you will not find one who has been charged. I have been here
fourteen years and have, never charged a marriage fee, and I am not
the only one. Unfortunately, there have been exceptions to this
rule; there have been those who have charged.

Dr. Carroll. It will be the policy of the new government to make
'the way to marriage of persons who are entitled to marry as easy as

694

possible, and try to persuade those who are living in concubinage to
contract marriage, if not b}* church rites, then by civil rites. I want
to ask if it is true, as I have heard, that such civil marriages have
been denounced from the pulpit of this church as not marriages at all,
but simply as concubinage, and that persons contracting such mar-
riage have been threatened with excommunication?

Father Montanes. They are considered by the church as living in
public concubinage, not because we may think so, but because the
Pope, who is our chief, has so commanded. You must understand
that all Christians, not only Catholics, but also Protestants, we con-
sider under the Pope's order, because we look upon Protestants as
forming a part of our church who have simply seceded from it. The
Catholic who marries civilly is not considered out of the church, but
is considered an apostate, except he repents. He can not be conceded
Catholic burial or any of the other rites.

Dr. Carroll. What is the attitude of the church toward those who
do not marry at all, but live together in concubinage?

Father Montanes. The Catholic Church has its rules about that,
but the number living in concubinage is so great that the rules have
not been applied. Most of these people, before they die, receive the
sacraments and so show themselves repentant.

Dr. Carroll. It seems very strange to Americans, who are shocked
to find the scandalous state of things down here — so many living
together without any contract of marriage at all — that the church in
its attitude should seem to favor those who live without marriage at
all, and to denounce in its offices those who contract civil marriage.
It seems to us better that there should be civil marriage than no
marriage at all.

Father Montanes. No; there is this immense difference, that he
who lives in concubinage commits no other sin than having unlawful
connection with a woman, whereas he who lives in civil marriage has
committed the tremendous crime of apostacy of faith. Catholics con-
sider faith above morals.

Dr. Carroll. I am afraid, reverend father, that those of your own
church in the United States would not agree with you upon this point.
I am sure Father Sherman would take a far different view, and while
he would hold to the necessity of religious marriage — and I will say
that the great majority of American people are married that way —
still he would say it would be better for people to have a civil con-
tract of marriage and live together in that way than to live together
without any marriage.

Father Montanes. Yes; in the United States that may be, because
in countries which are non- Catholic and do not accept the Council of
Trent the marriage system is different. In Catholic countries a mar-
riage which is not celebrated by the parish priest in the presence of
two witnesses is illegal, whereas I understand that in England and
the United States that is not the case.

Dr. Carroll. But I am speaking of the attitude of the Catholics in
the United States.

Father Montanes. As regards faith, it is the same; but as regards
rules, it is different. The Pope could issue an edict that a certain
form was valid in one part of the world, and a different form was
valid in another part. Father Sherman would have to do the same
here, because all Catholics in every part of the world have to conform
to the mandates of the Pope. The civil law requires that after all the
steps have been taken for civil marriage the municipal judge shall name

695

a priest to be present, but he doesn't do it. The municipal judge has
put obstacles in the way of civil marriage. Formerly the certificate
of marriage issued by the church was valid in any part of the world,
but since they got, after a great deal of difficulty, a concession unit-
ing civil and religious marriage, there has been no end of trouble.
The}'- are asking still more — that the certificate of the priest- shall not
be valid, but only that of the civil register.

OBSTACLES TO MARRIAGE.
[Hearing- before the United States Commissioner.]

Guayama, P. R., February 3, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Have there been any civil marriages in Guayama?

Mr. Vergne (clerk to municipal judge). There have been a few.
There have been none since the American invasion. Such marriages
could only take place between non -Catholics.

Dr. Carroll. In such cases do you require an expediente?

Mr. Vergne. Yes. The expediente covers the baptismal certificate,
consent of the parents, certification of the civil status of the parties
contracting, and the petition of the parties.

Mr. Dominguez (mayor of Guayama). I wish to call your attention,
as special commissioner, to the importance of introducing the civil
marriage system of the United States as soon as possible. The state
in which the people of the rural districts live constitutes a sore on the
civilization of Porto Rico. We want the right to marry people without
any papers of any description.

Dr. Carroll. That is just why I want to get these facts prepara-
tory to making recommendations for the purpose of simplifying the
marriage law and rendering it free from any great amount of expense.

Mr. Dominguez. A priest has declared from the pulpit here that
civil marriage is concubinage, and they excommunicate from the
church all persons contracting civil marriage as if they were under a
curse from heaven. By this means they prevent the poor people from
marrying except by the church, which means $10 or $12 for the priest.

Dr. Carroll. Do they denounce those who live in concubinage,
without any marriage at all?

Mr. Dominguez. They smooth over that as much as they can.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost usually to have an expediente for
civil marriage prepared?

Mr. Dominguez. From $8 to $10. The priests put all sorts of obsta-
cles in the way of granting the baptismal certificate to vpersons who
wish to marry civilly.

Dr. Carroll. I have had much testimony on that point, and I want
to hear all that is to be said.

Mr. Dominguez. As the civil register dates from 1885, everybody at
present must go to the priest for the baptismal certificate. It should
be allowed alcaldes, municipal judges, and other judges to perform
marriage in order to spread marriages over the island.

Dr. Carroll. I intend to recommend to General Henry that he issue
an order making the way to civil marriage an open one to all persons
and free so far as possible from cost.

Mr. Dominguez. Such an order should allow alcaldes, notaries, and
all persons with magistrates' powers to perform the marriage ceremony.
I could marry 400 people here who are to-day living together without

•696

any ceremony of marriage. I will do it, and it will not cost anybody
a cent. More than that, I will send police out to get the people to
come into town to be married, so that they will know that they can
be married. If yon will oblige the civil register to inscribe the mar-
riages that I celebrate, I will celebrate them.

DOCUMENTS OF A CIVIL MARRIAGE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arroyo, P. R. , February 3, 1899.
The Municipal Judge and the Priest.

Dr. Carroll. Have there been any civil marriages contracted here?

The Municipal Judge. Four since July.

Dr. Carroll. What cost is incurred in civil marriage?

The Municipal Judge. From $4 to 16 for the expediente.

Dr. Carroll. What is an expediente?

The Municipal Judge. It is the document in which the parties
give an account of themselves and ask permission to marry.

Dr. Carroll. Do you require couples to present baptismal certifi-
cates?

The Municipal Judge. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What does it cost to obtain these baptismal certifi-
cates?

The Priest of Arroya. It costs a dollar, as provided by the law;
but if the judge wants a certificate for use in criminal proceedings, it
is furnished him without any charge.

Dr. Carroll. There is a civil register, I understand, of births,
deaths, and marriages.

The Municipal Jltdge. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. It is claimed in some cases that excessive charges are
made in giving these certificates, so as to prevent the carrying out of
civil marriages.

The Priest. The price is fixed by the ecclesiastical law at $1.

A Gentleman present. I was lately charged a dollar aud a half.

Dr. Carroll. Is it a dollar for the man and a dollar for the
woman — that is, $2 for each couple?

The Priest. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. It costs $4 additional for this document?

The Municipal Judge. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Why is it necessary to have so many documents?

The Municipal Judge. The existing law requires it.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be better to have the existing law
modified so as to make it easier for people to get married?

The Municipal Judge. It would be.

A Gentleman present. I was recently commissioned by the judge
to look into the matter of the records. I went to the civil register
and was struck by the immense majority of deaths over births
recorded there. I applied to the priest, and he said that many are
baptized in the church who are not inscribed in the civil register.

The Priest. The books are open to anybody who wants to look at
them.

The Municipal Judge. According to the present law, when the
period of forty days passes after the birth occurs, and the birth is

697

not inscribed in the civil register, the parent has to form an expedi-
ente and pay a fine, and as they don't want to pay the fine they
avoid having the birth recorded at all. There are mothers who bear
children who have not a cent and can not pay the fine. If it were
not for this fine, everybody in the island could be inscribed.

The expedients necessary for civil marriages consists of, first, a
birth certificate ; second, the document asking permission to be mar-
ried; third, the parents' permission to allow their children to be mar-
ried; fourth, a document from the judge in which he says he knows
of no former marriage of the interested party; fifth, a restatement of
intention to marry ; sixth, the bans which have been published ; sev-
enth, a document stating that the former document has been pub-
lished ; eighth, the document in which the celebration of the marriage
is set forth; ninth, the bans which were posted on the wall.

(An expediente of this kind was shown to the Commissioner. It
consisted of 22 pages, comprising 14 documents.)

Dr. Carroll. When I first came to the island I had a long inter-
view with the capitular vicar of Porto Rico, in which he touched,
among other subjects, upon the matter of morality in Porto Rico. He
said it was greatly to be regretted that there were so few marriages.

The purpose of the present government of Porto Rico is to facilitate
marriage, and if it is true that the church, in some places, puts
impediments in the way of marriage by requiring large fees, then it
is proper that there should be civil marriage. It seems now that
there are impediments in the way of civil marriage. In Humacao I was
informed that in a marriage between a lieutenant and a native lady
the price demanded by the priest in charge there was 100 pesos; that
objection was made to that amount, with the result that the amount
was gradually brought down to 65 pesos.

The Priest. The present ecclesiastical law requires the priest to see
that the two parties contracting marriage have been baptized, and
they charge only $1 for that. There is a similar charge for the proc-
lamation of the bans, and if thej^ are married at 7 in the morning the
marriage is performed free. Persons who wish to be married at incon-
venient hours have to arrange for it, and have to pay $16, or one ounce
of gold.

The Municipal Judge. Civil marriage can be effected at any hour
the couple desire.

Dr. Carroll. I understand that the fashionable hour for a mar-
riage in Porto Rico is in the evening, and that the poor people like to
be married at the time other people are married.

The Priest. The morning hour is fixed by the ecclesiastical gov-
ernment to allow parties marrying to receive the benefit of all the sac-
raments first, and if they many at a late hour at night, or other
hour which is not convenient for them to take part in all the ceremo-
nies required by the superior church government, they pay something
for it. These gentlemen are all residents of this town and know what
has been the administration of the priest who is now here.

A Gentleman present. The general rule here was for both poor
and rich to get married at night.'

Dr. Carroll. In that case would it not be well for the church to
change its rule and follow the wishes of the people? Of course the
church ought to marry the people.

The Priest. These things are fixed on superior orders and we obey
them. My books are open to inspection, and I invite inspection tb
see if they are not kept as they should be.

698

WHY SO MANY AVOID MARRIAGE.

[Hearing at the alcaldia, evening session, before the United States Commissioner.]

Aibonito, P. R., February 6, 1899.

Mr. ,• municipal judge; Mr. Manuel Caballer, maj'or of

Aibonito; and Father Manuel Quintana, parochial priest:

Dr. Carroll. Are there any people living here in the marital rela-
tion without marriage?

The Municipal Judge. Very many. From July up to date I have
not registered a single marriage in the whole district.

Dr. Carroll. Why is it that they prefer to live in that relation
without marriage?

The Municipal Judge. I will inform you about that. We are all
Catholics up to the present, but the ,church has put obstacles in the
way of marriage. When couples go to be married, the priest says you
must pay so much for this document, and so much for the other, and
if the peasant wants to be married at night, according to the custom
of the country, as he usually does, the priest charges him for that also.
As municipal judge, I charge for drawing up the expediente. I charge
because I have no salary.

Dr. Carroll. How much do you charge for it?

The Municipal Judge. A dollar and a quarter for. each party; that
is, $2.50 for both. As I have said, I think the reasons© many people
live together without marriage is because of the charge made by the
church; but as the priests receive no salary now, I hardly see how
they can do otherwise.

Mr. Caballer. I think the main cause is not the fault of the priest
here, but of the superior ecclesiastical authorities, because in the
country districts most of the people are related to each other. If they
want to get married, they must get over that obstacle of relationship
by forming an expediente and getting permission from the high eccle-
siastical authorities, who charge considerable sums for the requisite
permission.

Father Quintana. I protest against what the municipal judge has
said — that I charge for publishing the bans. In the twenty-six years
that I have been here I have never charged anything for publishing-
bans and have always married for nothing when I have been able to
do so; that is, when there were no obstacles calling for special dis-
pensation. I have even gone so far as to spend money to enable the
parties to dress sufficiently well to come to the church to get married.
As regards marrying them at night, it is true I have charged for that,
but a small amount as compared with what is charged in other parishes.
I charge from $8 to $10.

Dr. Carroll.- Do you charge forgiving baptismal certificates?

Father Quintana. Yes; $L

Dr. Carroll. Have you always charged that?

Father Quintana. Only since' my salary was cut off.

Dr. Carroll (to the municipal judge). What do you charge as a
civil fee for the birth record?

The Municipal Judge. Nothing.

A voice. Half a dollar.

The Municipal Judge. The person who registers a birth is under
the obligation of making a written statement, witnessed by two per-
sons, to the effect that the child is the son or daughter, as the case
may be, of such and such persons. The clerk usually makes a charge
of half a dollar for this.

699

Mr. Caballer. As the municipal judges and their secretaries have
no salaries, they try bj^ other means in their power to earn a dollar
decently. The clerk of the justice has a printed form, and when a
countryman comes to inscribe the birth of a child they tell him he
has to pay half a dollar, without giving any reason whatever.

Dr. Carroll. The better way would be to have a salary for the
judge and secretary and abolish all fees.

Mr. Caballer. I think so. I think that would be best for the
country.

Dr. Carroll. I desire to ask Father Quintana a question or two,
with his permission. Of course you consider that persons living
together in the marital relation, without marriage, and raising families
is very bad. Have you taken occasion to exhort your people as to the
importance of having marriage celebrated?

Father Quintana. Yes; very much.

Dr. Carroll. If a great number of such persons are restrained
from marrying on account of the fees, would it not be well for the
sake of the church and for the sake of morality to marry them with-
out charging them anything?

Father Quintana. I will marry them for nothing. I have always
been disposed to do so and will do so now; but they prefer to live in
a state of concubinage.

Dr. Carroll. It will be the policy of the American Government to
facilitate in every possible way the contracting of marriage bonds;
and if there are any difficulties in the way of civil marriage, the Gov-
ernment will, I think, remove those difficulties by making civil mar-
riage easy and costless.

Father Quintana. We will do the same as to marriage.

Dr. Carroll. If that were generally known in this community,
would not many couples present themselves to you for marriage?

Father Quintana. The whole town knows it, and I have preached
it openly.

Dr. Carroll. The mayor of Guayama told me that if he had the'
power to celebrate marriage, he would do so free, and could marry 400
couples.

The Municipal Judge. I will undertake to present 100 couples
to-morrow if they can be married free. Our laws require us to
announce the bans three times; and unless that is removed, we would
have to observe it.

Dr. Carroll. That would not be an obstacle, would it?

Father Quintana. According to the civil law, they also have to pro-
claim, and if there is any relationship, they also have to apply to
headquarters to get a dispensation. We haven't the laws here that
they have in France permitting people to marry civilly and then by
the church.

Dr. Carroll. If this gentleman (the municipal judge) will clear
the way by proclaiming the bans and the couples are not prohibited
from marrying by reason of relationship, will you marry them free?

Father Quintana. I have to make the proclamas in the Catholic
way.

The Municipal Judge. I can give the Father a list of the people
who want to have the bans proclaimed. He can then proclaim the
bans, and those who really want to be married can be married, and
those who will not need not.

Father Quintana. I think the judge is not competent to force peo-
ple to get married. If they will not get married, no one can force
them to.

700

Dr. Carroll. The judge does not propose to force them.

Father Quintana. All right ; hut I will examine the people to see
if they are really willing. If they are not, I will send them away.

The Municipal Judge. I will call on them and say, "You are liv-
ing in a state of concubinage. Would you not like to legitimize your
children? "

Father Quintana. I would many them immediately if I could dis-
pense with the proclamas.

Dr. Carroll. Suppose the capitular vicar gives you the power to
do that?

Father Quintana. I would do it at once. Send me power to allow
them to many without proclamations of any sort. Up to the present
the people have shown themselves unwilling to be married civilly.
They want to be married by the church.

Dr. Carroll. And I think the church should seek means of having
them married.

Father Quintana. I think so, too. I don't wish for anything else
than to have such a commission. I. hope they will be willing to be
married. I have always been preaching to them that they ought to
get married, but they have hitherto preferred to live in concubinage.

The Municipal Judge. As regards civil marriage, I am willing to
many people without any cost whatever.

Father Quintana. As regards the church, I stand in the same
position.

BETTER LAWS DESIRED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Coamo, P. R., February 6, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Have there been any civil marriages in this district?

The Municipal Judge. There were four or five some years ago.

Dr. Carroll. Have there been none recently?

The Municipal Judge. No.

Dr. Carroll. What is necessary in order to contract civil marriage?

The Municipal Judge. The parties must renounce the Catholic
religion, for one thing.
' A Gentleman present. No; I think that is not true.

The Municipal Judge. Yes, it is true.

Dr. Carroll. Have you had any notice of an order modifying that
provison?

The Municipal Judge. No.

Dr. Carroll. In order to perform a civil marriage you require an
expediente, do you not?

The Municipal Judge. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What papers constitute that expediente?

The Municipal Judge." The petition of the contracting parties.
The edict is published eight days twice. On the tennination of the
bans, if there are no parties opposing the marriage, it is celebrated.
If there is relationship between the parties the minister of justice
has to be applied to for a dispensation. The expediente must also
have the consent of the father and mother, although the contracting
parties may be above the legal age. , If the father should refuse con-
sent and the parties are above legal age, the judge may give consent
within three months.

701

Dr. Carroll. What is the average cost of these expedientes?

The Municipal Judge. Nothing at all.

Dr. Carroll. Are there no fees charged for the expediente?

The Municipal Judge. A fee of 40 cents is charged for the inscrip-
tion after the marriage is celebrated.

Dr. Carroll. Are the papers constituting the expediente prepared
without cost?

The Municipal Judge. We can not collect anything.

Dr. Carroll. But you do, don't you?

The Municipal Judge. It is natural that the contracting parties
should make some present.

Dr. Carroll. But you have had only a very few marriages of that
kind, I understand. Are there many people living in the marriage
state without having had a religious or civil marriage performed?

(There was a general chorus of "Many, many," from those present
at the hearing in response to this question. )

Dr. Carroll. What is the reason for it?

A Gentleman present. The reason is the opposition of the priests
and the obstacles they put in the way of people getting married. For
instance, a dollar for the clerical notary, a dollar for the mass, a dol-
lar or more for the priest himself who celebrates the marriage, and if
two relatives wish to get married, they often have to pay thirty or
forty dollars to purchase a dispensation. Moreover, the priests teach
that civil marriage is the same as heresy, and peasants do not get
married civilly for fear of religious consequences. The priests charge
according to the position of the parties seeking marriage and accord-
ing to the hour at which the marriage is celebrated. •

Dr. Carroll. Then fees have only been charged since the American
occupation?

An Elderly Gentleman present. They have been charged all
my life — as far back as I can remember.

A Gentleman present. Another reason, which I consider the prin-
cipal one, is the lack of education among the women. They are not
educated and have no moral force of character, and consequently are
easily persuaded into living that way.

Dr. Carroll. In these cases where people live together without
marriage are they not generally true to each other?

(There were a number who answered in the affirmative, and they
seemed to express the unanimous opinion of the many.)

A Gentleman present. This state should not be looked upon as
one of prostitution.

Dr. Carroll. If civil marriage were made free and easy, would
people generally avail themselves of it?

(This question was answered by a general chorus of "Yes.")

A Gentleman present. The difficulty here about civil marriage is
the fear entertained by a great many people that when they die they
will not be buried in consecrated ground.

Dr. Carroll. What would be the attitude of the church toward
these civil marriages, probably?

A Gentleman present. In my own house a priest who was fond of
acts of charity had an altar erected and married eighteen or twenty
couples there.

Colonel Santiago. I think that the present state of affairs will con-
tinue here until the rigid laws of the United States on this subject are
brought into force. Rigid laws in defense of women are required.
The laws here do not protect the women, and such laws as there are

702

are not enforced in the judicial offices. If free marriage were intro-
duced here, I venture to say that everybody would take advantage of
it. There would of course be some exceptions to this, because under
the lax laAvs here, which have favored persons in doing what they
wanted to, some have taken women that they could not bring into
their own social life, and consequently would not marry them if they
had the opportunity to do so.

Dr. Carroll. What is the state of the law with respect to children
of these illegitimate unions?

A Gentleman present. They are registered in the name of the
parent who brings them, or in the name of both parents, if both are
present.

Dr. Carroll. The question I had in view was what disadvantages
such children stand in under the law. For instance, the law of inher-
itance.

A Gentleman present. They can only inherit the fifth part of the
estate. Should the child be declared the child of a mother having
property, he has equal rights with other children; but being declared
the child of a father having property, he inherits only the fifth part.
The child can be acknowledged by either parent as his or her child,
but after the child has arrived at the age of maturity he has to give
his consent to such recognition to make it legal.

Dr. Carroll. If recognized by both parents, does it make him
legitimate in the eyes of the law?

A Gentleman present. Yes ; with a very slight difference.

VIEWS OF THE CAPITULAR VICAR.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., February 10, 1899.
The Very Rev. Father Juan Perpina e Pibernat, capitular vicar
of the diocese of Porto Rico :

Dr. Carroll. At Aibonito, in the interview with the alcalde and
others, the priest was also present, and the question came up, as it
has in other places, about matrimony, and I wish now to bring that
question to your attention in case you care to hear it. I called for
the number of civil marriages that had been celebrated there in the
last few years, and it appeared that there had been only a few of them,
and they told me that a large number of couples were living together
without any sacrament of marriage whatever.

Father Perpina. That is false.

Dr. Carroll. The question arose there about obtaining dispensa-
tions for the marriage of about 40 couples in that district. The priest
said he would gladly marry these people free if he were allowed by
the authorities to do so.

Father Perpina. How could that man have made such a false state-
ment?

Dr. Carroll. There are people living together who are not married.

Father Perpina. What is the dispensation required for?

Dr. Carroll. The priest said that one of the obstacles was that
some of them were related and that he could not, under ecclesiastical
laws, marry them without a dispen sation . He said that he would gladly
marry the couples if the ecclesiastical authorities in San Juan would
permit him to do so.

703

Father Perpina. The dispensations come from Rome, and that is
why they cost money. The church tries to place an obstacle in the
way of relatives marrying, so as not to make it a common occurrence;
but for poor people who are not relatives no charge is made. For
the rich we charge; why shouldn't we?

Dr. Carroll. They stated that in a country district like Aibonito
most people were related, and that the law of the church made it
difficult for these people to many, and therefore they were living
together without marriage.

Father Perpina. It isfalse.

Dr. Carroll. The priest told me so.

Father Perpina. It is false. I am going to write to the priest that
he is not to tell lies. For each one they would have to make an expe-
diente; the}" have got to go into particulars before dispensations
could be granted. Then they have to take it before the notary, and
they will have to pay something for it. I have expenses here which
I have to cover.

Dr. Carroll. Every individual case, then, would have to stand
by itself?

Father Perpina. Each person would have to present his genealog-
ical tree, so that we could see whether the dispensation could be
given; but I want you to understand that dispensations are never
refused to anybody for want of money. I am astonished that that
priest has made that observation, as he has never sent a request for a
dispensation since I have been here. Those dispensations or applica-
tions should go to Rome; if they go to Rome, they would cost $20
more. Sixteen to eighteen dollars is the cost of a dispensation here.
The most expensive are those dispensing with the bans. In Rome it
would cost them from $100 to $200.

Dr. Carroll. I found so many people living in the various munici-
palities without marriage that it seemed to me it constituted a case
to which some sort of remedy should be applied, and it will be my duty
to recommend that some way out of this difficulty be found, and, if in
no other way, it should be found through the establishment of civil
marriage on an easy and free basis.

Father Perpina. The Spanish Government never assisted the
church in any way in effecting marriages. The Spanish Government
could have prevented this state of concubinage if it had had a mind to.

Dr. Carroll. In what way?

Father Perpina. By punishing the parties. I ask, how did the
Roman emperors prevent it? By making marriage compulsory and
punishing people who lived in concubinage.

Dr. Carroll. Has the church no punishment for concubinage?

Father Perpina. Spiritual punishment only. All those who die in
that state are refused burial in consecrated ground.

Dr. Carroll. Are they not absolved if they confess their sins? I
am told they usually receive the sacrament of extreme unction and
die good Catholics.

Father Perpina. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Well, that is not a punishment, if they know that at
the last they can confess and be forgiven.

Father Perpina. The church would not condemn anybody. What
are we going to do? Can the church allow them to be damned? If
they made me civil governor here, I would prevent every case of im-
moral living. In the time of the Caesars there were two laws, one
which gave premiums to persons who got married at the right age for

704

marriage and the other which punished persons who did not get
married at the right age. Why didn't the Spanish Government have
similar laws, punishing concubinage? If the United States will help
the Catholic Church in doing away with concubinage, it can be done
away with.

Dr. Carroll. I don't know how we can do it except by opening
the way to civil marriage and abolishing the heavy requirements that
are now laid upon civil marriage, so that persons who are living
together as man and wife may, without great cost or any cost at all
practically, have a civil marriage performed.

Father Perpina. From our point of view, civil marriage is con-
cubinage.

Dr. Carroll. It is not the point of view of the United States at
all nor of the law generally. Nevertheless, the great majority of
marriages in the United States are performed by ministers — religious
marriages, Catholic and Protestant.

Father Perpina. The Catholic Church can not allow civil mar-
riage; it does allow, and even advises, civil register of marriages.
Catholics when they marry civilly are from that moment non-Catho-
lics. I wish you to understand that the Catholic Church does not
wish that for lack of money there should be concubinage; if the peo-
ple are able to pay anything, they should do so, because priests can
not live on air.

Dr. Carroll. That is true, and yet one of your priests asked an
American lieutenant, who married a Porto Rican girl in Humacao,
$100, and the lieutenant finally got him to accept $65.

Father Perpina. Particular cases don't establish general rules. .

Dr. Carroll. It is only fair to say that thej^have told me the same
story in many places — that the charges made were obstacles, and
chief obstacles, in the way of getting married.

Father Perpina. It is not true. They wish to live in that state;
they don't wish to marry. If they wish to get married, let them pre-
pare their expediente with the terms required, and they can be. As
a proof that we don't charge much, I have never been able to get rich.
My income is about $50 a month, and never more than $100. At present
the ayuntamientos are bad ones, put in by Muhoz Rivera. They are
bad, very bad, and they are working against the church.

OBSTACLES TO CIVIL MARRIAGE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Caguas, P. R., February 27, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Have there been any civil marriages here within the
last few years?

Municipal Judge Avarez. Very few. A great obstacle to civil
marriage has been that the civil register has been in existence onljT eight
years, and persons wishing to marry civilly have had to get their cer-
tificate of baptism from the church, and the church has put every
possible obstacle in their way.

Dr. Carroll. What are those obstacles?

Judge Avarez. Refusing to give the certificate except upon the
payment of large sums of money. As the law requires the produc-
tion of this certificate or the certificate of a physician, they frequently
are able to compel payment.

705 ■

Dr. Carroll. What is the largest fee you have known to be
charged?

Judge Avarez. Fifty dollars, and even that with difficulty.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many persons living here together in the
relation of husband and wife without marriage?

Judge Avarez. Quite a large number.

Dr. Carroll. Why is that?

Judge Avarez. Owing to ignorance.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any obstacles in the way of church mar-
riage?

Judge Avarez. The priests, when they hear of people living in
that condition, should call the people and counsel them, advising that
they should get married and leave the state of concubinage.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to ask the mayor a single question. I
understand there are a great many people who are living together who
are not married. Why, Mr. Mayor, do they live in that state? Is it
because of any obstacles in the way of matrimony?

Mayor Sola. It is owing to two reasons — want of education and
want of money.

Dr. Carroll. Does it cost much to get married?

Mayor Sola. Not a great deal; but 6 or 7 pesos is a great deal for
poor people. The priests to-day are asking as much as 3 pesos for a
baptismal certificate.

Dr. Carroll. Suppose the law were changed so as to allow all per-
sons, without regard to religion, to avail themselves of the privilege
of civil marriage, and suppose that alcaldes and municipal judges
were empowered to perform the ceremony, and suppose it were a pro-
vision of law that no charge should be made for such marriages ; that
no previous notice should be required; that certificates of consent and
age should be required only of minors; that a marriage certificate
should be required to be given, stating all the facts of the case and
executed by the person performing the marriage ceremony in dupli-
cate, one copy given to the contracting parties and one cop}7 sent to
the municipal judge for inscription and filing — would that facilitate
civil marriage, in your judgment?

Judge Avarez. Very greatly; it would be a good reform.

Dr. Carroll. I have recommended that such an order should be
issued by General Henry. It provides that the marriage certificate
shall give the name and address of each of the contracting parties,
the names and addresses of their parents, as far as possible, and the
places and date of birth. If the parties are minors, the fact that per-
mission was given by a parent or guardian or relative, the certificate
to be signed by two witnesses as well as by the contracting parties; a
certificate also for minors, stating also their names and ages and the
permission of father, guardian, or relative.

The Secretary to the Municipal Judge. Then it will be neces-
sary to form an expediente.

Dr. Carroll. No; the minister of justice will furnish these blanks
to the secretaries of the municipalities, by whom they will be given
to all persons authorized to perform the marriage ceremony; also to
those contemplating marriage.

(The books of the judge's secretary were here produced, showing
the inscription of births, deaths, and marriages. The commissioner
examined the inscription of the death of a person residing in Vega
Baja. It was stated that he was a bachelor; then went on to give a
description of the people who came to ask for the inscription; then
1125 45

706

followed a description of the deceased ; then a statement regarding
his property and as to his dying intestate, the place where and when
buried, and other details. The whole occupied 2 pages.)

Dr. Carroll. Is this in legal form?

.Judge Avarez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Are these books used for that purpose?

Judge Avarez. We give a certified copy when Avanted.

v(The inscription of a birth was examined, which occupied 3 pages
of the book.)

Judge Avarez. This inscription of birth we have to copy into
another book. This second book is unnecessary. We have a pile of
them rotting in the vaults.

MORAL EDUCATION NECESSARY.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cayey, P. R., February 28, 1899.

Dr. Carroll (to the municipal judge). Have there been any civil
marriages here recently?

The Municipal Judge. Not during the six months that I have
been municipal judge here.

Dr. Carroll. Are the people who are living together as husband
and wife generally married?

The Municipal Judge. There are many who live together without
the ceremony.

Dr. Carroll. Why do they so live?

The Municipal Judge. I attribute it to the fact that most of these
people have very little money, and the priests exact considerable sums
to many them.

Dr. Carroll. What is the largest sum' asked of a couple, to your
knowledge, as a marriage fee?

The Municipal Judge-. Sixteen dollars.

A Gentleman present. It cost me $16.

Dr. Carroll. These large fees have been charged only since the
American occupation, I suppose?

The Municipal Judge. No; before that.

Dr. Carroll. The capitular vicar said it was against the law of the
church and against the law of the land to charge such fees, and that
there was no case that he knew of where there had been a fee charged
for marriage.

A Gentleman present. That is the way history is written.

Dr. Carroll. Is it true that the priests marry free many poor
people who get married in the morning?

Mayor Munoz. Those who get married at the morning mass he
usually does not charge anything; those who marry at other times are
charged according to their standing.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not the fashion here to get married in the evening?

Mayor Munoz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. And the poor want to be married at the same time as
others?

Mayor Munoz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. If the priest marries free of charge in the morning,
why don't those who live together and are not married go to him at
that time? *

707

A Gentleman present. Tlie people who are living in concubinage
don't get married because nobody is married free. They say they don't
charge for the marriage ceremony, the joining of hands, but they
charge for other things; they charge $1.25 each for the baptismal cer-
tificates, $1 each for the bans, and 50 cents for the joining of hands.
Nobody can be married free.

A Lawyer of Cayey. I think that this is not the only reason that
the poor do not get married. I believe that owing to the fact that
marriage is indissoluble by law the poor people are unwilling to accept
the responsibility of keeping a wife and children.

Dr. Carroll. Do the men often leave the women with whom they
have lived in that way? Is it the rule?

The Lawyer. No.

Dr. Carroll. Then it can not be the reason.

The Lawyer. I believe it is a very logical reason. They don't
want to undertake the obligation. There are quite a number of cases.

Dr. Carroll. Is it the rule here that those who do not get mar-
ried want the privilege of leaving their families when they get tired
of them?

The Lawyer. I think that is the general rule.

Dr. Carroll. Do the other gentlemen present think so?

[Note. — This question was greeted by a general response in the neg-
ative by those present.]

A Gentleman present. I think the generality of people who do
not marry live in the country districts, and it is for want of educa-
tion and instruction ; but in the towns it is rare to find people who are
living in that relation.

Another Gentleman. Everybody here will agree with me in say-
ing that the reason the people live in the state of concubinage is that
the lack of funds prevents them from getting married, and as proof
of that, when the bishop pays a pastoral visit and marries for nothing,
they come into the towns and get married in great numbers. The
civil law of marriage also requires a payment from poor people, and
an amount, too, that is not within their power to pay. This is the
root of the whole evil.

Dr. Carroll. If a law were promulgated permitting civil marriage
to be performed by the municipal judges, abolishing the need of bap-
tismal certificates and charging no fees — making it absolutely free —
is it your opinion that a great many people would coriie and be mar-
ried?

The Municipal Judge. I think so.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the charge of 1 peso by the municipal
judge or alcalde, if he chose to charge it, would be an obstacle?

The Municipal Judge. The civil judge has never charged any-
thing, but couples have been obliged to ask for baptismal Certificates,
which have cost them $1.25 each.

Mayor Munoz. I think education would contribute greatly to abolish
concubinage. I think, also, that divorce for legitimate reasons should
be allowed; marriage should not be indissoluble, as now.

Dr. Carroll. Your civil code provides for divorce, does it not?

A Lawyer present. It permits a separation, but not complete
divorce.

Dr. Carroll. Not for adultery?

The Lawyer. Not even for bad treatment.

Mr. Louis Munoz. I think that the measure you have just men-
tioned will go far toward settling the difficulty; but there will be

708

another difficulty if they do not have to present any document as to
the status of the parties. One of the contracting parties might be
married already; you would not have anything to pro re his freedom to
marry. That is the object of the expediente.

Dr. Carroll. We don't have anything of the kind in the United
States, but it is well understood that when a man commits bigamy he
is subject to arrest and trial as a criminal, and there is a heavy pun-
ishment.

Mr. Luis Munoz. I think that that is all right. In the Spanish law
there is also a criminal responsibility imposed. Under the civil law
marriage produces effects, whether legally contracted or not, and this
might give rise to trouble.

Dr. Carroll. I don't see how you can prevent that under any
system.

Mr. Luis Munoz. The Spanish law makes it harder for a man to
get married, because he has to prove by document his right to do so.
There might be a case of false documents, but it would be rare.

Dr. Carroll. Is it not better to make it easier to marry for those
who have the right than to make it hard for those who abuse it, and
have many living together without marriage?

Mr. Luis Munoz. I think the fee system should be abolished, but
I think the people seeking to marry should be obliged to prove their
status before the alcalde or judge.

Dr. Carroll. I have been given to understand that the very fact
of requiring so many steps to be taken was one of the obstacles to
marriage. I was shown in Arroyo an expediente of 22 pages and 14:
documents in one marriage.

Mr. Luis Munoz. The law could correct that abuse the same as the
other.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think that the fee of a dollar would stand in
the way of a great many marrying?

Mayor Munoz. No. I am of your opinion that if criminally inclined
persons want to get married two or three times they will do so anyway.

VARIOUS REASONS ASSIGNED.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., JIarch 3, 1899.
Mr. Isidorio Uriate y Zalazer, municipal judge:

Dr. Carroll. Have there been many civil marriages here?

Mr. Uriate. Very few. I have been in this position since the inva-
sion and was named by General Wilson. I have not celebrated any
civil marriages in that time. I was sick five or six days, and there
was one civil marriage performed in my absence. I have put that in
the notes I will give you.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many people living together here who are
not married?

Mr. Uriate. Yes; quite a few.

Dr. Carroll. What is the cause of that?

Mr. Uriate. I think it is owing to the povei .,- of the poor and to
the fact that they do not understand their duty to society. They have
not much money, and are unable to attend to theii education, and
know no better. It is not a crime with them. I think it is owing to

709

•

slavery also, because it was to the interest of slave owners in the old
days to multiply slaves.

Dr. Carroll. Is this chiefly among the poor people and among the
colored people?

Mr. Uriate. White people of the better classes do not suffer from
this at all.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the cost of marriage has anything to do
with preventing people from getting married?

Mr. Uriate. Yes; it has a great influence.

Dr. Carroll. Is ecclesiastical marriage costly?

Mr. Uriate. It is a sort of speculation with the priests. They used
to ask fees that would amount to as high as forty or fifty dollars.

Dr. Carroll. That was before the invasion?

Mr. Uriate. Yes. To-day I think they will marry people for any-
thing they can get, if they see that they have the competition of the
civil marriage. If people wanted to get married at 1.1 o'clock at night
the fee was §35. That was for poor or rich.

Dr. Carroll. Of course the poor could not pay that?

Mr. Uriate. No; of course not.

Dr. Carroll. Would it be well, in your judgment, to make civil
marriage freer; forinstance, to dispense with the baptismal certificate?

Mr. Uriate. Yes ; the present law requires, in order to celebrate mar-
riage, that the parties should present their baptismal certificates and
certificates showing that they are single, and the church naturally
puts all the obstacles it can in the way to giving these certificates.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well to make civil marriage so free
that you would require certificates only in the case of minors and the
permission of their parents?

Mr. Uriate. Yes; but there is one thing about that. To be able
to certify to the age of minors it is necessary to go to the priests ; that
is the only way they can prove it.

Dr. Carroll. They need not prove it exactly. They can get a cer-
tificate from a physician or some one who knows the age approxi-
mately.

Mr. Uriate. Yes; but it could not be done under the law as it ex-
ists at present.

Dr. Carroll. But the law could be changed.

Mr. Uriate. Yes; that would be well. It would give much better
results. Every marriage, too, costs from ten to twelve dollars for the
expecliente, and with great delay also, because the bans have to be
posted for fifteen days.

Dr. Carroll. That is unnecessary, is it not, in the case of persons
who have arrived at the age of maturity?

Mr. Uriate. I think that in the city three days would be sufficient,
and there need not be public notices published, but only notices in
the press for three days.

Dr. Carroll. Is it necessary to give any notice at all? The man
comes to be married, say, is 30 years old and the woman 25. Is it nec-
essary to give to the public any notice that they are going to be mar-
ried?

Mr. Uriate. It is done with the purpose of not allowing the au-
thorities to be taken by surprise. People might be married who are
already married.

Dr. Carroll. That happens under any law.

Mr. Uriate. According to the Catholic Church, civil marriage is
regarded as no marriage at all.

710

Dr. Carroll. Births are not fully reported are they?

Mr. Uriate. No; births are not fully inscribed. The law only gives
them forty days, and if they do not report within forty days a fine is
imposed upon them for their neglect. For this reason they don't pre-
sent themselves. The mother has to bring the child herself, and
in some barrios the road is so bad it is impossible for the mother to
bring the child.

Dr. Carroll. This is not necessary, is it?

Mr. Uriate. I think that the parents should come to the register
themselves; but the law onlty allows forty days, and to make a woman
undertake a difficult journey within forty days after giving birth is
wrong.

Dr. Carroll. Would it not be well to allow the comisario, in case
the barrio is distant, to send a certificate?

Mr. Uriate. Yes; it would give much better results. I think the
comisarios should have registers and send the reports to the municipal
judge every fifteen days.

Dr. Carroll. And the fines should be limited, should they not, so
as to encourage women to report their offspring.

Mr. Uriate. It is ridiculous to impose a fine on poor people.

Dr. Carroll. What is the fine?

Mr. Uriate. I can not say; I think it is left to the discretion of the
judge. I have never imposed any.

Dr. Carroll. It is a dead letter, is it not?

Mr. Uriate. What happens is that the parents make false reports
of a child's age. They declare it of less age than it really is, and that
may affect its civil rights later on — in case of a legacy, for example.
I was sitting yesterday and to-day hearing misdemeanors. I think
they ought to be attended to by the mayor. For instance, a boy with
candies was told to move on. He would not do so, was arrested, and
brought before the municipal judge.

Dr. Carroll. It seems to me that the municipal judge ought to
have a salary.

Mr. Uriate. We receive nothing. I have to attend to the court to
the prejudice of my own business.

Dr. Carroll. The duties of municipal judge in this district must
be very onerous.

Mr. Uriate. Yes; there is very much work connected with the
office, and in case of necessity the municipal judge has to take the
place of the judge of first instance, which puts more work on him.

THE TARIFF OF FEES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yaltco, P. R., March 6, 1S99.
Mr. Torres, Mr. Mejia, and others:

Dr. Carroll. Have there been any civil marriages in Yauco?
Mr. Torres. There have been some.
Dr. Carroll. Very few, I suppose.
Mr. Torres. Yes, very few.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many people living together who never had
the ceremony of marriage performed?
A Gentleman. Two-thirds of the people here live that way.

711

Another Gentleman. Not so many as that.

First Gentleman. Yon go np into the mountains and yon will see
that it is so.

Mr. CianChini. The proportion stated is a little exaggerated, but I
think it amounts to one-half.

Dr. Carroll. What is the reason for this state of things?

Mr. Torres. The want of education among the people.

Mr. Mejia. The priests were accustomed to charge ten or twelve
dollars for marriage, and many persons who wished to get married
would say, "We will not pay that; we will live together without
getting married."

Dr. Carroll. That charge of fees has been only since the American
occupation?

Note. — This remark of the commissioner was greeted by a general
chorus of "noes."

A Gentleman. Such charges have been made ever since the island
was an island.

Dr. Carroll. It was contrary to law?

A Gentleman. The church had its tariff of fees.

Dr. Carroll. Yes ;■ but since 1851 all such fees have been abolished.

Mr. Mejia. If people got married in the daytime the priest did not
charge for the ceremony, but he collected for the bans and for the
dispensation to marry.

Dr. Carroll. Why is it that more people do not resort to civil
marriages?

Mr. Torres. The majority of the people are Catholics.

Mr. Mejia. When people wish to get married civilly they have to
go to the priest for their baptismal certificates and he puts every
obstacle in the way of giving them and tries to make the people
believe that they are committing a sin in getting married that way.

Dr. Carroll. Do they urge the people to get married?

A Gentleman. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What objections do the Catholics offer to civil mar-
riage?

A Gentleman. The priests oppose it because they are deprived by
it of the money they are able to collect when persons are married
under church auspices. They only preach about it in the church,
however; not outside.

A Gentleman. If the priests were to marry free of charge, nearly
everybody would get married.

Dr. Carroll. Suppose the power were given to the alcalde and
municipal judge to niarry people, and that such marriage should be
free of charge, and that most of the present requirements should be
abolished, would that open the way to civil marriage?

Mr. Cianchini. I think the whole root of the trouble is lack of edu-
cation here.

A Gentleman. I think nearly all of them would marry if the pres-
ent obstacles were removed; at least 90 per cent would do so.

Dr. Carroll. It is in contemplation to abolish the provision requir-
ing baptismal certificates and also the provision requiring banns or
previous notice; only to require a certificate in the case of minors,
stating their ages and the permission of their parents, and to issue a
certificate of marriage. Would such a provision as that, in the judg-
ment of the people here, increase civil marriage very much?

(There was an immediate and general response in the affirmative.)

712

Dr. Carroll. Is it important that the ceremony should be per-
formed without any charge, or would a charge of 1 peso be proper?

Mr. Santiago Vivaldi. It should be done for nothing. Those half-
naked people would not come down to be married if anything were
said about cost.

Mr. Cianchini. Even a peseta would frighten them away.

Mr. Vivaldi. I think the comisarios and school-teachers should be
obliged to spread the notice of such free marriage around, and that
the law should oblige people to many.

CONDITION OF THE LABORING CLASSES.

THE LABORING CLASSES.
[Hearing Ijefore the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.
Felix Matos Bernier, of Ponce, P. R. :

Dr. Carroll. What is the social condition of Porto Rico?

Mr. Bernier. The social state of Porto Rico is a pitiable one, owing
to the want of attention under the Spanish authorities and the isola-
tion in which the country people have always lived. It is necessary
for the-salvation of the workingman of this country that a system of
compulsory education should be instituted, but it should be made
practicable, so that it can be enforced.

As regards religion, the people are nearly all utterly indifferent.
They have never been taught properly religious dogmas, because
their education, I think, has not allowed them to grasp the real mean-
ing of religion. I mean that it would have been labor wasted. Very
few are fanatical, but all are susceptible of religious instruction.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose they are all inclined to the Catholic
Church?

Mr. Bernier. They have absolutely no religious criterion; they
simply don't care.

Dr. Carroll. They know nothing of Protestantism, for instance?

Mr. Bernier. They are susceptible of being molded completely.
As a general rule they have ill feelings toward the Catholic Church,
which. I consider a great advantage in their favor.

Dr. Carroll. Are they superstitious?

Mr. Bernier. No; not at all.

There has been a great deal of complaint on the part of the peons
because of the wages they have received; but some of this is unrea-
sonable. Mairy agriculturists have treated their help with fairness.
Some of them, it is true, have taken advantage of their ignorance
and committed abuses in the payment and treatment of the laborers.
The general rate of wages, without regard to the form in which they are
paid, has been about 50 centavos a day, and in a great many cases the
peons are furnished with houses. In the lowlands in a great many
instances owners of sugar estates have paid as low as from 31 to 36
centavos, which I consider unjust, because in the lowlands peons have
more needs than those living in the mountains. I think that when
the exchange is made the laborer will be perfectly satisfied if he
receives 50 cents in the newT money and is allowed to share in personal
liberties, which for him will be a great event. This question is so

713

extensive that it is not possible to reduce it to a few remarks. But
the real protest of the country as a whole lias been against the Span-
ish institutions in the country — the privileges which have always
been conceded to natives of Spain and the assaults and abuses, direct
and indirect, with which they have treated the working classes here.
The working classes of this country are so submissive and easily sat-
isfied and humble that they could have lived contentedly under
almost any other government than that of Spain, whose laws were
never carried out as they should have been. I think that the coun-
try should have a police force imported from the States while educat-
ing certain elements among the young men here to understand their
opportunities and duties in that respect.

Dr. Carroll. What do you think of the civil guard?

Mr. Bernier. I think that the civil guard should be suppressed
and that a new body of comisarios should be created, with a certain
number of men under them to protect life and property in their respec-
tive districts. For the purpose of this body it would be necessary to
choose men of calm judgment, unbiased by any political party. One
of the reasons of Spain's failure is that she sent a civil guard here
among whom were men who were at the disposition of certain prop-
erty holders, who made use of them to exercise undue pressure over
their workmen for their own private ends.

Dr. Carroll. Were they not a well-trained body of men?

Mr. Bernier. In the physical sense of the word they were fine men
and well disciplined, but in another sense of the word they were a
cancer upon the country.

Dr. Carroll. Is the unfortunate condition of the laboring classes
due to the oppressive power of the few?

Mr. Bernier. I think it is due, in the first place, to the neglect of
the government, which has taken no notice of the working class, and,
in the second place, due to the conditions of life under which they
live — the want of social privileges. I think it is also due in part to
the owners of estates, who have looked upon them simply as instru-
ments of work, but have taken no cognizance of them as human beings.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose that owners of sugar estates differ— that
some have been kind and considerate, while others have been
oppressive?

Mr. Bernier, Yes; some of them have looked after their working-
men well.

Dr. Carroll. Is that a matter, in your judgment, to be remedied
by law or by bringing about better conditions?

Mr. Bernier. To a certain extent it is a matter of legislation, because
legislation can bring about better conditions; but it is not a condition
that can be legislated for directly.

Dr. Carroll. What are the hours of labor?

Mr. Bernier. From the rising to the setting of the sun. The peons
themselves say that their hours begin and end with the opening and
closing of the ceciliana, a flower that opens and closes with the sun,
which is usually understood to mean from 6 to 6. In a few parts of
the island the hours of labor are from 6 to 5.

Dr. Carroll. How long a time are the men allowed at noon?

Mr. Bernier. From 12 to 1.

Dr. Carroll. The hours for agricultural laborers in the United
States are even longer than those. They begin work sometimes as
early as 4 o'clock in the morning.

714

FOOD OF THE POOR.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1898.
Mr. Francisco T. Sabat, deputy collector of customs in San Juan.

Dr. Carroll. What are the chief kinds of food used'?

Mr. Sabat. Fresh meat, wheat bread, dried codfish, rice, beans,
all classes of poultry, and all classes of tropical fruits. The poorer
classes of the country eat jerked beef, fried plantains, and sweet pota-
toes; seldom fresh meat. Without exception they all use coffee.
Sometimes, in the cold season, instead of taking coffee, they use gin-
ger tea, the root being produced in this country. The people in the
cities take more or less the same classes of food — more or less, as people
in other countries do.

Dr. Carroll. What is the principal clothing used in the country?

Mr. Sabat. The country people of the poorer classes, owing to the
neglect to which they have always been subject on the part of the
government, and also to the effects of slavery, which was abolished
in 1873, seldom wear anything but a shirt and a pair of pants made of
a mixture of cotton and jute of the cheapest possible description.
They rarely wear shoes. They wear straw hats of native manufac-
ture. People in the cities dress as people do in other countries, except
that they select as thin materials as can be found.

Dr. Carroll. In the country most of the children go naked, do
they not?

Mr. Sabat. In the country it is more or less customary among the
poor people, having little children, to allow the little children to go
about without clothing, but it is contraiy to law to allow it in the
cities. The fact that children are seen in that condition in the cities
shows how the essential laws have been neglected.

Dr. Carroll. What classes of houses are found in the country
districts?

Mr. Sabat. The poor people in the country districts make their
houses upon four uprights, usually trunks of trees, and cover them
outside with dried thatch, roof and all. These houses are almost
without furniture, and the people sleep without mattresses of any
description. In the city, as well as in the country, with few excep-
tions, there are few houses which have glass. With glass the houses
would be suffocating. The class of persons who are in a good posi-
tion— that is, not rich, but in moderate circumstances — live well here.
In the city and in the rural districts most of the agriculturists who
possess any capital have their comfortable houses on their estates,
well furnished in proportion to their means; they partake of good
food and, in fact, lead quite comfortable lives. It is only the poor
people who live as miserably as has just been described.

ARTISANS OF SAN JUAN.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 4, 1898.
A committee of workmen, representing various gremios, or working-
men's societies, of San Juan, called upon the commissioner at his office.
The committee consisted of the following-named persons: Santiago

715

Iglesias, president of the Federation of Gremios of San Juan; Facundo
Valencia Ramos, representing the painters; Jose Antonio Gimenez,
representing tinsmiths and bookbinders; Jose M. Figueras, represent-
ing cigar makers; Rosendro Rivera, representing printers; Estanislao
Sesman, representing masons; Hernardo Torres, representing bakers;
Norberto Quinones, representing dock laborers; Hilario Diaz, repre-
senting barbers ; Esteban Rivera Nunez, representing shoemakers, and
Benigno Lopez Castro, a professor of elementary instruction, repre-
senting small planters and day laborers.

Mr. Iglesias. I represent specially the gremio of carpenters. To
tell yon about all the wants and aspirations of my gremio I should
have to speak at great length. What I will say is that our chief
object has been to obtain for each of its members the greatest amount
of education possible and to facilitate the means of using boys, 15
years of age, who wish to enter the workshops. Under the new insti-
tutions we shall find this much easier, because we understand that in
the United States the greater part of the forces of the Government are
directed to the propagation of instruction for its workingmen, and the
new form of government will itself take care of that, through munici-
palities and the insular government. As regards education, we shall
not have to give so much attention to that.

As I said before, that is a municipal matter; but, as regards tech-
nical instruction, that will occupy our attention more closely, as we
have here no large buildings in the way of factories in which youths
can acquire such an education, and, unfortunately, tradesmen and
artisans are obliged to work in competition with each other. We shall
have to direct our attention especially to the economic side of our
trades, as that has been at a very low ebb. Wages have ruled from
$1 to $1.50 a day. There have been some exceptions of $3 for a day's
work. I am speaking for my own gremio. The average wage has
been $1 or $1.25. I am sorry to say that but few members of our
gremio have had an opportunity of acquiring a thorough knowledge
of the trade.

Dr. Carroll. There is, then, a considerable amount of unskilled
labor in your gremio?

Mr. Iglesias. From an artistic point of view, they have not acquired
the excellence they should have, but most of their work does not
require a great deal of artistic excellence. At any rate, the work they
have done has yielded a great profit to those for whom they have
worked, and has always been worth more than they have received.
The work required in this country is of a solid character. We are
anxious to obtain technical schools for the broader education of our
members, and we also require that public buildings shall be built in
such a way that they will stimulate workmen to excel in their par-
ticular branch and shall not be made the instruments of speculation
for the persons having them in charge.

As regards the hours of labor, we require that they should be short-
ened, because in this climate, where the sun undermines a man's con-
stitution, we have been working ten and eleven hours a day, with
only an hour for dinner. It is quite a common thing for a man to go
to work in the morning without having time to take his coffee. In
the middle of the day they leave off work at 11 o'clock and go home
to a dinner which the scarcity of their means does not allow to be
sufficient to keep up their strength. They work until sunset in the
winter. In San Juan and in many parts of the island it is quite a

716

common thing to see debilitated specimens of humanity who have
been brought to that estate by overwork and improper food.

Dr. Carroll. Of what does the staple food of the workingman
consist?

Mr. Iglesias. Rice, beans, and codfish. That is, for the generality
of them. There are a few who can eat meat;" but meat costs at pres-
ent 30 and 35 centavos a kilogram, and there are few who can afford
that luxury. As regards our homes, the situation is simply appalling.
Owing to the heavy rents, workmen are reduced to the necessity of
living in a niche — you can hardly call it a room. This, of course, con-
tributes to the unhealthiness of the workmen.

Dr. Carroll. How do the prices of labor and of food and other
necessaries of life now compare with those before the war?

Mr. Iglesias. Before the war rates of wages averaged about $1.25
or $1.50, colonial money; but to-day the tendencj7 is to pay us our
wages in gold, for which reason, as long as the difference exists, we
are earning a premium of 60 per cent over our former wages. This
is noticeable on public and military works, and we have made repre-
sentations to master workmen that we shall hereafter require them to
pay us in gold.

Dr. Carroll. You are satisfied with the present arrangement; is
that what you mean?

Mr. Iglesias. Whatever complaints we make do. not in an}' way
have relation to the American Government or its representatives.
Whatever we suffer under the present administration is the fault of
persons of Spanish origin who are very near the Government, who are
very deficient in education, and whose idea is to advance their own
interests at the expense of the island.

Dr. Carroll. I do not get your meaning. Do you mean that you
get more now than before the war?

Mr. Iglesias. Some get more, but not all.

Dr. Carroll. Do you pay more or less now for rice, sugar, and the
things you are in daily need of than you did before the war?

Mr. Iglesias. Some cost as much, and some are lower.

Dr. Carroll. Taking the things you have to buy, all iu all, are you
paying as much now as before the war?

Mr. Iglesias. The general result is more.

Dr. Carroll. Does child labor enter into the labor question to any
great degree?

Mr. Iglesias. Yes; it does. There is no law preventing children
of 15 from entering into competition with adults, and the heavy work
they are called upon to do annihilates the child in a short time.

Dr. Carroll. Does prison labor enter into competition in any way
with the labor of the gremios?

Mr. Iglesias. Formerly it did so, but to-day prisoners are not
allowed out of prison, and we don't fear them any longer.

Mr. Ramos. The gremio of painters suffers from all the causes
enumerated by Mr. Iglesias; also from the low rate of wages received.
As the painters did not know what the American Government would
pay, they stipulated for wages at the old rate, but they found out
afterwards that some were being paid $1.50 in gold, and they all now
want to get that rate. Some are receiving that amount and some are
not. As regards education, the painters also are in sad need of better-
ment in this line. What we need is a technical college of instruction.
We also require, as workmen, better food and lodging.

Mr. Gimenez. I represent three branches, those of tinsmith and

717

silversmith, of whom there are very few, and of bookbinder, a class
of workmen spread widely over the country. The pay of bookbinders
is not made daily or weekly, but monthly, and it is very rare for a
bookbinder to earn as much as $25 a month, provincial money, the
usual rate being from $15 to $18. As you can understand, that is too
small an amount. No single man can live on it, much less a married
man with a family. As regards other matters, what Mr. Iglesias has
said will cover my views also.

Mr. Figueras. I represent the cigar makers, whose industry has been
one of the most unjustly treated branches of labor, for it is an
accepted axiom that the laborer should receive at least one-fourth of
the selling price of the goods on which he works, and I can say that
we do not. Take, for instance, a cigar that is retailed at 130 a thou-
sand. We ought to receive at least $7.50 for our labor, but we receive
only $6.25. That is with respect to small sizes. In fine work and
larger sizes of cigars, those, for instance, which are sold at $110 and
$120 a thousand, we are only paid $20, which is less than the proportion
in the preceding case. Owing to these circumstances the cigar makers
have asked the owners of factories to raise their rates of wages in rela-
tion to the retail prices of the cigars they work on. The workers on
the fine grades of cigars — skilled workmen — never earn more than
$1.25 a day, and as they usually have families, this is utterly insuffi-
cient for their support. The workers on the lower grades seldom earn
more than 80 cents a day.

Dr. Carroll. How long has it been since you. received one-fourth
part of the selling price of the cigars?

Mr. Figueras. In the year 1882 I was working with others in a fac-
tory called "The Two Antilles." We struck, and the owner of the
factory issued a notice in which he called us back to work and xn'ora-
ised to give us 25 per cent, as we demanded. This was paid for some
time, but there was a gradual return to the lower prices.

Dr. Carroll. Are the lower prices you are receiving now due in
any way to the overcrowding of the trade?

Mr. Figueras. . There are really too many workmen; and when the
employers haven't much work, they give out to their men a certain
amount of tobacco to work up; and as the men do piecework, they
divide this up among themselves and each takes his share of it. That
is one of the reasons they can never make a sufficiently good living,
because where they might otherwise earn $2, they have to divide up
with their fellow- workmen and earn only a dollar apiece.

Mr. Rivera. I represent compositors. Our gremio is in a very back-
ward condition, which fact I attribute to the high duties levied by the
Spanish Government on type brought into the country, such type never
having been manufactured here. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion
that there are typesetters here who are able to compete with any type-
setters in the world as regards the quality of their work. What pre-
vents us from turning out fine work is the lack of good materials. As
regards the wage question, I think the rates paid here for typesetting
are criminal. We think the Government ought to establish schools
to enable us to study English gratuitously. There is only one estab-
lishment in which typesetters have work all the year round. The
owner of it began with nothing, and everything he has to-day he has
earned at the expense of his workmen.

Dr. Carroll. How do you work, by the day or by the line?

Mr. Rivera. The pay for three lines, composed and distributed, is
lx cents.

718

Dr. Carroll. What wages can typesetters earn per week on an
average?

Mr. Rivera. The average is $5 or $6 a week.

Dr. Carroll. How much do you consider it necessary for a man to
have in order to have a degree of comfort?

Mr. Rivera. About $15 a week.

Mr. Sesman. I represent masons and bricklayers. As regards the
general aspects of our trade, what Mr. Iglesias has said applies to our
trade. With high prices for food and low wages, we are in a very bad
situation. There are a few masons who can earn as much as 81.25 a
day, but they comprise only about one-tenth of the masons; others
earn less.

Dr. Carroll. How many days do you work in a week?

Mr. Sesman. Six days, as in all the gremios.

Mr. Iglesias. In the office of the Correspondencia the printers work
every day in the year, except Good Friday. The bakers work every
day.

Mr. Sesman. The employers of labor exploit labor in every way pos-
sible, exacting from it more than it can do. They do not take a man's
intelligence into account when they come to fix wages; it is merely a
matter of paying for so much brute force. I will cite you an instance
in connection with my trade. Take 3 meters of wall, for example, for
which the contractor would receive $9.25; of this the laborer would
get only $4.75.

Dr. Carroll. Does any of the rest go for materials?

Mr. Sesman. That simply refers to the work; not to the materials.

Dr. Carroll. Does not the contractor furnish the materials?

Mr. Sesman. Yes; but he has a different arrangement for that.

Dr. Carroll. Does he make that amount out of the labor alone?

Mr. Sesman. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Then I should think there would be a great many
contractors.

Mr. Sesman. There are a great many.

Dr. Carroll. That ought to bring down the prices.

Mr. Sesman. It isn't a question of competition, for there isn't a
great amount of work, and the necessities of life force us to take work
at any terms offered by the contractors.

Dr. Carroll. Does the illustration you give represent the rule or
the exception?

Mr. Sesman. It is the rule.

Dr. Carroll. Was it a government building to which you referred?

Mr. Iglesias. The Spanish Government, in building its fortifica-
tions and public buildings, would let the work out by public auction,
but would fix the prices of labor, and other builders and property
owners would guide themselves b}7 the prices fixed by the Spanish
Government.

Dr. Carroll. Was Mr. Sesman referring to a government build-
ing?

Mr. Sesman. No; not to any building in particular.

I have nothing further to say, except to add that what I can earn
is not enough to live on.

Dr. Carroll. How much do bricklayers get a week?

Mr. Sesman. Nine dollars.

Mr. Norberto Quinones. I come here to speak in behalf of the
lightermen. There is a company owning lighters here which employs
us, and we are supposed to work on shares. It is nothing more than

719

a supposition, as virtually we clon't do so. On the arrival of a vessel,
the company sends out lighters and agrees to pay the men who work
them a portion of the amount received from the consignees of the
cargo — usually a quarter — but we don't get that, and on dividing up
among ourselves we have to make allowance for the fact that some
perform more work than others. This state of affairs is very unsat-
isfactory. This division never gives enough at the end of the week
to pay for decent subsistence. We have to work without the use of
any sort of mechanical appliances to assist us in the work; every-
thing is done by bodily strength. We have to take our meals in a
hurry, because we are required to work continuously in loading or
unloading a vessel. Should any of us injure himself, such as fractur-
ing a limb, the lighter company does not assist us. One of our chief,
complaints is that we have no fixed hours of work. We have to work
at any hour we are called on, beginning at 5 o'clock in the morning.
Our boss, who is paid more than the rest, makes us work like dogs.
Among the lightermen there is hardly one who knows how to read or
write. As a class, they are without education of any sort.

Dr. Carroll. Do they begin at an early age?

Mr. Quinones. Sometimes as early as 8 years old. They begin by
cleaning out the boat and assisting in rowing it to and from the vessel.
As their strength increases they assist in the heavier work.

Dr. Carroll. How many lighter companies are there?

Mr. Quinones. Three; Arsuaga, Cheveste Successors, and the
widow of Cabrere.

Dr. Carroll. Do these companies work with a common under-
standing between them as to prices?

Mr. Quinones. Yes ; they work in harmony.

Dr. Carroll. Are they under government supervision?

Mr. Quinones. No.

Dr. Carroll. Is the captain of the port not supposed to have some
superintendence of these matters?

Mr. Quinones. Yes; he is supposed to, but he neglects his duty.

Dr. Carroll. Do these companies pay any tax upon their income
or upon their work?

Mr. Quinones. They pay an impost on the lighter — so much a
lighter.

Dr. Carroll. Have the lightermen ever made any complaint to the
captain of the port?

Mr. Quinones. We were always complaining, but as justice was
only a theory we never got any remedy. If we did not work, there
were always men who could be had who would work.

Mr. Torres. There is very little to be said about the bakery busi-
ness. In San Juan there are five bakeries, but the number of bakers
is greater than there is need of. They divide, the work among them-
selves, a portion of them working some nights and the rest other
nights. Bakers work night and day here. Kneaders earn $3 in
twenty-four hours. The peons who work at the board make from $2
down to $1.50.

Dr. Carroll. Everybody in this island eats bread, as I understand
it, and if there are only five bakeries in this district of 30,000 people,
it would seem that it would be a lively business for the bakers. They
make excellent bread.

Mr. Torres. It is a good business. Counting the bakery at Puerta
de la Terra, a suburb of the capital, there are six.

720

Dr. Carroll. Why don't the bakers share with the workmen?
They are workmen themselves, arc 1hey not?

Mr. Torres. They are not workmen themselves. At 10 o'clock at
night they turn over the key of their bakery to their foreman and go
to sleep. As in other trades, the man who doesn't work makes the
money and the man who does work gets very little.

Dr. Carroll. Does it require much capital to start a bakery?

Mr. Torres. I estimate that with $500 and a couple of barrels of
flour a small bakery could be commenced.

Dr. Carroll. Then is it not the thing for the journeyman baker to
start a bakery himself?

Mr. Torres. The reason why the bakers are in such a poor position
is that under the old government any such thing as a meeting to
better their conditions or request an increase of wages would be re-
garded by the government with disfavor, so that they were never able
to get together to improve their situation.

Dr. Carroll. The Government of the United States allows the
utmost freedom for men to meet, talk about matters of common inter-
est, and concert plans for their mutual advantage.

Professor Castro. I am going to tell a story which will illustrate
why workmen did not get together under the old government. In
1893, when Porto Rico had a reciprocal tariff with the United States,
a bag of flour could be brought in and sold at from seven to eight dol-
lars. I was astonished to see that bread was sold, nevertheless, at 9
centavos a pound — what was supposed to be a pound , but what wa s really
only 10 ounces. I tried to find out the reason for this, and found that
only two bakeries were working and seven had closed. I found that
these two bakeries had monopolized the business and were paying the
others sums of from $60 to $150 not to work. I was determined to
break up this monopoly, and I founded, in company with some com-
panions, a society called the Cooperative Workmen's Society. After
more than a year's existence, during which time, with a minimum
payment of $25 a month, we managed to save up $1,000, we started a
bakery. As soon as we had it started and offered the public bread at
6 centavos a pound — full 16 ounces — the two bakeries which had been
monopolizing the trade began to cut prices until finally they com-
menced to give it away. I was determined not to give in, and worked
day and night. I kept it up for two years, but the work was superior
to my strength. I not only had to struggle against the bakeries which
had been in operation, but also against those which had closed,
because the moment I started to wo.rk the two established bakeries
stopped paying to the others. At the end of two years, because of
intrigue against me and because the public did not respond as it
should have done, the company retired me and put somebody else in
the place. The neAv men did not work day and night as I did, and
the result was that the* company soon ceased to exist. I got into fur-
ther trouble because the two companies against which I was smug-
gling started a suit against me as an anti-Spaniard, and I don't know
how I managed to get out of the suit as I did. All steps toward ini-
tiative were wiped out by the Spanish Government. I was at that
time a schoolmaster, not a baker, and that was one of the reasons
why they brought the suit against me. I was not an enemy of Spain,
but I was an enemy of monopoly.

Mr. Diaz. I represent the gremio of barbers. All I have to say is
that they suffer more or less the same ills that have been i*eferred to —
the high prices of provisions, the low remuneration of barbers, and

721

high rents. I represent the barbers in this evening's committee only.
I am not a barber myself and can not give you details.

Mr. Nunez. The shoemaker's trade has been one of those most
exploited, owing to the fact that materials have been very high and
shoes very cheap — that is to say, shoes brought in from Spain have
been allowed special advantages, and have been imported at a price
which allows of their being sold at a much lower figure than those
made here. On the other hand, materials have been heavily taxed.
Another thing from which we have suffered was the practice of some
gentlemen who were not really in the shoe business taking contracts
for supplying shoes, instead of these contracts being given to shoe-
makers. There have been instances where teachers of the normal
school have established shoemaker shops in their private houses in
order to comply with contracts taken by them.

Professor Castro. My profession is that of a school-teacher, but as
this is a manufacturing center and not an agricultural one, there does
not happen to be a representative of the agricultural interests here,
and Mr. Iglesias has commissioned me to take that charge upon
myself.

Agriculture in this country is at a very low ebb, not because of the
soil, which is most fertile, nor for the want of natural resources, but
because of the want of funds and because of the rudimentary
methods employed by agriculturists.

Dr. Carroll. What opportunities have you had to acquaint your-
self with agriculture? Have you worked at it or consulted with
agriculturists?

Professor Castro. I have lived nine years in the country, and have
seen all that is going on there.

Mr. Iglesias. As the agricultural laborers have never been allowed
by the Spanish Government to form any sort of league, there would
be no one to represent them, and as this gentleman (Professor Castro)
has lived among them for a number of years, I have asked him to
inform you in regard to their condition.

Professor Castro. I attribute the almost utter ruin of most of the
agriculturists to the fact that, stimulated by the high prices which
they obtained for important crops, they neglected altogether the cul-
tivation of small crops, with the result that when low prices came for
the larger crops they found themselves in a very bad position. Owing
to their lack of funds and the want of agricultural banks, agricul-
turists have had to apply to commercial houses, called "refacionistas,"
who furnish them during the year with supplies and provisions for
themselves and their workmen to keep their estates going. These
refacionistas have imposed their own conditions on the agriculturists,
and have been able to buy the crops at their own prices. But as
these questions have been already thrashed out in the papers, and do
not come within my profession, I am going to speak of the working
classes on the estates, whom I have been asked to represent.

The condition of the field laborer to-day is a pitiable one. Owing to
the long hours of work — usually twelve — and the low rate of wages
which they earn, their situation is as bad as it could be. The average
is from 38 to 50 centavos daily. They begin to work at 6 o'clock in the
morning and leave off at 6 o'clock in the evening. They have no
stated times for taking their meals, which consist of rice, imported
from the English West Indies, known here as Hamburg rice, with
which are mixed a few beans occasionally. This they frequently have
1125 46

722

to eat with one hand while guiding the plow with the other, and it
can be readily understood that twelve hours of continuous work, with
insufficient food, wears out the peons.

Dr. Carroll. Is the 38 centavos paid to all alike on the plantation,
without reference to their strength and without reference to whether
they are men, women, or children?

Professor Castro. Children earn 10 or 12 centavos a day; women
earn the same as men. The wages vary between the limits stated — 38
centavos and 50 centavos — as the price of sugar rises and falls. But
no matter how high sugar rises, the men never get more than 50
centavos a day. Sometimes, in some of the sugar mills, during har-
vest time, the workmen have to begin at 2 o'clock in the morning
and work until 5 or 6 in the evening. For these additional hours of
labor they only earn a quarter of their day's wages additional.

As is natural, these laborers have several times tried to protest
against this state of affairs, but as the owners of haciendas are usually
in favor with the governing powers, or are themselves government
officers, all unions formed for the purpose of protesting have been
complained against as seditious societies, with the result, in one year —
a result known to all the world — that an inquisition was inaugurated.

Besides the troubles I have mentioned, most of the haciendas have
small stores on the estate, and do not pay their workmen in money,
but in checks which are countersigned and do not pass in any other
store except their own. There the peon is forced to buy, at exorbitant
prices, rotten rice and fish. These prices are higher than the peon
would have to pay if he could pay cash.

All these conditions explain the miserable life of the agricultural
peon, who may be said to live not even in a hut, but sometimes in
caves, and who is not able to attend to his personal needs with his
small wages, much less such a luxury as a pair of shoes. He is abso-
lutely unable to educate his children. In some of the districts, sep-
arated from towns, the children grow up like wild plants, nobody
taking any notice of or bestowing any care upon them. That is
noticeably the case in Arecibo, where there are twenty-one barrios, in
only one of which is there a school for girls. For boys there are
schools in several districts.

The field worker does not pay direct taxes, but indirectly he pays
very heavy ones. He had to pay the cedula, and lie had to pay the
consumption tax. Direct taxes fall upon the owners of plantations.

We hope that the United States will give special attention to the
education of that class of people, as education shoves a man his rights
and duties and makes him more amenable to law and therefore a
better citizen.

Dr. Carroll. I have heard that some of the planters furnish their
help with houses and even food, and pay them regular wages besides.
Is there not a difference between planters in that respect?

Professor Castro. There may be one or two exceptions among
owners ; a few may treat their peons well, but what they probably
referred to was that it is the custom to give small plots to one or two
peons around the owner's house, on which they build their hut.
The object of this is that they can watch out for the owner's interests
and guard his house for him, but as to food, they do not give food,
except perhaps a dish of rice at night.

Dr. Carroll. I want to ask one or two questions bearing on other
matters. I presume you have all given more or less attention to
questions affecting the future of Porto Rico; for example, to the

723

question of the currency and the question of the tariff. These ques-
tions seem to be in the minds of the majority of your countrymen,
and I suppose they have been in your thoughts, too.

Mr. Iglesias. Yes; that is true.

Dr. Carroll. I should like to ask Mr. Iglesias — and the others, if
they do not agree with him, can say so — whether he has any solution
to suggest for the currency question?

Mr. Iglesias. The workmen have not come to any understanding,
neither do they propose at what rate money should be changed. All
they ask is that the American Government should order that the
workmen be paid in American dollars as soon as possible.

Dr. Carroll. That is, you want to have the American currency
substituted for the currency now here?

Mr. Iglesias. We haven't come to any understanding as to the
rate. We don't care whether it is made at 100 or 150 or 160, but we
would like to have the change made at once. As long as the men are
paid in provincial money they don't know what they are earning.

I would like to say that I think the Government should allow the
introduction of food stuffs at very low rates of duty in the interest of
the laboring man.

The Government should also give attention to the methods of the
merchants in selling here, limiting the profit they may make and
making it illegal for them to gain over a certain amount over the cost.

There also exists a bad system here — not to call it by a stronger
name — false weights and measures; also the custom of selling the
necessaries of life without weighing them, the seller charging what he
pleases for the goods sold. I think the Government should intervene
in these matters.

Dr. Carroll. Is there not a law regulating the matter of weights
and measures?

Mr. Iglesias. There is no country in the world which can touch
Spain in the matter of magnificent laws, and there is no country in
the world which can touch Spain in noncompliance with laws.

I think the government should imjiose heavy duties on all articles
of luxury, such as wines, and on everything conducive merely to
pleasure or vice, as a recompense for low imposts on food products
for the benefit of the working class.

Dr. Carroll. Do you include tobacco among the articles of luxury?

Mr. Iglesias. Yes ; I think the government should impose protect-
ive duties on all manufactured articles, so as to protect the embry-
onic industries which exist here at present, for at least a certain term
of years. After these industries are in shape to look after themselves
they could enter into competition with other producers.

Dr. Carroll. In bringing this interview to a close, gentlemen, I
want to say that I have heard you with much interest as you have
stated the needs of your respective branches of trade. I observe that
you tell about the same story, which is, in effect, that your business
is not as good as it ought to be ; that your wages are not as high as
they ought to be to enable you to provide even the necessaries of life,
to say nothing about the comforts of life. You seem to be looking to
the United States to enact laws for the government of Porto Rico
which will very much relieve your condition, if not provide you with
luxuries. I can not say what Congress will do, but I can assure you
that the President of the United States, in connection with Congress,
will endeavor to secure for this island an equitable system of govern-
ment, to be honestly and faithfully administered.

724

It is a maxim of the United States that every man shall be equally
free before the law, shall enjoy equal privileges, shall enjoy equal
rights, shall have the right of business pursuit, the pursuit of happi-
ness, and particularly the right to be educated. It can give you these
rights, and when you have these rights you have an opportunity to
better your condition. It is onby indirectly that legislation can be
adapted to improve your situation, and I am sure you will not expect
direct laws to raise your wages or to lower the price of the food you
eat or the clothes you wear, or anything of that sort. But you will
have the full right, which you seem not to have had under the recent
government, of meeting together, of talking over your common inter-
ests, and of doing all those things in concert which are intended to
improve your condition. I am sure it is your intention to become
good American citizens, as it is also the intention of the authorities
at Washington to give every consideration to the f uture of this island,
in order that you may all have an equal chance of life, and that there
may be an increase of prosperity such as the island has never known.

Professor Castro. We thank you very much, as the representative
of the American Government, for the courtesy of calling us here to-
night, and we thank that Government still more for its good inten-
tions toward us. But we wish you particularly to mention to the
President that he has no need of bayonets or soldiers to govern
Porto Rico, because he will find the people here ready to defend the
integrity of the United States, and we feel that we shall now have a
chance to attain the end we have in view, namely, prosperity, prog-
ress, and happiness.

I hope the people of the United States will not think that we have
received the American Army with open arms out of any feeling of
servility, but because of the fact that for years we have felt that
annexation to the United States was, geographically, our only possi-
ble future. We have been, you may say, in a state of suppressed
revolution for a great many years, and now that the opportunity has
come we feel .that under the Stars and Stripes we will achieve our
long-cherished ambitions.

THE FIELD LABORERS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., January 6, 1899.
Mr. Seveeo Tulier, of Vega Baja, called at the office of the spe-
cial commissioner, in behalf of the peons of Porto Rico, and was
interviewed as follows :

Mr. Tulier. I have been working on my father's estate at manual
labor, but finding that such work yields but poor returns at present,
I have come to San Juan for the purpose of learning a trade.

Dr. Carroll. Are you a native of Vega Baja?

Mr. Tulier. I live there with my father, who has a coffee estate;
but not having the money to attend to its cultivation, we have
abandoned it.

Dr. Carroll. Have you ever worked for anybody besides your
father?

Mr. Tulier. No.

725

Dr. Carroll. Are you familiar with the conditions of the workmen
on other estates in that neighborhood?

Mr. Tulier. Yes, thoroughly; and I am disposed to give you some
information about them. I have come here from a sense of duty to
do this; otherwise, I should not have come to your office dressed as
I am.

(Mr. Tuber's hat, coat, trousers, and shoes all showed signs of long
wear; he wore no collar or tie, and had the appearance of a poor
country laborer.)

Dr. Carroll. I want facts rather than opinions, and I would ask
that you should be careful not to state an isolated fact in a general
way as true under all circumstances.

Mr. Tulier. Where I can not give you a complete answer, I will
not answer at all.

Dr. Carroll. Is a uniform rate of wages paid to peasants in that
district?

Mr. Tulier. The usual rate is 25 centavos and breakfast, and 37-J-
centavos to the better class of workmen. A few laborers who have
some special skill receive as high as 50 centavos a day, but it should
be borne in mind that where 50 centavos is paid payment is made in
vales, which are mere tokens representing certain values and redeem-
able at the company's store.

Dr. Carroll. Is that the uniform rule in cases where 50 centavos
is the rate of wages?

Mr. Tulier. No, not altogether. Sometimes a proprietor will close
his store and then pay in money.

Dr. Carroll. Do they pay less under those circumstances?

Mr. Tulier. At the same rate.

Dr. Carroll. On estates where 50 centavos is paid, do they have
the best men and women employed?

Mr. Tulier. They have all classes ; but now and then they pick
out a specially good man and pa}7 him more than they pay the others.

Dr. Carroll. Do the women work on estates?

Mr. Tulier. The women in my district work on their own estates,
but not on others.

Dr. Carroll. I saw some women working on the Carmen estate.

Mr. Tulier. That may be, but I have not seen it.

Dr. Carroll. I would like to have you give a careful statement
with regard to the wages of the workmen, their hours of labor, any
special cases of ill treatment, and the condition in which they live.

Mr. Tulier. The customaiy hours of work are from 6 to 6 ; that is,
for work in the field. For work in the shops and on the sugar ma-
chinery they have to go earlier, sometimes as early as 4 o'clock in the
morning.

Dr. Carroll. How much time is given for dinner?

Mr. Tulier. Half an hour.

Dr. Carroll. At what time do they stop for dinner?

Mr. Tulier. At 11 o'clock.

Dr. Carroll. Do they have coffee in the morning?

Mr. Tulier. They are not given coffee on the estates, and very
few take anything before leaving their homes. Those who haven't
permission to live on the estate usually live a league or two from it,
and have to walk that distance to work without anything to eat.

Dr. Carroll. Don't they get fruit?

Mr. Tulier. Yes, when they have saved some from the day before;

726

otherwise not. A man who works on an estate does not have time to
cultivate any land for his own use.

Dr. Carroll. Do they take their dinners with them?

Mr. Tulier. On estates which give breakfast the peons just take
a flask along with orange juice or something of that kind with which
they can make a drink; on other estates the peons generally go to
the village near by and get their meals there.

Dr. Carroll, What do they have to eat in the evening'?

Mr. Tulier. The basis of their evening meal is a big plantain, which
they sometimes make into a mess with rice or beans.

Dr. Carroll. Do they never have any meat or fish?

Mr. Tulier. They have meat only on Sundays, and only in those
cases where wages are paid in money, because otherwise they can only
take what is kept at the proprietor's store; and that never has meat.

Dr. Carroll. Do the stores not have pork?

Mr. Tulier. No; the peons never eat pork; they maj7 sometimes
buy a cent's worth to cook with their food to give it a flavor.

Dr. Carroll. What about their houses?

Mr. Tulier. The house is made of poles, thatched about with palm,
and is 4 or 5 varas square (vara, about 33 inches), partitioned off into a
parlor, a bedroom, and a kitchen. In the parlor there is a table,
usually an heirloom from many years back. The floor is made of
boards cut from palm trees. The kitchen has no flooring, and the
parlor and bedroom flooring is badly laid. Frequently the house lets
in the rain. With the same rough class of boards from which the
flooring is made they construct a rude bed in the sleeping room, tied
together with withes. The wardrobe consists of two changes — one
that is being worn and one that is being washed. The only clothes
closet consists of a rough box in the bedroom. The children, as a
rule, have only one little shirt, and while the mother is washing that
they run about without any clothing. The women of this class rarely
have irons to iron their clothes.

In harvest time these people have poor food very badly cooked.
Their food improves a little during the corn season, as that forms an
addition to the daily diet. Their three chief articles of food, it may
be said, are sweet potatoes, plantains, and corn, of which they always
choose whichever happens to be the cheapest. When the husband
comes back from work, the supper is usually of the same material as
already stated, unless he has been able to bring back a piece of cod-
fish, a few beans or peas, or a little rice.

When a child is born the mother is assisted by the first woman who
happens to be near, usually a mother or sister. The number of deaths
caused from want of medical assistance is not considerable, because
the women lead a free out-of-door life, but owing to want of proper
nourishing food, a great many succumb from weakness. There is a
serious mortalit}7 among infants owing to the ignorance on the part
of mothers as regards treatment and care of children. A couple of
days after confinement the woman is usually about and at her work
again. When a woman is obliged to keep to her bed, her husband is
not able to go to work, as he has to attend to the preparation of the
food, care for the children, and attend to other household duties.
The poor people are absolutely in want of medical assistance in the
country places, and if they go to the village to obtain medical aid they
can only do so through the charity of the doctors, as they are not
able to pay for such services.

727

Although a great number of these people do not go through any
form of marriage, it is probable that the majority do. A great many
live together and, after having a family, determine to get married.
This is usually brought about through the entreaties of the women,
who desire to have a legal standing. On Sunday they can get married
for 1 peso; on other days, according to the importance of the clay, 4,
6, or 8 pesos, as the priest chooses to ask. When there happens to
exist a family relationship between the contracting parties, the priests
take advantage of the fact to squeeze money out of them for procur-
ing the necessary dispensations. First cousins may marry with the
permission of the bishop.

When there is a death the neighbors come in and assist. They
generally manage to get a few boards, and some neighbor who may
know something of carpentering is called upon to knock these boards
together for a coffin. Their dead are always taken to the towns for
burial to facilitate inscription in the civil register and to remove
responsibility from the relatives of the deceased. There is absolutely
no sort of mourning ceremony; that is, the women never put on black
as a badge of bereavement.

Usually about five persons live in a house of the kind I have
described. They all sleep together — father, mother, grown-up sons,
and daughters — and when they haven't sufficient beds, they sleep on
piles of palm leaves. They usually take up different corners of the
room, separating' themselves as much as possible. They pay no rent
for these houses. They knock together a house wherever they wish
to, and you can imagine what sort of a house it is when there are cases
where a man has cut the palm leaves and built a house all in one day.
Those who have only one change of clothing do not go to work on
Saturday; they remain at home, covered with any piece of rag at
hand, so that their wives can wash their clothes and thus enable them
to present a clean appearance on Sunday when they go to collect their
wages.

The peasant is naturally intelligent, and his mind is as fertile as the
land which he works and is only waiting the implements of education.
As a proof of this I will cite an instance. When it was known that
autonomy was to be granted and that suffrage was limited to men of
25 years of age who knew how to read and write, I formed a class in
my district and offered to teach free all men of that age and over, to
fit them to vote. I had men in the class whose ages ranged from 25
to 60 years, and some of them after a few lessons knew the letters of
the alphabet at sight and could write them. This was done without
the aid of any modern appliances used in teaching, a piece of rough
board and chalk being the only materials at hand which the peons
were able to avail themselves of. The desire of everybody to learn
was manifest.

There is nothing of fanaticism in the beliefs of the people. They
do not. go to church, but they are believers in God. The men have no
confidence in the priests, as a rule, but the women are more inclined
to religious observances. I think that one generation is sufficient to
change the character of the peasantry and to regenerate them com-
pletely, as the desire on their part for the acquisition of knowledge is
very marked. As soon as they see one of their number acquiring
knowledge, all the others want to get the benefit of it.

728

ARTISANS AND LABORERS OF ARECIBO.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arecibo, P. R., January 13, 1899.
A delegation of eight laboring men and artisans, representing vari-
ous greraios of Arecibo, as follows : Tomas Miranda, president of the
gremios; Juan N. Maclea, coopers; Buenaventura Peyot, labor-
ers; Pedro de Jesus, tailors; Evaristo Padilla, masons; Julian
Roman, bakers; Francisco Martinez, shoemakers, and Jose Fer-
rer, printers:

Mr. Juan Maclea. Owing to the large importation into the island
of jute bags and their large use in the exportation of sugar in the
place of barrels, coopers have very little work now. That is the chief
cause of complaint, but we look for more work when sugar has a bet-
ter market in the United States.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many coopers in the island?

Mr. Maclea. Yes; there are a great many of them. I can not give
you the exact number. Those who used to have work on the haciendas
don't have work now.

Mr. Carroll. Do they turn their skill into other lines of car-
pentering?

Mr. Maclea. Not having learned any other form 'of carpentering,
they are not able to do so.

Dr. Carroll. How much can they make a day at that work?

Mr. Maclea. Under present circumstances, such a small amount I
hardly ought to mention it; sometimes only 14 a week, and some are
not earning anything, because the work is paralyzed.

Mr. Buenaventura Peyot. One of the hardships of my greruio is that
we have to get up at 3 o'clock in the morning and work until 6 in the
afternoon for 50 centavos a day and food, the food consisting of a little
rice and codfish, without seasoning.

Dr. Carroll. I wish you would state in detail just how the work-
men live. Such information is important to my investigation.

Mr. Peyot. When they get up in the morning, they have a cup of
black coffee. For breakfast, the most common meal consists of a
plantain, a piece of codfish, and a small quantity of bread, but never
sufficient. They don't take any other meal.

Dr. Carroll. Do they have sufficient codfish?

Mr. Peyot. They have about 4 ounces of codfish for a person and
four plantains.

Dr. Pagani. They may take a cup of black coffee at night and a
piece of plantain.

Dr. Carroll. Do they ever have any meat?

Mr. Peyot. Never; except, possibly, sometimes on Sunday in their
own homes.

Dr. Pagani. They collect their salaries on Saturday; and if they
have anything left, they buy a few little extras.

Dr. Carroll. Do they receive their salaries in money?

Mr. Peyot. In coast towns usually in money, but in the interior in
checks, redeemable only at the owner's private store.

Dr. Carroll. What kind of houses do they live in?

Mr. Peyot. Those who happen to live in the city have better houses,
but those in the country have only a palm hut, containing oue or two
rooms. Those in the towns live, very often, six, seven, or eight in one

729

room. There are families of four or five persons who live in a single
room of 5 yards square, which is their living, sleeping, and cook-
ing room.

Dr. Carroll. Do they always pay rent?

Mr. Peyot. Yes. If they can not pay, the landlord has to wait
for it.

Dr. Carroll. How much rent?

Mr. Peyot. From 11.50 to 12 a month, according to location.

Dr. Carroll. On estates are they not often allowed to put up.
shacks and live in them free?

Mr. Peyot. On some estates a few peons who are in constant
employment live in quarters, like barracks, but on other estates no
shelter is given them.

Dr. Carroll. How about clothes?

Dr. Pagani. They nearly all go shoeless. They sometimes buy
clothes brought here from the Balearic Islands, or buy cotton goods,
at about 17 cents a yard, and have it made up by their own people.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose their poverty prevents them, "in many
instances, from sending their children to school?

Mr. Pedro de Jesus. When children are 7 or 8 years old they are
put to work. Ninety-five per cent receive no instruction at all and
do not know how to read or write.

Speaking now for my gremio — the gremio of tailors — we suffer a
great deal on account of the ready-made clothing which is brought in
from Spain. They have a habit here of raffling for a suit of clothes,
and usually the man who wins it sells it for $8 or $10.

Dr. Carroll. Do those clothes continue to hold the market since
American occupation? Duties have to be paid now on Spanish as well
as on other clothes.

Mr. Pedro de Jesus. There is not a great deal of that in Arecibo;
it was more in San Juan, and I don't know whether it has continued
there.

Dr. Carroll. What wages can tailors make here a week, on an
average?

Mr. Pedro de Jesus. From $6 to $8 when there is work. In times
of scarcity of work, from $4 to $5.

Dr. Carroll. Then they are not so badly off as some other gremios?

Mr. Miranda. Some of them have to wait until Christmas time
before they can earn anything at it.

Mr. Pedro de Jesus. We have to complain also about the bad
material brought in, and the bad quality of tools and machines.

Dr. Carroll. Where do these bad materials and poor tools come
from?

Mr. Pedro de Jesus. From Barcelona and Paris. They seem to
send the worst they can.

Mr. Evaristo Padilla. The great need of our gremio, that of
masons, is of work. We seldom get more than three months' work in the
year. In government and other work foreigners are given the prefer-
ence. The military government, instead of giving the work to Porto
Ricans, call in their own people and put the work into their hands.
There are plenty of vacant lots and plenty of rich people, but they
will not build. A few days ago the masons prepared a circular asking
these people to build, but it appears to have received no attention.
There are some masons who earn as much as 75 centavos a day, but
there are times when they have to submit to being paid whatever the
bosses want to pay them. What we ask for is that government work be

730

given to us. We feel that we have more right to it than people com-
ing from outside. As a result of the present state of affairs we can
not even dress decently. If we get clothes, we have to go without food.

Dr. Carroll. How long has this state of affairs existed?

Mr. Padilla. As far back as I can remember.

Dr. Carroll. Are there not too many masons? Is not that one
reason for the conditions you describe?

Mr. Padilla. There are about 3G here; and if there were any fair
amount of work, that would not be too many. The difficulty is the
great lack of work.

Mr. Julian Roman. The bakers are in almost the same position as
the laborers. We work from 3 in the afternoon until 12 the next
day, and are badly paid at that. The journeymen earn 50 centavos a
day and overseers $1. The bakeries were intending to reduce even
these wages, but the bakers went to the alcalde and asked him to
intervene, and he induced the bakeries not to make the cut. But
thej7 have been compelling the men to do twice as much; they have
dismissed the peons and make the bakers do the manual work, thus
making up the difference.

Dr. Carroll. Is that due to the fall in the price of bread?

Mr. Roman. No, because when the bread was worth more they
paid the same. There are no machines in use.

Dr. Carroll. You ought to get good wages, because you make good
bread. I get good bread everywhere.

Mr. Roman. When we arrive at old age, we are completely useless
for anything. Go to one of the bakeries if you would like to see how
they work.

Dr. Carroll. At night?

Mr. Roman. Day or night; you will always find them working.
We only have three hours' rest out of the twenty-four.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get your own bread free?

Mr. Roman. We are allowed to eat what we want, but not to take
any away. We want our situation bettered.

Mr. Francisco Martinez. The position of the shoemaker is a hard
one, but not because there is lack of work. Our difficulty is the dear-
ness of the materials brought in, on the one hand, and the low price of
the finished article imported from the Balearic Islands, on the other.
The remedy is a higher duty on the finished article and a lower duty
on the materials.

Dr. Carroll. These imported shoes, since the American occupa-
tion, pay the same duties as shoes from other countries. Does not
that help matters?

Mr. Martinez. We have not seen any result yet. The raw mate-
rial costs just as much as it did before.

Dr. Carroll. Has there not been a rise in the price of shoes
because of the Balearic Island shoes paying a heavier duty?

Mr. Martinez. The difference has been very small. On a pair of
shoes costing a dollar the increase might be as much as 25 centavos,
but that has not been of substantial value to the shoemakers. You
can buy shoes here as low as $4 that the shoemakers can not make for
less than $6.

Dr. Carroll. Raw materials will be cheaper under the new tariff.

Mr. Jose Ferrer. I have very little to saj\ I understand that in
other countries they pay typesetters by the thousand ems. There
isn't work enough here to do that. Printers earn about $6 a week
here. We hope that the introduction of new methods will increase

731

the circulation of papers and thus give increased work. There is
only one newspaper here.

Mr. Tomas Miranda. We haven't even a library in the town, and
we wish to urge the need of educational facilities. About fourteen
years ago a minister in Spain made us a present of about 1,000 vol-
umes, but up to the present no one knows what has become of them.

(Dr. F. Pagani stated that the foregoing-named representatives of
the gremios of Arecibo are a picked lot of men; that many of the
workmen could not come because of the lack of clothes to wear, some
not having shoes and others not having a hat to wear.)

/•

Mr. Manuel Ledesma, a Spanish merchant and owner of a large
estate, and Mr. Bahs:

Dr. Carroll. How many peons have you on your estate?

Mr. Ledesma. When we are grinding I have from four to five hun-
dred.

Dr. Carroll. Do you pay by the week?

Mr. Ledesma. Every Saturdaj^.

Dr.- Carroll. How much?

Mr. Ledesma. Fifty centavos, on the average.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have any women working for you?

Mr. Ledesma. Some women assist in carrying the cane, but not in
the field.

Dr. Carroll. I am told that there are few women who work on
-estates.

Mr. Ledesma. There are some.

Dr. Carroll. Do your peons live on your estate or near it?

Mr. Ledesma. Most of them belong to Camuy. During the grind-
ing season they sleep on the estate, and at the end of the week return
to their homes.

Dr. Carroll. Do they provide their own meals?

Mr. Ledesma. Those working on the estate get one meal from the
estate and those in the mills two meals. I have a coffee-cleaning
place down on the beach, where I have 150 women working. I pay
them daily, at the rate of 3 centavos a bucket. These women earn
from 30 to 60 centavos a day.

Dr. Carroll. Can they live fairly well on 50 centavos a day?

Mr. Ledesma. Without doubt they could live very well on that, if
they were not addicted to gambling.

Dr. Carroll. Do they have to pay rent generally?

Mr. Ledesma. They live in huts in the country, but the difficulty
with the peons here is that thej7 have few wants and no ambition.

Dr. Carroll. How much rent do they have to pay?

Mr. Ledesma. None whatever.

Dr. Carroll. Are they allowed to build these huts?

Mr. Ledesma. I give some permission to make houses, those I have
■confidence in; but I do not give that permission to others.

Mr. Bahr. One thing we need here is a savings bank of the kind
you have in the United States. Under Spanish laws there are so
many difficulties in the way of establishing savings banks that they
have not been established. I have tried several times to interest
people here in such institutions.

Mr. Ledesma. When there is a strike among our men they usually
follow the counsel of two or three who can read. These people are
not ready for concerted action. Some time ago they tried to boycott
a, bread monoply here, but after a while some of them, who were in

732

the movement, began to buy bread from the monopoly; the}7 could
not hang together. It is not because I am a Porto Rican that I wish to
defend my countrymen, because they are a good people by nature,
and if some of them are bad it is because they are led wrongly.

Dr. Carroll. How can their condition be improved?

Mr. Ledesma. By making them understand the harm of becoming
addicted to vice.

Dr. Carroll. What other vices besides gambling prevail?

Mr. Ledesma. Living with women without marriage.

Dr. Carroll. Do they do so promiscuously, or do they simply omit
the marriage ceremony and live with one woman steadilj7?

Mr. Ledesma. As a rule they live with one woman, and establish a
family.

Dr. Carroll. What are their motives for not having the ceremony
performed?

Mr. Ledesma. They are not educated, and they think they can do
without it.

(Following this hearing the commissioner visited the poor quarter
of Arecibo and questioned many women working in coffee houses, and
they all stated that no one ever earned more than from 18 to 24 centa-
vos a day. )

Jose Ramon Rivera, a druggist and property owner:

Dr. Carroll. I understand that you are a professional man.

Mr. Rivera. I am a druggist and property owner.

Dr. Carroll. Do you know anything of the vital statistics of the
people in this section of the island?

Mr. Rivera. The population of the city is growing considerably.
It is a very health}7 city. Epidemics are very rare. As to the peons,
however, they have nothing. They have no medicines, nor doctors,
nor proper food ; they don't live in houses, they don't live in villages,
but live like savages. They have no education, nothing is done for
them, and it appears incredible, and it is a mystery to me how they
live on 50 centavos a day or less with the large families they have.

Dr. Carroll. We had a number of representatives of the gremios
at the hotel last night, and the story they told of how they lacked
clothing and food was distressing.

Mr. Rivera. It is quite true that the workingmen are very poorly
paid, and what is worse, there are too many workmen for the work
there is to give them. This leads to the result that those who have
credit live on credit until they can get a little money. They then pay
their debts and live on credit again for another period. This leads to
a situation which is desperate. No doubt their condition is, to a cer-
tain extent, made worse by the want of thrift, which they show when
they do earn a little money. There are some who, after passing days
and days without earning money, when they do earn a little spend it
all at once.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much gambling among them? I was .
informed in San Juan that it was a common vice among the peasants.

Mr. Rivera. Unfortunately, that is true, and it is owing to several
reasons — want of police, want of saving habits, want of living a sani-
tary life, which produces an anaemic race, and it is an accepted prin-
ciple that a sickly race is a vicious race.

Dr. Carroll. What measures would you recommend for the
amelioration of this condition aside from those measures which would
tend to the general prosperity of the island?

733

Mr. Rivera. Leaving aside the matter of compulsory education,
which is important, I should say the first measure to be adopted
would be one looking to- the improvement of public health. Next,
that there should be work which would give employment to all the
classes of the poor, which work would be increased by the stimula-
tion of native industries, which have to be started from the beginning,
as this country is only born to-day. Then there should be a good
system of police and a thorough system of inspection of food. In
the stores everything is adulterated and rotten. There is no article
of food which is not tampered with. The conditions of life for per-
sons who consume these articles can not be anything but unsanitary.
The milk is bad, the meat and bread are poor, and everything else is
tampered with. Then, by all means, there should be public instruc-
tion for children, and adults as well, who might be made into useful
citizens, whereas to-day they are perfectly useless. This has been
impossible up to the present, as the Spanish Government has never
facilitated educational enterprises.

Dr. Carroll. Who are in the worse condition, the blacks or the
whites?

Mr. Rivera. The blacks are in a worse condition, because they are
descended from a race of slaves, and their moral condition from that
period has not improved. They are made to work as animals, and
can be held and used as animals.

Dr. Carroll. What is the state of morality among the working
classes? Is it not true that they are very generally honest?

Mr. Rivera. Generally they are honest. Those who are dishonest
owe their dishonesty chiefly to vices to which they have been addicted.
These vices .could be overcome largely by the means I have referred
to. I wish to add just this one suggestion in reference to the press of
the island : I do not think it should be allowed to treat of politics in
the violent manner which it does. I don't mean that newspapers
should be suppressed, but I think that pressure should be brought to
bear to compel them to preach the advancement of material benefits
and leave off personal politics.

ON A PLANTATION.

(Hearing before the United States Commissioner at the residence of Mr. Leopold Strube,
whose estate lies partly in the municipality of Arecibo and partly in Utuado.]

Gobo, P. R., January 15, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. How many people do you employ on your estate?

Mr. Strube. About thirty or forty usually, and in crop time sixty
or seventy.

Dr. Carroll. How many acres have you in tobacco?

Mr. Strube. Only two or three acres, for my own use. I have only
coffee.

Dr. Carroll. Are these houses on your estate all occupied by your
men?

Mr. Strube. I have nearly all my people living on my estate. I
put up the houses myself, and they do not pay rent.

Dr. Carroll. Do they pay rent in work?

Mr. Strube. No ; I give them these houses for my own convenience.
Here in the mountains you can not get working people unless you
find houses for them. It is like more pay. Even if I have trouble
with a man and send him out, he will ruin the house before he goes.

734

Dr. Carroll. About how much do they earn a day, take the year
rou ad?

Mr. Strube. I pay here 50 centavos. If a man works on a contract
at piecework he can make 00 or 70 centavos if he is a good working-
man. Children and boys we pay according to the amount of work
they can do — from 25 to 50 centavos — and women get about 20 or 25
centavos. Little children get 10 or 15 centavos for picking out the
coffee beans.

Dr. Carroll. What do these working people live on?

Mr. Strube. I have my store here in which I sell rice, codfish,
tobacco, sugar, cigarettes, biscuits, and bread — very little bread,
because in place of bread they use plantains. Every man who works
has five plantains and a quarter of a pound of codfish, with oil, in
addition to 50 centovas. I cook it here and send it out to them. Those
whom I have here by the month earn from $6 to $20 a month, and
have all their food, including coffee in the morning, with sugar; the
same meal for breakfast, and in the evening rice, with beans.

Dr. Carroll. I should think that would be a pretty fair arrange-
ment. That is about what farm hands get in the United States.

Mr. Strube. They are the better class of workmen. For instance,
there is a carpenter. If a boy starts with a cart here for the town, he
often has to work all night. I sent a boy out yesterday evening at 8
o'clock and he will not get back until this evening about 6 o'clock.
During that time I give him from 30 to 40 centavos to spend on the
way, and he earns more. I have two Germans here. They have their
whole living on the estate. I pay them the first half year 810 a month.
The second six months I pay them $20, and now I have made an
arrangement with them to pay each year 15 more. The arrangement
is for five years, so that the last year they will have $40 a month.
They can save most of that. One boy was here who saved in a year
$90. Another boy saved $60, and bought a horse with it.

PAY OF FIELD HANDS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yabucoa, February 2, 1899.
Two colored laborers, Justo Lindo and Hermann Oquendo :

Dr. Carroll. Are you a native of Yabucoa?

Mr. Justo Lindo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What is your occupation?

Mr. Lindo. A laborer.

Dr. Carroll. Where have you been laboring?

Mr. Lindo. On plantations; I am a field laborer.

Dr. Carroll. What do you wish to say to the commission?

Mr. Lindo. They pay us in vales here, and we want to see if we
can not obtain money instead of vales.

Dr. Carroll. On whose plantation are you employed?

Mr. Lindo. Sucesores de Ballecillo.

(Note. — Mr. Lindo here produced two vales — one marked 20, worth
25 centavos, and one marked 5, worth 6 centavos — both of which the
commissioner redeemed by the payment of 40 centavos for the two. )

Dr. Carroll. Do all the planters paj^ in this way?

735

Mr. Lindo. All except Don Jose Vicente Cintron.

Dr. Carroll. Do these vales represent amounts due you?

Mr. Lindo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do they not pay you any money at all?

Mr. Lindo. Half in money and half in vales.

Dr. Carroll. Do they not know that it is contrary to law not to
pay in money?

Mr. Lindo. I don't know.

Dr. Carroll. How much wages do you get a day?

Mr. Lindo. I get from 60 to 65 centavos. I am paid according to
the work I do, but laborers generally receive about 50 centavos a day.

Dr. Carroll. Have you ever asked to be paid entirely in cash?

Mr. Lindo. Yes; frequently.

Dr. Carroll. Has it been refused?

Mr. Lindo. Yes; they have stuck to half cash and half vales.

Dr. Carroll. Where are these vales redeemed?

Mr. Lindo. In the store belonging to the proprietor.

Dr. Carroll. Are the prices charged in those stores to those who
present these tickets higher than those in which you pay cash?

Mr. Lindo. The prices in the store where I redeem this are higher
than those of the stores in town.

Dr. Carroll. Are all the laborers on the estate where you work
paid as you are — white and black alike?

Mr. Lindo. Yes; all of them.

Dr. Carroll. Are you furnished a place on the estate to live in as
a part of your wages?

Mr. Lindo. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Does the proprietor of the estate furnish you with
any of your meals?

Mr. Lindo. No.

Dr. Carroll. Does he allow a patch of ground on which to grow
bananas and other things you need?

Mr. Lindo. No.

Dr. Carroll. How large a family have you?

Mr. Lindo. I have no family; I am alone.

Dr. Carroll (to Hermann Oquendo). Do you work on the same
estate as this man?

Mr. Oquendo. No; we work wherever we can get employment.

Dr. Carroll. Are you paid in the same way in which he testifies
he is paid?

Mr. Oquendo. Yes. With the exception of the estate mentioned
before, all Yabucoa pays the same way.

Dr. Carroll. Half in cash?

Mr. Oquendo. On several haciendas they only give a quarter or a
third in money.

Dr. Carroll. How much do they give where you work?

Mr. Oquendo. Half in money. I work on an estate called Sucesores
de Anglada.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any family?

Mr. Oquendo. No.

Dr. Carroll. Are you furnished a house on the estate where you
work?

Mr. Oquendo. No.

Dr. Carroll. Are you furnished any meals by the proprietors?

Mr. Oquendo. No.

Dr. Carroll. Are the goods you get at the company's store inferior

736

in quality to those you get in other stores, as well as being higher in
price?

Mr. Oquendo. Yes.

(Mr. Oquendo here produced some crackers which he alleged had
been bought at the company's store, and they were moldy and alive.)

Galvino Velazquez. I come to represent those who labor on the
estates.

Dr. Carroll. Are you a laborer?

Mr. Velazquez. No; I am an agriculturist on a small scale. lam
the owner of a piece of property.

I wish to protest, in the name of all the laborers, against the pay-
ment to them of their wages in vales instead of in money. They have
been taken advantage of, and have been compelled to accept them.

I don't wish to say what salary a workman should earn, because he
ought to earn just what his work is worth, but he ought to be paid in
money.

Dr. Carroll. The law protects a laboring man in that respect. It
says he shall be paid in money.

Mr. Velazquez. The workmen had to accept them, no matter what
the law ordered, because he had against him the civil guard, the mag-
istrate, the judge, and the owner of the estate; and if he did not accept
them, he was discharged.

Dr. Carroll. What is the condition of the laboring men, generally,
in this jurisdiction; how do they live?

Mr. Velazquez. Bad; worse than bad.

Dr. Carroll. Please explain how they -live.

Mr. Velazquez. He goes to work at 6 o'clock in the morning, and
has to get up at 5, usually, in order to get to his work in time. Before
leaving for work he takes coffee.

Dr. Carroll. With bread?

Mr. Velazquez. No; all can not even get coffee. He works until

II o'clock. At 11 he takes breakfast on the estate, buying his break-
fast at the proprietor's store, and resumes his work at half past 11.
He then continues at work until 5, when he returns home and gets his
dinner.

Dr. Carroll. What does the laboring man generally have for his
meal in the evening?

Mr. Velazquez. Sweet potatoes, rice of bad quality, bad codfish,
nearly always rotten. What they sell in the stores of the estates is
nearly always rotten.

Dr. Carroll. Don't you have good, fresh fish here, where fish are
so plentiful?

Mr. Velazquez. Never.

Dr. Carroll. Do the laborers get any meat?

Mr. Velazquez. No.

Dr. Carroll. Do they send their children to school generally?

Mr. Velazquez. No; they haven't clothes in which to send them.

Dr. Carroll. If living is cheap here, and you get 65 centavos a
day and work six days a week, ought you not to be able to furnish
clothes to the children on that?

Mr; Velazquez. The 65 centavos is turned into 30 by the time they
have got through with the company's store.

Dr. Carroll. How many acres have you in your farm?

Mr. Velazquez. Fifty.

Dr. Carroll. What do you raise?

Mr. Velazquez. Small crops.

737

Dr. Carroll. Do 3tou sell them in the market of the city?

Mr. Velazquez. Yes; in the plaza.

Dr. Carroll. Is the condition you have been describing the con-
dition of the white laborer as it is of the colored laborer?

Mr. Velazquez. The same; there is no difference.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any planters here who desire to say any-
thing on the other side, in defense?

Mr. Aurelio Dapena (a partner of the firm of Cintron Brothers):
I am a planter, and would like to say a word.

Dr. Carroll. What have you to sajr about the testimony you have
heard from these laborers?

Mr. Dapena. I don't wish to defend proprietors as a class, but
only the store which we run. Our firm, being in straitened circum-
stances for want of money, but finding that we could obtain provisions
on credit, called together our laborers and asked them, "Do you wish
to work, receiving half your wages in money and half in checks? In
that case we can go on; otherwise, we can not."

Dr. Carroll. When was that?

Mr. Dapena. About two years ago, when we took over the estate.

Dr. Carroll. Haven't things been better with you since, so that
you could return to the cash basis?

Mr. Dapena. No ; things have gone from bad to worse. The work-
men acted with great prudence in accepting the proposition we made
them, because, while their failure to do so would have meant ruin to
us, it would have meant starvation to them. On the Laura estate
nobody can say that we have sold short weight, or any food of bad
quality. I wish to sa,y, too, that we have never desired to have a store ;
we don't make money out of it; but it has been necessary. We have
not lived by exploiting the workmen, and I don't wish to appear in
the class of proprietors which has been described.

Dr. Carroll. Why did you keep the store? Was it because you
had to take part of the sugar crop in provisions?

Mr. Dapena. Because the merchants in San Juan were willing to
give us credit for terms of six and nine months, which enabled us to
continue. But things are changed now; the merchants in San Juan
will not give credit, and we must go with cash to buy provisions, and
I don't know how long we will be able to go that way.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any other planter who wishes to be heard?

Mr. J. V. Cintron. I have always paid in money.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any of the planters here for whom these
peons have been working?

(There were none present.)

CONDITION OF THE POOR.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Guayama, P. R., February 8, 1899.
Mr. Dominguez. I desire to speak as a private citizen, not as mayor.
You should inform the President that the poor require the first atten-
tion. They are divided into three or four classes, which I will men-
tion. When the Americans arrived here they found, in spite of the
country's name, Porto Rico (rich port), that there were a large number
of poor people here. These are especially worthy of attention. On
going over the island the Americans saw a large proportion of its
1125 47

738

inhabitants going about without shoes, without even hats, and these
are the people that require their care.

The first class of these poor comprises those who work for their daily
food with their hands. The condition of this class is terrible, not
because the estate owner does not wish to help them, but because he
is not in a position to do so.

The second class comprises the artisans. These artisans, who lately
constituted the manufacturers in a small way — that is, the men who
make coats and other articles for the rich — are in a very unfortunate
condition. The artisan struggles chiefly against the want of work.
In a town like Guayama, where buildings are not going up every day,
six months in the year the bricklayer has nothing to do ; the carpen-
ter also has nothing to do, and the tailor is often without work.

The third class, and perhaps the most unfortunate of all, takes in
the countrymen who live in the hills. This class of poor suffer from
what is called angemia or want of blood, which makes them appear as
indolent, when they are not so, and makes them appear as dishonest
when they really are honest, and they are in a state of continual strug-
gle for .existence. The condition of these three classes puts them in a
position of not being able to assist the government in the work that
it requires of them — that is, of becoming good citizens. Therefore,
it requires immediate remedy.

As a remedy for this condition of affairs I propose to the American
Government that it introduce the change of the money system imme-
diately, so that the cost of living shall be cheapened to these people,
and that it bring from the United States undertakings and works
which will allow these poor people to find a certain means of subsist-
ence for themselves and their families. A series of public works, of
which the country stands in such need, would remedy the condition
of the peasant living in the valleys and the peasant living in the
hills. Agricultural banks spread all over the towns would assist the
agriculturist in forming his society, and he would thus be able to
give assistance to the working classes.

Finally, it is absolutely necessary for the working class and for the
peasant class to establish a system of schools that everybody can
avail himself of. There are about 80 per cent of the people in this
island who do not know how to read and write.

Dr. Carroll. The mayor has very ably represented the condition
of the laboring man, but there is nothing like direct testimony. If
there are any representatives of that class present to-night, I would
be pleased to have them come forward.

(In response to this invitation a laboring man came forward and
announced his name as Ricardo Espendez.)

Dr. Carroll. What is your occupation?

Mr. Espendez. I am a carpenter.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a gremio of carpenters here?

Mr. Espendez. There are 60 carpenters in this locality, but they
are not in an association. I want to tell you that we suffer very
greatly here in our homes on account of the scarcity of work. In the
course of a year the generality of us do not get work more than a
month or a month and a half. As some express it, we live the rest of
the time on air. We should like lumber to be introduced from the
United States free of duty, as there are several property owners who
might give us some work if lumber were cheaper, who refrain from
doing so now because of high prices of lumber.

Dr. Carroll. The new tariff makes lumber very much cheaper.

Mr. Espendez. I hope that you will represent this matter to Wash-

739

ington as an act of charity. Although we suffer very greatly, we
have pride and do not paint our situation to everybody.

Dr. Carroll. I think the way to improve the condition of the arti-
sans is to improve the general conditions of the island — first, to give
it better government; second, to give it better roads; third, to give it
better schools and better institutions. That will place it in a better
position for prosperity, and when prosperity comes it is general and
all are benefited, and your class will be benefited, because people who
now live in huts covered with bark will the*n wish to live in houses
built of lumber, and so by improving general conditions we will reach
special conditions and benefit them. The great industry of this island
and the great source of its wealth is the agricultural industry. We
must plan to take away the drawbacks from that industry, first, by
giving the agriculturists" be.tter roads, so that it won't cost so much to
get their crops to the port for shipment, and General Henry is giving
immediate attention to this fundamental matter of good roads through-
out the island. When you have good roads, then a great obstacle will
have been taken out of the way of the planter. One trouble, I sup-
pose, with your class of workers is the trouble with a great many
others — there are too many carpenters for the work or too little work
for the carpenters. How many days' work did you have during the
year 1898?

Mr. Espendez. Two months and a halx, nothing more.

Dr. Carroll. There must be very little carpentering done in
Guayama. What wages do you make when you work?

Mr. Espendez. Two dollars.

Dr. Carroll. Do you mean two and a half months of labor when
you say two months and a half?

Mr. Espendez. Two months and a half, without Sundays.

Dr. Carroll. Then really you have made but little over

Mr. Espendez. That is all.

WAGES IN AIBONITO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner. ]

Aibonito, P. R., February 6, 1899.
Mr. Juan Jose Davila, a peon employed on a coffee estate:

Dr. Carroll. Are there any laboring men or artisans present who
desire to be heard? I should be glad to have them come forward and
give me information with regard to the condition of the laboring men.

(Mr. Juan Jose Davila appeared before the commissioner and
expressed a desire to be heard privately. The commissioner retired
to an adjoining room and questioned Mr. Davila as follows:)

Dr. Carroll. Do you work on a tobacco estate?

Mr. Davila. No ; on a coffee plantation.

Dr. Carroll. What wages do you receive?

Mr. Davila. Thirty-seven centavos a day.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get the money in cash?

Mr. Davila. Sometimes in cash, sometimes not.

Dr. Carroll. When you don't get it in money, you get it in vales?

Mr. Davila. Yes; we take them to the commercial houses here,
which give us what they see fit for them.

Dr. Carroll. Do they charge you more for provisions than if you
took cash to the stores?

Mr. Davila. Yes. Sometimes, if the order we take to the store
bears the mark of a planter who is known to be a poor payer, the

740

merchants raise the prices, as they saj7 they can not get their money
immediately.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get plenty of work?

Mr. Da vila. At times, but often there is not sufficient work for us
to make enough to supply ourselves with necessary food.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a family?

Mr. Davila. I support a father, mother, wife, and children.

Dr. Carroll. How many children?

Mr. Davila. Two.

Dr. Carroll. How many workers are there in the family? •

Mr. Davila. Only myself. My father and mother are old people.

Dr. Carroll. Do you pay rent for your house?

Mr. Davila. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. How much?

Mr. Davila. Two dollars for one room.

Dr. Carroll. Do you all live in one room?

Mr. Davila. Yes; we haven't enough to pay for more lodging.

Dr. Carroll. Does the owner of the coffee plantation give you
any meals when you are working for him? .

Mr. Davila. We go to work at 6 o'clock in the morning, and at 11
o'clock the proprietor sends us some codfish and plantains of a bad
quality.

Dr. Carroll. The plantains or the codfish of a bad quality?

Mr. Davila. Both.

Dr. Carroll. How many days' work do you have in a year, on the
average.

Mr. Davila. We work whenever we can get it. Sometimes we are
a month, and even two and three months, without work, during which
time we are not able to make a peseta.

Dr. Carroll. How do you live then?

Mr. Davila. By obtaining credit at the stores on the expectation
of what we are going to earn later on.

Dr. Carroll. What are you able to give your family in the way of
food?

Mr. Davila. There are days in which I am able to give them a little
rice; other days in which I am able to give them a little codfish, and
other days in which I am able to give them neither breakfast nor
supper.

Dr. Carroll. What about clothing?

Mr. Davila. For clothing our families we manage to get small
advances from the owner of the estate on which we are working, and
with that manage to get cotton clothes such as I am wearing.

Dr. Carroll. What about tools?

Mr. Davila. The estate owner furnishes them, and we pay for them
by our work.

WORK, WAGES, AND MEALS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Coamo, P. R., February 6, 1899.
Mr. Antero Rivero, a painter, and others:

Dr. Carroll. Are there anj^ artisans or laborers here? Laborers
are in the majority in the island, and I don't feel that my investiga-
tion would be complete without getting their views.

A Gentleman present. There is a great want of factories here

741

to give work to women and children. All would work if tliey had a
chance.

Dr. Carroll. Are there no laborers here?

Mr. Antero Rivero. I think that before the workmen here can
progress there must be a union formed among them ; otherwise they
will remain in the same condition in which they are to-day. Being
united, they would be in a position to ask for such a salary as would
enable them to keep a family together, whereas with the miserable
pittance they now earn they are unable to keep a family, although
they labor from 6 o'clock in the morning until 6 in the evening. The
most a workman earns is a dollar or a dollar and a quarter a day.

Dr. Carroll. That is a great deal more than is earned in other
districts. How many days' work did you have last year?

Mr. Rivero. Nearly six months.

Dr. Carroll. What wages did you get?

Mr. Rivero. Seven dollars and fifty centavos a week.

Dr. Carroll. About $180 for the six months. Do you own your
own house?

Mr. Rivero. No; I pay $4 a month rent.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a family?

Mr. Rivero. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Of how many does it consist?

Mr. Rivero. Only a wife, but I support my mother and sister.

Dr. Carroll. How much do you think you ought to have in order
to support your family properly?

Mr. Rivero. Two dollars a day.

Dr. Carroll. You say you have work about six months a year;
what do you do the other six months?

Mr. Rivero. Nothing; I know no other trade.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any ground to cultivate in connection
with your house?

Mr. Rivero. No.

Dr. Carroll. Do you know how much the ordinary field laborer
gets here a day?

Mr. Rivero, Fifty centavos a day.

' Dr. Carroll. Is that always paid in cash?

Mr. Rivero. On some estates they pay in cash and on others with
vales.

Dr. Carroll. For redemption at the hacienda's store?

Mr. Rivero. Yes; in provisions.

Dr. Carroll. Do the laborers make any complaint about getting a
part of their salary in that way.

Mr. Rivero. A commission came here the other day to incite the
laborers to strike on account of the miserable wages they receive.

Dr. Carroll. A commission of laborers?

Mr. Rivero. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you think the laboring men would profit by a
strike?

Mr. Rivero. I think so.

Dr. Carroll. They don't usually in the United States. In almost
every strike the workmen lose not only what they are contending for,
but also the wages they might earned during the period of the strike.
Do the laborers who are paid in vales complain of the prices charged
for the provisions they get at the company's store or as to the quality
of the provisions?

742

Mr. Rivero. I can not answer that question, but I can find a man
who can.

Note. — Mr. Rivero returned to the hearing, after a few minutes,
followed by two farm laborers. The commissioner interviewed them
as follows :

Dr. Carroll. Are you a laborer on a coffee estate?

First Laborer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. You also (addressing the second laborer)?

Second Laborer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. The same estate?

Second Laborer. The same mountain, but not the same estate.

Dr. Carroll. What do you get a day?

First Laborer. From 25 centavos up to 37^ centavos.

Dr. Carroll. How many clays a week do you labor?

First Laborer. Six.

Dr. Carroll. What are your hours of labor?

First Laborer. From early morning until 11 o'clock, when we stop
for a short rest, and then work on until nightfall.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get j^our wages in cash?

First Laborer. Sometimes in money and sometimes they tell us
they haven't money, and give us orders.

Dr. Carroll. Orders on the stores?

First Laborer. Orders which any store will take. In the district of
Coamo they pay some 3 and some 4 reales, but never more than that

Dr. Carroll. Do the}7 turxiish you a house to live in?

First Laborer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. The house, then, is free?

First Laborer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do they furnish you one meal a day?

First Laborer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do the}7 give you land to raise a crop on?

First Laborer. No; they don't give land to anybody. We have
only the land the house stands on.

Dr. Carroll. Do they give you bananas or fruits of that kind?

First Laborer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do they give you all the plantains you want?

First Laborer. Yes; they give us 6 or 7.

Dr. Carroll. How much of a family have you?

First Laborer. I have no family.

Second Laborer. I get about the same as my friend.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get a house free?

Second Laborer. I live in Coamo; not on the estate.

Dr. Carroll. Do they give you one meal a day?

Second Laborer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. What does the meal consist of?

Second Laborer. Bananas and codfish, without any sort of flavor-
ing or seasoning.

Dr. Carroll. Is the codfish in good condition?

Second- Laborer. Medium ; it is not of the best quality.

Dr; Carroll. Do you get your wages in cash?

Second Laborer. No; in orders.

Dr. Carroll. All of it in orders?

Second Laborer. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. On what store — ou the company's store?

Second Laborer. I can redeem them at any store where they know
the signature is eood.

743

Dr. Cakroll. Is an order as good as money in buying provisions?

Second Laborer. It is worth half to me.

Dr. Carroll. Did the proprietor for whom you work state any
reason for paying you in that way?

Second Laborer. He pays a few in money, and then says he has
no more money, and pays the rest in orders.

Dr. Carroll. Is that true of all proprietors, or of a few only?

Second Laborer. Some pay in money and some pay in orders.

A Planter. I have never paid my workmen in anything hut money,
and I give them coffee, breakfast and dinner, a house, and 374- centavos
a day.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a family?

Second Laborer. I have a wife and five children.

Dr. Carroll. Do your children work in the field?

Second Laborer. I have only one who is large enough to work.

Dr. Carroll. Does your wife work?

Second Laborer. She is a washerwoman.

Dr. Carroll. Do you send any of your children to school?

Second Laborer. I have one at school.

THE POOR OF SAN JUAN.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. P., February 9, 1899.
The Rev. A. J. McKim, agent of the American Bible Society :

There are about 32,000 people here in San Juan and vicinity, of whom
about 7,000 are miserably poor. It is a poverty of which the poor at
home know comparatively little about, because it relates to their daily
food. It is not infrequent for persons to come home in the afternoon and
say they haven't taken their breakfast (desayuno) . I will relate a case
of a woman living about three squares from this office (corner of Sol
and San Justo streets), with six children, who replied, in answer to a
question, that she hadn't tasted bread since day before yesterday, but
that her children had something to eat yesterday from the soup kitchen.
The number of cases of this kind is comparatively large, partly owing
to the fact that some were left in an unprotected state by the war
and partly from the fact that there has been a considerable emigration
from the island, leaving certain dependents without any protection,
and many Spaniards are in a like case.

There came to niy room a Spaniard who said that he could not pro-
cure any work because of his nationality. I replied that charity has
no nationality, and that we were just as willing to help Spaniards as
to help Porto Ricans or Americans in distress, and that I myself
would visit his house on the following morning and investigate the
state of suffering which he alleged existed not only in his own family,
but in the entire row known as Marine Row.

The state of misery which was found in that whole street was suffi-
cient to excite the charity even of the soldiers, who sometimes shared
their rations with those poor sufferers in that street. The officers
were especially kind to them, and were it not for them and for liberal
citizens of our own nation, those people would actually have starved
to death. I asked one father why he did not clothe his children, the
younger ones being entirely naked. He replied that he would be very
glad to be able to give them one meal a day. A second visit revealed

744

still further cases in the immediate vicinity. In another part of the
city, near the north wall, I found a large number of children, neg-
lected for a long time, and many of them in a state of perfect nudity.
But on returning to give them the alms which I had collected for them,
I found them gathered around the door of a house from which food
was distributed among them, and they were all securing, through
charity, at least one good meal per day. That is only about four
blocks from here.

These cases would be nothing in themselves, but they are repre-
sentative cases, and while in the principal streets misery is not seen,
in all the cross streets of the city misery is patent to the least observ-
ant. My object in visiting them has been to administer temporal
help and also spiritual comfort. A large number of single Gospels
have been given to them, but it has generally been after having fur-
nished them substance, at least for the moment. If our people could
understand how very near to starvation many of these people really
live, I am sure they would be induced to provide something for the
simplest wants of nature.

A laborer from the coffee region about Lares said to me that when
the government was prepared to assure work to the inhabitants of
the island their happiest day would have arrived, and that assurance,
can be realized the moment the people know that they are not to be
molested either by the government or by robber bands. There is
now in my house an owner of a coffee estate who returns to Spain for
the purpose of recuperating his health which was lost by his vigilance
in looking after his estate near Lares. He and others assert that the
island affords abundant work for the people the moment they are
assured protection in their persons and property. Throughout the
island there has been a misconception of the liberty which the United
States has afforded them, many interpreting it as a license which
would allow them to prey upon their neighbors who were born in the
Peninsula, and so capital has been retired from the island in consid-
erable amounts, and work has been suspended. The laborers thus
thrown out of work have come to the capital to seek protection and
work in order to support their families. There is comparatively little
work in this vicinity to-day, except upon the wharf, and these recon-
centrados have suffered in their persons all that is possible to suffer
and live, and while the present state of things continues much suf-
fering will probably exist; but as renewed assurances of stability are
being given, many are commencing to build up their estates and to
employ more workmen. So true is this that many persons from the
adjacent Antilles haye been arriving to share in the small amount of
labor here. Provision can be easily made for those who are now
here ; and if the growing confidence of the people in the interior will
draw an equal number of laborers from the capital, no doubt the
social conditions will be vastly improved.

One of the worst features of the reconcentration of our native
inhabitants in the capital has been the overfilling of tenement houses,
20 and 30 families living in single houses of 8 and 10 rooms; that is,
nearly an average of 3 families to a room. While such a state of
affairs continues morality is not possible. Therefore, one of the chief
objects of the government should be to provide suitable habitations
for the poor. We understand that this matter has been brought to
the attention of the supreme authority in the island, and have no
doubt that the continued clamor of the people for suitable homes will
attract the attention of capitalists and builders.

745

I think, considering that there are in this island 900,000 people and
that it is not as large as the State of Connecticut, that they have been
comparatively well taken care of. If, under our administration, they
can have work more regularly, their condition will be very greatly
improved. As the taxes which impoverish them are abolished and
the necessaries of life are furnished them as cheaply as at home, there
seems no reason why they should not take a more advanced position
in social lines. It is true that the vices of the country are taxed more
than formerly, and these are a source of revenue for the municipalities;
but the people are becoming convinced that it is only a good market
for their produce and steady labor that can advance the true interests
of the government and procure their own happiness and that of their
families.

ARTISANS IN CAGUAS.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Caguas, P. R., February 27, 1899.

Mr. Boada (president of the gremio of workmen). We need pro-
tection in everything which we undertake for the purpose of raising
our position.

Dr. Carroll. How about your wages, the way you live, and other
matters affecting your conditions?

Mr. Boada. I have a carpenter's shop and work for my own account.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have work every day in the week and every
week in the year?

Mr. Boada. No; I am idle about half the year.

Dr. Carroll. Do you work six days in the week when you have
work?

Mr. Boada. Even at nighttime.

Dr. Carroll. Why is it that you don't have more work. Is it
because there are many carpenters here or too little work?

Mr. Boada. There are too many carpenters and too little work, and
all furniture is brought in from outside.

Dr. Carroll. Why don't some of the carpenters go into something
else?

Mr. Boada. I don't know.

Dr. Carroll. How much of a family have you?

Mr. Boada. Four children and my wife.

Dr. Carroll. What rent do you pay?

Mr. Boada. I live in my father's house.

Dr. Carroll. Do your children go to school?

Mr. Boada. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. How old is the eldest?

Mr. Boada. Eight years.

Dr. Carroll. Have you boys?

Mr. Boada. One boy and three girls.

Mr. Domingo de S. Diaz, a painter:

Dr. Caeroll. Do you have plenty of work?

Mr. Diaz. Very little work.

Dr. Carroll. How many days' work do you have a year?

Mr. Diaz. I work about half the year.

Dr. Carroll. How much do you get a day?

746

Mr. Diaz. I do piecework. I can make from a peso to a peso and
a half a day.

Dr. Carroll. Can you live comfortably on that?

Mr. Diaz. No.

Dr. Carroll. How niany have you in your family?

Mr. Diaz. I have a mother, wife, and 'three children.

Dr. Carroll. How much rent do you pay?

Mr. Diaz. I live in the house of my uncle.

Dr. Carroll. Do your children go to school?

Mr. Diaz. Every day.

Dr. Carroll. What trade are you going to teach them?

Mr. Diaz. Whatever they choose.

Dr. Carroll. Are there many painters here?

Mr. Diaz. There are several, and painters come here also from
neighboring towns.

Mr. Juan Diaz, a tailor :

Dr. Carroll. Have you a shop of your own?

Mr. Diaz. No.

Dr. Carroll. Do you work by the day, or week, or piece?

Mr. Diaz. I work for so much a suit.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have plenty of work?

Mr. Diaz. Very little work.

Dr. Carroll. What is the reason for it; are there too many tailors?

Mr. Diaz. There are quite a number of tailors.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have work enough to keep you going six
months in the year?

Mr. Diaz. Yes; about sis months. My work is very irregular; some
weeks I have nothing to do, and maybe the next week I have plenty
of work.

Dr. Carroll. About how much do you make in a year?

Mr. Diaz. About a dollar a day, native money.

Dr. Carroll. Then you make about $150, native money, a year?

Mr. Diaz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a family?

Mr. Diaz. Yes; I have a father, mother, and two sisters.

Dr. Carroll. Does your father work also?

Mr. Diaz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you pay rent?

Mr. Diaz. No.

Dr. Carroll. Then, in a family like that, with two working, you
can live very comfortably, I suppose?

Mr. Diaz. Yes ; if we could only get work every day. I have some-
times been a whole month without work.

Dr. Carroll. Is your father a tailor?

Mr. Diaz. No ; he is a weigher and loader.

Mr. Antonio Moreno, a cigar maker:

Dr. Carroll. Have you work all the year?

Mr. Moreno. I have very little work.

Dr. Carroll. About how much of the year are you busy?

Mr. Moreno. Four or five months.

Dr. Carroll. Do you work for yourself?

Mr. Moreno. No; as a journeyman.

Dr. Carroll. Are there several cigar or cigarette factories here?

747

Mr. Moreno. No; there are no factories, in the proper sense of the
word. I get work from the stores, as they need to have cigars made
, up from time to time for their needs. «

Dr. Carroll. About what do you earn in a year?

Mr. Moreno. I earn about a dollar a day when I have work.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any f aniily?

Mr. Moreno. Yes; I have a mother and one child. I am a wid-
ower.

Dr. Carroll. Do you pay house rent?

Mr. Moreno. Yes; 6 pesos a month.

Dr. Carroll. How many rooms do you have for that?

Mr. Moreno. Two.

Mr. Jesus Mendez, a shoemaker:

Mr. Mendez. I work in a shoe factory ; not for my own account.

Dr. Carroll. How many months a year?

Mr. Mendez. The whole year round.

Dr. Carroll. How much do you earn?

Mr. Mendez. Some days a dollar, some days 75 centavos; they pay
me by piecework.

Dr. Carroll. How many days do you work a week?

Mr. Mendez. Five days; we don't work Sunday and Monday. On
these days they prepare the work for the rest of the week.

Dr. Carroll. Have you a family?

Mr. Mendez. Yes; a father, mother, and a little child.

Dr. Carroll. Do you pay rent?

Mr. Mendez. We pay 4 pesos a month between us.

Dr. Carroll. How many rooms have you?

Mr. Mendez. Two.

Dr. Carroll. Of what material is the house — wood?

Mr. Mendez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Does the child go to school?

Mr. Mendez. No; she is not old enough yet.

Dr. Carroll. Did you go to school yourself when you were a boy?

Mr. Mendez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Until what time?

Mr. Mendez. Until I was 17 years of age.

LOW WAGES AND LITTLE WORK.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cayey, February 28, 1899.

A gentleman came forward and stated that he desired to represent
the laboring men.

Dr . Carroll. If you want to represent them, give me some concrete
information. I want facts, not opinions.

Mr. . Laboring men earn about 31 centavos a day here.

Dr. Carroll. Do you mean in this city?

Mr. . In the whole district. I have heard it stated here that

field peons are given two meals a day.

Dr. Carroll . Are you a laboring man?

Mr. . No.

Dr. Carroll. What is your work?

Mr. . I am a shirt maker.

748

Mayor Munoz. There not being sufficient work in his trade, he has
left it.

Mr. / They eat herrings and bananas in the morning, and in.

the afternoon the same thing. They work the whole week.

Dr. Carroll. Don't they eat any bread?

Mr. . No. Sunday, if the peon is paid his money, he buys a

bit of meat. If he is paid in vales, he can not get meat.

Dr. Carroll. Are many paid in vales?

Mr. . Yes; many.

Mr. Planellas. It is not fair to imply that nobody here in Cayey
looks after the laboring man or tries to elevate him. I have tried the
experiment of giving them meat, and after trying it two days they
have asked for codfish. The salvation of the laboring man is not the
work of a day.

Dr. Carroll. Is it customary for planters to give peons a meal a
day?

A Planter. On my estate I give coffee in the morning, a meal in
the middle of the day, consisting of codfish and plantains, and in the
evening rice and plantains or sweet potatoes. Frequently the planters
sustain the families living on the estate.

Dr. Carroll. What do you pay a day?

Planter. Thirty-seven centavos. When work is scarce I allow them
to sow a piece of land and charge them nothing for the land.

Dr. Carroll. In what form do you pay them?

Planter. In money. Sometimes some of them want cash in ad-
vance, and in that case I give them a vale, and merchants here all
charge low prices.

Another Planter. The generality of planters do not treat their
peons in the manner that this gentleman has described.

Mr. Luis Munoz. In this document there is a very important clause
which I would like to have read for the satisfaction of the town. In
former years, when the harvesting of the crops was over, which was
usually in May, the planters used to give their men employment on
the estates until the next crop. This year they can not do that, and
about 3,000 men will be out of work, which will cause trouble.

(The paragraph referred to stated that the workmen will be without
work when the harvest is over, and that it was urgent that some
work should be undertaken to give them employment.)

Mayor Munoz. I wish to make known that the greater number of
small agricultural owners here take the same kind of food that is
taken by the peon.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any peons present? I would like to hear
all classes, and if there are any laboring men present I would like to
have them come forward and speak freely.

Pedro Jose Sanchez, a field peon:

Dr. Carroll. What is your work?

Mr. Sanchez. lam a field laborer.

Dr. Carroll. On whose estate are you working to-day.

Mr. Sanchez. I am working in the finca of Mr. Ortiz, who pays me
three reales a day. He gives me two meals a day and gives me good
food.

Dr. Carroll. Are you paid in vales?

Mr. Sanchez. No; in money.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any family?

Mr. Sanchez. No.

749

Dr. Carroll. Do you live on the estate?

Mr. Sanchez. I live near the estate. They don't give me a house
on the estate. I haven't asked for one, but I don't think I would get
one if I did ask for it.

Dr. Carroll. What are your hours of labor?

Mr. Sanchez. From 6 until 6.
. Dr. Carroll. How much time do you have in the middle of the day?

Mr. Sanchez. Until I have swallowed the last mouthful. What I
earn is not sufficient to keep me.

Dr. -Carroll. How do you spend your money?

Mr. Sanchez. For clothing and food.

Dr. Carroll. Are not two meals enough?

Mr. Sanchez. No; not the meals I get.

Dr. Carroll. Do you spend money for rum?

Mr. Sanchez. Only a little.

Dr. Carroll. How much a day?

Mr. Sanchez. I take two drinks a day.

Dr. Carroll. Where do you go on Sunday?

Mr. Sanchez. On Sunday I attend to matters in my house, and go
down to the river to wash myself, and come to the city.

Dr. Carroll. What clothes have you?

Mr. Sanchez. The clothes I have on only.

Dr. Carroll. Do you play games?

Mr. Sanchez. No ; not at all.

(Mr. Sanchez wore no shoes ; his trousers and shirt were of very cheap
material, and his general appearance was that of a very poor country-
man. )

Mr. Jose Velez Lopez, a cigar maker :

Dr. Carroll. What do you earn a day?

Mr. Lopez. I make from $1.75 to 12 a day, according to the work.
I do piecework — so much a hundred. We begin at 6 o'clock in the
morning and work until 5 o'clock. In the middle of the day we have
three-quarters of an hour.

Dr. Carroll. Is what you earn sufficient to maintain your family?

Mr. Lopez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have work all the year?

Mr. Lopez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. In what factory do you work?

Mr. Lopez. Rucabado's. That gives work all the year round.

Dr. Carroll. How much of a family have you?

Mr. Lopez. I have five children.

Dr. Carroll. Do you pay rent?

Mr. Lopez. Yes, I pay $5 a month.

Dr. Carroll. Do you send your children to school?

Mr. Lopez. Yes, two of them — one 8 and the other 10 j^ears of age.

Dr. Carroll. How many rooms have you in your house?

Mr. Lopez. Two rooms.

Mr. Jesus Hernandez, a foreman in a cigar factory :

Dr. Carroll. How many cigars do you make a year?

Mr. Hernandez. It is not possible to calculate exactly. We can
make about 30,000 cigars a week. We work six days; and have 68
workmen at present.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any boys or girls working there?

750

Mr. Hernandez. Yes. There are none working there less than 9
years of age.

Dr. Carroll. How many children have yon at work?

Mr. Hernandez. Eight hoys and four girls.

Dr. Carroll. Can any of them read?

Mr. Hernandez. Some of them, but not all. Most of the tobacco
manufacturers also do not know how to read and write.

Dr. Carroll. Mr. Mayor, is it not the law that children must go to
school?

Mayor Munoz. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Is any attempt made to enforce that law?

Mayor Munoz. I have only had the position about a week and have
not had it rectified yet; but I have already asked the police to give
me the names of the children in the town to see whether they are
attending school.

Dr. Carroll. Are those children apprentices?

Mr. Hernandez. Yes.

Dr. Carroll. Mr. Mayor, is there any law regulating the age at
which children can go to work?

Mayor Munoz. No.

Dr. Carroll. Where do you buy your tobacco?

Mr. Hernandez. From this district.

Dr. Carroll. What do you do with your cigars — where do they go?

Mr. Hernandez. They are sold in the island ; a few are exported.

Dr. Carroll. Where do you export them?

Mr. Hernandez. To the United States, some to Spain, and some-
times to Germany and England. We have tried to introduce our
goods there, but it has been without result.

Dr. Carroll. Is there more tobacco under cultivation this year
than last?

Mr. Hernandez. No; less.

Dr. Carroll. Do you give less for tobacco this year than last year?

Mr. Hernandez. The new harvest has not come in yet, so I can
not tell.

Dr. Carroll. Do you get for your manufactured product as much
as you did a year ago?

Mr. Hernandez. The manufacturers sell cigars at the same price,,
but have to pay their workmen more. They will have to raise the
price for that reason.

THE POOR OF YAUCO.

Yauco, P. R., March 5, 1899.
On the afternoon of Sunday, March 5, the commissioner visited the
poor quarter of Yauco, situated on the hillside, from the crown of the
hill about halfway downward. The houses are set irregularly, with-
out much regard to streets, which are absolutely impassable for
wagons. The heavy rains have made deep gullies in the center of
them, and it is difficult for one to go through them on horseback.
The houses are built entirety of wood, with shingle roofs, differing
entirely in this respect from those of Arecibo, which had thatched
roofs. They are also of a better grade. Most of them consist of two
rooms. They are built of odd bits of boards, which had formerly served
as dry-goods boxes or as the staves of barrels or hogsheads. Almost
without exception they are very dirty. In nearly every case the fur-
niture consists of a cot and chair, or a box, and sometimes a table.

751

There is generally a kettle which serves as a sort of portable furnace
for the cooking of the meals.

The population is a mixed one. Very often a white woman will
have a colored husband, or a white husband a colored wife. The
commissioner examined several persons living in these houses on
various points.

Case No. 1. — A porter who said he earned from SO to 60 centavos a
day when he had work. He had never been to school and could not
read or write. He had one child 10 years of age who goes to school, '
but who when asked the sum of 2 and 9 said 18. This man owns his
own house, is white, and about 40 years of age. He says that the
amount he earns is not sufficient to give him and his family more than
one meal a day and coffee before starting out to work. When asked
what his food consisted of, he said it was chiefly rice and beans, never
wheat bread or meat.

Case No. 2. — A young couple, man of about 20 years of age and
woman of about 17 or 18; have been living together about a year, but
were not married. They were both dark complexioned. The woman
had a very comely face, but was a slattern. When asked why they
had not got married, the woman seemed somewhat abashed and turned
her head. The man said he did not want to be tied up; that if she
wanted to get free she could do so. He was asked if one of the rea-
sons he had not married was the cost of getting married, and he said
that had something to do with it. He had no children; if he had chil-
dren he might reconsider his statement and get married. He is a ped-
dler, and when working earns about 50 centavos a day.

Case No. 3. — A baker, with four children. His earnings are accord-
ing to the class of work he is put on. Sometimes he makes 50 centavos
and sometimes he manages to make a dollar, but on the average he
does not make more than 50 centavos. He is married. His wife assists
him by washing, and a brother-in-law lives with them and helps out.

Case No. J/.. — Washerwoman, living alone with four children; earns
about 18 cents a day — that is, she takes in a couple dozen pieces of
clothes one day and is able to deliver them the third day if all goes
well and the weather is dry. She owns her house and is having an
addition made to it, which she will rent to the man who is building it
for the sum of 25 centavos a week when completed. She says her chil-
dren run about the streets and manage to pick up a few centavos on
day jobs. She seemed to be a woman of cheerful disposition. When
asked if she was able to give her children enough food, she said they
never went without food, but the appearance of the baby in her arms
was not that of a well-nourished child.

Case No. 5. — Man and woman living together. The man said he
would not marry; that he had not got the woman of his choice. He
was inclined to resent the interference of another man who asked why
he did not marry, saying that he was quite as good a man as the other
one, and that he had better mind his own business. The woman, who
was present, looked sheepish and turned away and seemed to take the
matter as a good joke. The man was colored, the woman white.
Evidently the man was of a surly and probably of a vicious character.

Case No. 6. — A fireman. His work was loading the mule teams of
the army with rubbish to take down to the river for disposal; was
employed by the municipality. The mayor told him that 50 centavos
was all that he could pay, and that if he could not accept 50 centavos
he need not come back to work. He asked 75 centavos, and expressed
the opinion to the mayor, he said, that 50 centavos was not enough for

752

a man of familyto keep them in food and clothes. He works at any
odd jobs that offer and his wife helps him by selling dulees in the
market place. He is evidently an intelligent colored man. He said
he had never allowed his children "to goto bed with their months
open for want of food." He ,said that as regards clothes they were
very badly off; that he could not afford to buy any other than the
very cheapest, and that those put on in the morning would probably
be useless at nighttime, owing to their bad quality.

Case No. 7. — Another family with whom a brother-in-law of the
man lived and assisted by sharing the expenses of the house. The
Avoman seemed to be a motherly sort of person, but was squatting in
the doorway with her children about her, breaking in upon the con-
versation at intervals ; she said it was impossible for people to live
decently with what they were able to earn. The brother of the woman
was evidently a pure Porto Rican. He asked the man mentioned in
case No. 5 if he did not regard the woman he was living with as his
wife, and was told to mind his business. When asked if the titular
doctor gave his services freety when required, they said no; that he
usually managed to make some excuse not to come up unless he was
paid for it; that for that reason they had to go to the hospital when
they wanted medical attendance. This same opinion was expressed
more or less by all the persons the commissioner spoke to, with the
exception of the last, a shoemaker, who said that the doctor was a
decent sort of fellow and came up when required.

Case No. 8. — A woman who makes a living at coffee picking and
lives with her sister. She makes at the most 37 centavos a day, but does
not average that amount. She gave the same reply about the doctor.
When asked what were the prevalent diseases in that quarter of the
town, she said fever, of which the commissioner saw several instances.
She had not sent for the doctor when sick, and said he would not
have come if she had sent for him. She said one reason the}7 did not
go to see the doctor was the fear that they might be sent to the hos-
pital. When asked if they were treated well in the hospital, she said
that some of them went in almost well and died there. Evidently
there was a feeling of fear among the poor regarding the hospital.
She lived with her sister, and they owned the house. The cost of
building these houses appears to be between $20 and $50, according
to their quality. The city allows them to build houses on the land
without charging them any rent. Formerly the city did charge rent.
As there is no water upon the hill, they have to go down to the river,
a distance of probably 500 yards. They employ a water carrier for
this purpose when they have no men in the family, and his charge is
5 cents for two kerosene cans of water. This has to last them a day,
and frequently longer, and if the}7 have no money they have to borrow
of their neighbors' supply of water. There are no sanitary regula-
tions of any description. The refuse of the houses is piled in heaps
and burned, but bad smells do not prevail up there, owing, probably,
to the strong wind which usually blows across the hill. There were
evidences of past smallpox in the faces of mam7 of the women and
children, but at present, it is said, there are no cases. The children
were nearly all of a sickly cast, the prominent abdomen being one of
the chief features. When asked whether the priest is in the habit of
coming up among them and advising them and talking to them, they
said he never made a pastoral visit by any chance ; that he occasion-
ally came up there to administer the last sacrament, but after much
persuasion only.

Case No. 9. — A laborer and wife, married, with five children, living

753

in one room. The man sometimes works on the mountains chopping
wood, or down in the town, when he can get anything to do. His wife
was a cook in the town, but had to leave her place owing to ill health.
She was paid $4 a month, and was frequently able to bring up food
from the town for her family. Both were very intelligent, and when
asked whether they would be satisfied to see their daughter, wThen
grown up, lapse into the state of living which seems to be general,
the man was vehement in saying no, but seemed to understand that
unless the children received an education that would be their fate.
When asked how they could possibly acquire good morals when the
whole family of seven slept in one room, the man said it was impossi-
ble, but that it was also impossible for him to do otherwise, as he had
no other room for them to sleep in. Their dinner was standing on the
table. It consisted of plates of rice and codfish, probably with about
half a pound in each. This, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, was the
first meal they had taken that day, the woman saying that they were
thankful to get that. This was apparently the most intelligent and
best disposed household visited.

Case No. 10. — A married couple living in a slightly superior house.
The husband, a man of about 25, was sitting on an iron bedstead with
a clean canopy; he had on a clean cotton shirt. He said that he had
worked almost constantly at the shoemaker's bench, and was able to
earn from 50 to 75 centavos a day. They had a box of oranges for sale
in the door, and they appeared to be generally cleanly and in a better
position than their neighbors. This man made the statement that the
town doctor visited sick persons when required to do so, and that the
priest also attended to administering the last sacrament when neces-
sary.

Case No. 11. — A woman of about 35 or 40 years of age, with four
children, who said she was married, but that her husband had left
her and was living with another woman. She works at coffee picking,
and says she can earn about 25 cents a da}^. When asked what she
did with her children when at work, she said she leaves them at home
and that the eldest looks after the others. She had a baby in her
arms of about 6 months. This child she takes with her to her work,
and said she had work constantly. She was living in one room, for
which she was paying $1.25 per month. ,

The general run of wages for women seems to be from 18 to 37 centa-
vos, and for men from 50 to 60 centavos. There are quite a number of
peddlers who obtain goods from stores on short credits and go out into
the country selling to the farmers and peons. One of these remarked
that when times used to be good he could easily make a dollar and a
half a day, but that times were very hard now and 50 centavos was about
the usual amount earned when he went out. This man had a basket
evidently full of notions. Many of the women, as well as the men,
were barefoot, and many of the children had no clothes on whatever.
The women sat together in groups on the dirt outside of their houses.
Dirty jute hammocks in many instances take the place of cots or beds.
The cooking appears to be done inside the houses by lighting a few
wood splinters in a kettle on the floor, or a little charcoal, and putting
the pot containing the food on this. Many of the men were absent
from their homes. There was not a single evidence of a water-closet
through the district. The men seem generally to be intelligent and
active. All the children apparently go to school, but none of those
questioned had as much education as a child of 7 years in the United
States would have.
1125 £8

754

THE AGRICULTURAL LABORER.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. PL, October SI, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. What is the condition of the agricultural laborers
generally?

Dr. Santiago Veve, of Fajardo. The laborer to-day is in a very
sad condition, chiefly owing to the impecunious condition of the men
who employ him. His relation to his employer is voluntary. He
either asks for work or is asked by the employer if he wants to work.
He is paid on an average about 50 centavos a day, but usually is not
paid in coin, but in I. O. U.'s, which he usualty takes to the store in
the neighborhood at which his employer has opened an account and
obtains for these I. O. U.'s, or vales, as they are called, provisions, for
which he pays a much higher price than he would be obliged to pay
if he had cash. Should he not use the whole amount of his earnings
in buying provisions or clothing, but ask the storekeeper to give him
the remainder in cash, the storekeeper does so with a discount of from
15 to 20 per cent.

Dr. Carroll. Is his employer subject to the same conditions as to
trade and money balances at the store?

Dr. Veve. Every week a balance is taken by the storekeeper of the
amounts given to the peons employed by Mr. A., for instance. That
amount is put to the agriculturist's debit and the total amount is
settled at the time of harvest. Should Mr. A. not pay this amount at
harvest time, interest is charged on the amount, or such part of it as
remains unpaid, at the rate of about 12 per cent a year.

Dr. Carroll. Is there no labor organization among the laborers?

Dr. Veve. In the country, absolutely none, but there has been an
attempt to do something of that sort among the laborers in San Juan
and Ponce.

Dr. Carroll. Is there no oppression employed by the agricultur-
ist's employer with respect to the laborers?

Dr. Veve. That depends on the owner of the estate. If he is a
man of conscience, oppression does not occur; but in some cases there
have been employers who have taken advantage of their ignorant and
poor employees to oppress them, and, the laborers here being of a mild
character, this seldom gives rise to trouble.

Dr. Carroll. Do the employers provide food for the laborers and
their families?

Dr. Veve. The general rule is, the laborer goes to the plantation
in the morning and returns home at night and receives only his salary.
There are some exceptions in the coffee estates, where, on some planta-
tions, it is customary to let the laborer build a little house on the
estate, where he is permitted out of crop time to have a small garden
for his own use. Sometimes the agreement between the employer
and the laborer is that the latter shall receive half his compensation
in monej^ and half in food, but this is an exception. As a general
rule the employer does not supply the laborer with food.

Dr. Carroll. We have been informed that a majority of merchants,
bankers, shippers, and owners of plantations are Spaniards. Is that
the case?

Dr. Veve. Not absolutely true. In commerce and banks nearly all
the owners of establishments are Spaniards; but in agriculture there
is a slight preponderance of native owners over Spanish owners.

755

THE VICE OF GAMBLING.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 1, 1898.

Dr. Carroll. What is the condition of the agricultural laborers
here?

Mr. RoiG. They get enough salary, but their condition is not good,
because they incur expenses that they should not. Moreover, they
gamble a great deal and often lose in an hour all they have. The poor
people here do not know how to save their money. It goes for drink
or something else that is not needed by them.

Dr. Carroll. Are there any places where they can put their savings?

Mr. RoiG. There are in Ponce and San German, but nowhere else.
They can save, nevertheless, if they were inclined to do so, because
their needs are few. The poor do not wear shoes, and their clothing
is scant and of the cheapest materials.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much desire among them to get a little house
and farm of their own, so as to live independently?

Mr. RoiG. No; they don't care; they have very little ambition. I
am speaking now of the peons.

LONG HOURS OF LABOR.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR ETJSTAQTJIO TORRES.

Guayanilla, P. R., November 7, 1898.

The common price of a day's labor is 50 cents, colonial money.
With this sum the laborer has to attend to his and his family's needs.
Considering the high price of food stuffs, especially those of prime
necessity, it will be seen that such a pittance can not suffice to cover
even his most urgent needs. The result is that these wretched people
walk about dirty, shoeless, in rags, and, worst of all, owing to want
of proper food, and live in the most abject ignorance. When they
return from their laborious work, lasting from 6 to 6, they desire
nothing but to rest their weary bodies, and have no idea what it means
to read a paper.

Still worse is the field hand's fate. Out of work during the most of
the year — for work falls off after harvest — he drags on a miserable
existence, his enforced idleness sometimes leading to theft and crime.
Therefore, not only for humanitarian, but for State reasons, labor
should be under regulations giving the laborer some time for rest and
some for study and pleasure, as is customary in all civilized countries.
Above all, he should be entitled to at least II a day or its equivalent
in gold, to enable him to save something for his and his family's
support when out of work, and as the only way of saving him from
thieving'.

LOW AGRICULTURAL WAGES.
STATEMENT OF ESCOLASTICO PEREZ.

Cidra, P. R., November 10, 1898.
In this country, rich by nature, little work is done. Anaemia impov-
erishes the plrfsical strength of the poor. Food and wages do not
permit of a good method of working. Taxes, hindrances, and other

756

causes have so sterilized all ambition and initiative of the agricul-
turist that it is impossible for him to pay his laborers higher wages.
As soon as the agriculturist obtains honest protection this evil will
disappear.

MEASURES OF RELIEF.
STATEMENT OF TOMAS VASQTJEZ, M. D.

Mayaguez, P. R., November 10, 1898.

I write, touching only on two or three points which my experience
as a doctor, bringing me into frequent contact with the peasant, has
enabled me long ago to form an opinion. I consider that if Porto
Rico is to obtain speedy benefits from its change of nationality the
wants of this class should receive prompt attention and their vices
immediate correction.

The peasant (jibaro) of Porto Rico lives in miserable hovels of
straw? isolated and at a distance from any town of sometimes 2 or 3
leagues or even from each other. As is natural, this class of life
brings in its train, first, the impossibility of healthy alimentation, for
they eat nothing but sweet potatoes, yams, and roots — never meat —
bringing, as an inevitable consequence, anaemia, from which all suffer.
Second, the impossibility of spreading education amongst them. It is
true that in some districts there are boy schools; schools for girls there
are none. The children can not attend classes, owing to the distance
at which they live from the schools, which are therefore rendered
inoperative. Besides, the teachers are too poorly paid to allow them
to attend to their scholastic duties. They receive but $25 monthly,
and to eke out a living take to agriculture, employing the boys in the
schools on field work. Third, the impossibility of forming a home and
family. As in the mountain districts no priests reside, neither are
there churches, and the distance is an impediment to the peasant
coming down to the towns; he usually lives in concubinage. Civil or
religious marriage is hardly known among them, and morals suffer in
consequence.

In my opinion, there is one remedy for this state of affairs, the appli-
cation of which would soon make itself felt. A former Governor-
General of this island had thought of it and published a circular,
which was, however, neglected. He wished to create villages or
centers of population to concentrate the people spread about the
country districts. I specialty wish to call your attention to this point.
It appears to me that if villages were established in each rural district
it would be easy to diffuse education among children of both sexes,
and even adults, besides having a church, with its priest or pastor, who
would preach Christian morality, inducing the custom of marriage and
doing away with concubinage, one of the greatest evils of our peas-
antry. Public wealth would also be the gainer, as in the highlands
there are many acres of government lands. In Guayama, for instance,
in the district called Carite, where there are more than 12,000 acres of
public lands suitable for the cultivation of coffee, cacao, and lesser
crops, the construction even of a mule road to connect with the cart
road would increase wealth, diffuse instruction, and moralize our
peasants.

To conclude, I think it of absolute necessity to find a means of con-
densing the population, of creating villages and rural schools, as I

757

think I may affirm that 90 per cent of our peasants can neither read
nor write. It is also necessary to follow the introduction of instruc-
tion with that of Christian morality by building churches and sending
missionaries to these fields.

THE CARPENTERS OF SAN JUAN.
STATEMENT OF SANTIAGO IGLESIAS, OF THE LEAGUE OF GREMIOS.

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1899.

To the questions which you put to me I answer in the name of my
companions, not with the intelligence and knowledge which a study
of this kind requires, but with good will and desire to do so to the
best of my ability.

The gremio of carpenters contains 600 members in the capital and
its surroundings. They hold weekly meetings, but do not assemble
in general meeting with other carpenters of the island or with other
gremios, because the principle of association and union was very lim-
ited under the Spanish rule, the title of insurgent being given to those
who attempted to come together for any purpose.

Apprenticeship, if it exists, exists without any method whatever.
There is an entire absence of professional schools, and in most houses
children come into the workshops without having learned even the
elementary branches of primary education. This is owing to the lack
of sufficient schools and to the great poverty which exists among the
lower-class families. Hours of work are excessive, usually from ten
- to twelve, under the burning sun, with one miserable hour for dinner.
Sundays we always work when occasion requires it, and the capitalists
force us to, without any compensation whatever. The average wage
fluctuated between 25 and 50 cents (colonial currency), which is not
sufficient to cover the most simple necessities of life. The gremios,
all of them, that of the carpenters in particular, are giving their
attention to the bettering of the conditions of labor, both as regards
treatment and remuneration. They keep up a common place of meet-
ing, where impressions are exchanged and which is called "Circle of
Workers of San Juan."

The gremios are not mutual aid societies, but these exist in the
capital and in all parts of the island, but of a feeble description.
The politics of the working people is no other than that of a struggle
of social economy and instruction.

Everything is reduced to the desire to better as much as possible
the moral and material condition of workers in general. The condi-
tions which we desire to obtain from the people and the Government
of the United States are absolute liberty and equality for all citizens,
also the right to elect any citizen, no matter what his state may be, if
known to have capacity and to be honest, for the administration of
municipal, provincial, and judicial duties.

THE PAINTERS OF SAN JUAN.
STATEMENT OF FACUNDO VALENCIA EAMOS, OF THE GREMIO OF PAINTERS.

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1899.

This gremio contains about 250 persons.

Apprenticeship has, up to this time, been deprived of sufficient ele-
ments for its complete installation.

758

Hours of work are from 6 o'clock in the morning to 11 o'clock, and
from 12 to half -past 5 or 6.

As regards mutual aid societies, they have existed and still exist in
this country, and the gremios have had such societies in which the
maximum and minimum amounts given members needing assistance
have been, respectively, $1 and one-half dollar.

I would say in regard to the holding of meetings, that now, having
ample liberty of action, we shall hold them frequently. Heretofore
general assemblies for discussing and resolving matters have been
considered a crime.

The wages of the laboring man are not in proportion to the prices of
articles of prime necessity, owing to the fact that a dollar in colonial
money is equal only to 50 cents in American currency. He who gains
a dollar or two in native money is prejudiced, while Spanish commerce
is benefited thereby.

Referring to the general political situation of the country, I can not
give an exact opinion about transcendental questions, but nevertheless
I can say in social, as well as in political matters, Spain never admin-
istered the affairs of the country with justice. Her greatest inca-
pacity was shown by the so-called autonomy, under which rule the
real master in Porto Rico was the Governor-General's secretary, who
consented to the oppression of the natives by the employees of tribu-
nals and other branches of government in the island. Secret prisons
were constructed to torture them. Then, after having granted auton-
omy, they accused us of being separatists. From now on our various
trade unions will have a common center, because we see that what Spain
never allowed will now be conceded us by the United States.

Among some of the disadvantages under which the gremio of paint-
ers is laboring, the first is the scarcity of work to be had during the
Spanish rule, owing to the fact that the Spanish nation never under-
took any large enterprises. The second is, the want of schools of arts
and trades established in San Juan, in Ponce, in Mayaguez, and in
San German.

BOATMEN OF SAN JUAN.

STATEMENT BY NORBERTO QUINONES, REPRESENTING LONGSHOREMEN AND

LIGHTERMEN.

San Juan, P. R., November 2, 1899.

The undersigned, named on the commission to explain the form
and conditions under which dock workers and lightermen of this
capital labor, begs to comply with his duty by stating the following:

There are three lighter companies, namely, Sobrinos Esquiaga,
Sucn. de Echeveste and Sucn. de Cabrera, who handle the loading
and unloading of vessels arriving at this port.

The lighterman has to be at his work at 4 o'clock in the morning
and work until 11 o'clock, during which time he is allowed one scant
hour for breakfast. At 12 o'clock he has to be ready to return to
work, with the risk of losing it if he is not on time. He then works
until 7, or later, at night. These fourteen hours of work are called one
day. The day is paid for according to what the companies think will
be barely sufficient to keep the workmen alive with necessary food
and drink. The amount fluctuates between a dollar and a dollar and
a half, provincial money. When an accident happens to one of these

759

workmen in the course of his employment, he is completely abandoned,
as these companies give them in such case absolutely no assistance.
Many other abuses are committed against dock laborers, but I will
not mention them, as little by little the American Government will
find them out.

BAKERS OF SAN JUAN.
STATEMENT OF BERNARDO T. CALLARS, IN BEHALF OF BAKERS, SAN JUAN, P. R.

The gremio of bakers of this citjr (San Juan) is composed of 150
members. Apprenticeship is begun at the. age of 14 years, and is
expected and encouraged. Hours of labor are from 4 in the afternoon
until 12 the day following, including Sundays and feast clays. Bakers
in some shops make as much as $1.50 a day; but when there are too
many bakers for the work, wages fall as low as 75 ceutavos. This
gremio has no mutual aid department. It does not hold general meet-
ings, owing to the fact that the former government persecuted persons
participating in such meetings as secret societies.

The special disadvantages under which this trade labors are, first,
that the trade is monopolized by six bakeries, and, second, the small
wages that are paid. We are in complete sympathy, but differ in
political matters. The special considerations which we wish to obtain
from the Government of the United States are, that it lower the price
of food stuffs and raise the duty on articles of luxury, such as alcohol
and tobacco.

We have ideas which we wish to express with respect to coinage,
custom-houses, provincial government, municipal government, and
tribunals, but what we most desire at present is the exchange of money.

Until now we have not belonged to a central union, but under the
new government we are getting together to do this. The general
situation of workmen is quite grave.

PRINTERS OF SAN JUAN.
STATEMENT OF RASANDO RIVERA IN BEHALF OF TYPOGRAPHERS, SAN JUAN, P. R.

Unfortunately typography in this country is to-day in a very back-
ward state, owing, doubtless, to the heavy duty imposed by the Span-
ish Government on the importation of type. I do not doubt for a
minute that in this country are workmen capable of competing with
those of any other country, however civilized; but however well sup-
plied a printing shop maybe, it always leaves much to be desired, and
at the best materials are wanting for the carrying out of good work.
It is certainly a lamentable fact that the Porto Rican workmen are in
a state of partial theoretical ignorance, but the Spanish Government is
chiefly at fault for this state of affairs for never having taken any
trouble to assist in the education of workmen. Nevertheless, the work-
man, owing to his personal struggle, has been able to keep up, although
not fully, with the grand march of civilization. It is well known that
in the m ost cultured centers of Europe and America the typographer
finds the road easy and his work well recompensed ; and as these are
due to the enlightenment of the various governments under which they

760

live, we, the Porto Riean workmen, hope and have the strong convic-
tion that we will obtain these desirable favors from the Government
in Washington. In our humble opinion, we understand that the
theoretical and practical education we need until we stand on the
level with our brothers of America is only to be achieved by the estab-
lishment of schools of arts and trades in which not only children can
be instructed, but adults as well. In regard to the class of teaching
which we should receive in these establishments, I will briefly point out
the branches which, in my judgment, I think my fellow-typographers
should acquire.

Theoretical knowledge. — Prose and verse reading. Reading from
manuscript, orthography, English and Spanish grammar and notions
of Latin grammar, French and Italian, knowledge and use of mathe-
matical science, commerce, music, chemistry, drawing in every form,
arithmetic, algebra, technical knowledge of the manufacture of type,
knowledge of the relations of types, pieces which are used in typog-
raphy, also the manner of manufacturing the same, explication of
the most common presses, and conservation and mounting of the same.

Practical training. — English cases, Spanish cases, and French cases,
composition and reading in the lead, correction, distribution, making
up sheets, paging on marble or in the press, statistics in every form,
works of luxury, works in color, notions of composition, Latin, French,
Italian, how to use machines, taking of proofs, founding rules, weight-
ing paper, brushing wooden letters, lead type and engraving, prepara-
tion of printing inks, printing zinc, glass, and high relief. It is cer-
tain that with these attainments there would spring up a school of
typography which would conscientiously perform the work of their
noble profession.

Replies to questions:

(1) Our gremio in San Juan consists of 152 members.

(2) Yes; apprenticeship is required, the time depending on the
capacity of the apprentice.

(3) We work eight hours.

(4) The only periodical which requires us to work on Sunday is the
Correspondencia. The workmen are obliged to do so owing to the
small salary they receive.

(5) On an average we earn $6 a week, although there are workmen
who earn $8 and $10.

(6) The object of our union is to better the desperate position in
which we find ourselves, and its scope is explained in the accompany-
ing expositions.

(7) The gremios do not form mutual-aid societies, because such are
provided in this country to which all social classes belong.

(8) They are beginning to be organized now, thanks to the liber-
ality of the government which we to-day have, and which we have
been desiring for a long time, and which we receive with open arms.
The Spanish Government was always inquisitorial and the enemy of
right and justice.

(9) We do not go in for politics, as politics is based on personality
and not on any ideal; therefore we are unanimous in our opinion.

(10) We wish to have the Territorial form of government as soon as
possible, and the military occupation to cease as soon as practicable;
also the protection of the natives of the country and to all those who
swear fidelity to the American Constitution.

(11) As regards tariffs, the free introduction of articles of prime
necessity, leaving a duty on articles of luxury and articles prejudicial

761

to humanity, such as alcohol, liquors, cards, etc. As regards money,
the exchange should be made as soon as possible. The rate we leave
to the opinion of the government or to those interested in it. Regard-
ing the municipalit}T and courts, the intervention of the workmen by
means of the vote and the right of representation for all of those who
have talent and capacity sufficient and who may be elected by uni-
A^ersal suffrage.

BOOKBINDERS, SILVERSMITHS, AND TINSMITHS.

STATEMENT OF JOSE G. MONJE, IN BEHALF OF BOOKBINDERS, SILVERSMITHS, AND
TINSMITHS, SAN JUAN, P. R.

Being chosen to represent the above-named gremios, I have to
inform you of the deplorable state of these trades.

First. Bookbinding. — The number of members of this gremio is 22.
Among the gremios, which are in poor condition, this is one of the
worst. The average weekly wage does not reach $4, provincial
money, with very few exceptions. The high rates of duty imposed
on the materials used in the trade makes work very scarce, and the
great number of books imported and their small cost is the cause of
the sad state in which this gremio finds itself. Besides these facts,
bookbinders are required, in certain shops, to do work which does not
belong to their trade, such as making cardboard boxes, traveling
trunks, and other smaller things. As some can not do this work, they
have been dismissed.

Second. Silversmiths. — In this gremio there are 27 members. Owing
to the importation of jewels, especially from Germany, this gremio is
in rather a bad condition, the work being almost entirely that of
repairs. It can be said, however, that it is not one of the most
unfortunate gremios.

Tinsmiths. — This gremio is in about the same position as that of
the silversmiths. The number of members belonging to the gremio
of tinsmiths is 15.

The number of years of apprenticeship required in these trades
depends only upon the capacity of the apprentice. Apprenticeship
is encouraged. The school of arts and trades is one of the institutions
where 'children, after having terminated their primary instruction,
lasting for several years, are granted a certificate which declares them
to be thorough workmen or master workmen, according to their knowl-
edge. In San Juan, in almost all of the gremios, workmen are accus-
tomed to work only eight hours, but silversmiths and tinsmiths work
eight and one-half hours and nine hours a day. In this country,
except on rare occasions, it is usual to work on Sunday. In some
establishments, however, half a day Sunday is exacted. We wish to
obtain the whole day for rest, as we consider that we are entitled to it.
Silversmiths earn as much as six or eight pesos, and about the same
amount is earned by tinsmiths. The gremios which have honored me
with the duty of representing them all aim at the improvement of
their classes and solicit, as a special favor of the United States, pro-
tection and preference for the natives of the country.

The gremios are not the same as mutual-help societies. In the
future all classes will take a part in these societies. Their aim is
exclusively that of assistance. The amount they usually pay to per-
sons in need is $1.75 or $1.50, according to the requirements of the
sick person. We are now thinking of calling a general conference of

762

all the gremios, something we could never do before, as any attempt
to get together was considered anti-Spanish and was prohibited. We
do not think to-day we shall meet with any obstacle, as we imagine
that the Government of the United States, instead of disturbing our
work, would sooner help us make it strong and enduring. Among the
manjf disadvantages which we have suffered and are now suffering,
the greatest has been the preference given to Spaniards over others
and the poor rate of wages paid. In my humble opinion, the working-
men of Porto Rico occupy themselves more with what concerns their
work than with political questions ; nevertheless, we never fail to show
interest in any question having reference to the administration of the
laws of the country, although formerly we were not allowed to take
part in this. We assure the United States that our undertakings will
always be conducted within the spirit of law and order, and we beg
for consideration.

THE MASONS OF, SAN JUAN.
STATEMENT OF JOSE EIVEEA, IN BEHALF OF THE GEEMIO OF MASONS.

San Juan, P. R., Novembers, 1899.

This gremio is composed of about 400 members. Apprenticeship is
indispensable and requires at least five years. Every day appren-
ticeship is on the increase. We work ten hours daily, with the excep-
tion of Sunday. Wages fluctuate between $1.25 and $1.50 a day, pro-
vincial money. At the present time the gremio of masons has no
mutual help branch. Very few meetings have been held and no gen-
eral congress up to the present has ever been held, because the Span-
ish Government denied the right of citizens to meet together. The
Spaniards killed all initiative and persecuted every form of organiza-
tion, making all such appear as indicating disaffection and as being
pernicious to the Spanish Government. Until now we have cooper-
ated in the most radical policy of the country, but now that we have
entered into the enjoyment of citizenship, as offered by the American
nation, we promise ourselves from to-day on to work out our own
emancipation according to our ideals.

The considerations which we desire to obtain from the United States
are the following : The right to propagate our ideals and support our
organizations, and everything which, within the limits of order and
law, we may try to obtain foi* our general welfare. We desire to
have complete intervention in questions of administration, either
municipal or state, and a share in the management of the govern-
ment tribunals, etc. Up to the present we have had no common
center for the meeting of our societies.

AGRICULTURAL LABORERS.
STATEMENT OF PEOF. BENIGNO LOPEZ CASTEO, FOE AGEICITLTOEAL LABOEEES.

Sax Juan, P. R., November J, 1899.

It is evident that the most important branch of the riches of Porto

Rico is agriculture ; that it ought to be in a flourishing condition,

because it is favored by excellent climatic conditions, exuberance of

the soil, and the slight amount of labor required for cultivation. But

763

want of roads and railroads in the country, the lack of irrigation
canals, the scarcity of agricultural banks and other similar establish-
ments from which the agriculturist might obtain money at low rates
of interest, and, above all, the onerous taxation with which Spain
always punished this country are the principal causes which have
forced Porto Rico to remain in a condition of ruin.

To these causes may be added another. The owners of agricultu-
ral estates, flattered by the high prices which they were able to obtain
for sugar, coffee, and tobacco, have given their whole attention to
those crops, incurring the grave error of the abandonment of the cul-
tivation of rice, beans, pease, and other smaller crops, including also
potatoes, Spanish pease, and other necessaries of life. Having stated
that this abandonment was an error, I will explain the reason why.
The owners of estates, not paying; attention to the growth of the nec-
essary crops for the maintenance of themselves and their workmen,
are obliged to accept credit from merchants, who readily give them
all they want, but take guaranties and mortgages on their estates,
with the obligation of paying the merchant in produce. When the
time for harvesting arrives, the agriculturist, instead of being able to
offer his produce freely to whomsoever he wishes, is bound by the
terms of his contract to submit himself to the greed and ambition of
his creditor. It frequently happens that the amount harvested is not
sufficient to cover the debt, and in this case the debtor gives a docu-
ment covering the remainder of the debt in favor of the creditor,
acknowledging the balance due and the addition of a high rate of
interest. This same thing takes place year after year, the interest
keeps on accumulating, until at last the merchant refuses any further
help and demands a settlement of the amount or the handing over of
the estate. This will give an idea why properties have passed from
the hands of the Porto Ricans to those of the Spaniards.

I will now give some little attention to the condition of the field
hands, who are in the greatest want of protection and care from the
Government of the United States, as I understand that the Govern-
ment of the United States does not want pariahs in this territory, but,
free, civilized, and educated citizens. These unfortunate beings,
abandoned to their own resources from the cradle to the grave, vege-
tate like wild plants. No generous hand is held out to offer them
even the first rudiments of human knowledge. The exploiters of this
country, having understood that ignorance is one of the best means
of debasing a man and making him submit to a badly dissimulated
slavery, have never occupied themselves in spreading instruction, but,
on the contrary, with their cleverness killed all attempts which were
made in that direction. The limited and deficient instruction which
they permitted in the centers of population never reached the unfor-
tunate inhabitants of the rural districts, and never the women. There
are districts, such as Arecibo, whose jurisdiction extends over 21 bar-
rios, of which only eight or ten have schools for boys and in only one
district is there a school for girls, for which reason it is a rare occur-
rence to find a countrywoman who knows how to read.

As a general rule, from the early age of 10 or 12 years children of
both sexes are put to hard field work. They have to leave their mis-
erable bed at 4 in the morning, so that at 6 o'clock they may be in
readiness to take up the hoe, sometimes without even having had any-
thing to eat. This work both the children and the older workmen
continue until 6 in the evening, and gradually lose their health in
exchange for the miserable wage of 12, 18, or 25 centavos a day for chil-

764

dren and from 50 to 60 centavos for adults of both sexes, which
amounts are frequently reduced when the price of coffee or sugar
falls, but never increased bej'ond those sums, no matter what prices
these articles may bring.

The food given to the workers is so poor that it is no exaggeration
to say that they would with pleasure exchange it for what is given to
dogs in many private houses. On the same ground that they have
fertilized with the sweat of their brow, and without taking their hands
from the plow or the hoe, they have served to them, between 11 and 12
o'clock, a ration of rice mixed with a few grains of beans or pease, cooked
entirely without meat and Avith no other seasoning than a little cocoa-
nut butter. At other times the ration is composed of two or three
roasted bananas, a piece of bad dried codfish, with neither oil nor vine-
gar, half raw, and very salty, in order that the laborer shall get thirsty
and fill himself up with water, and in this way stifle the feelings of
hunger, which would otherwise overcome him in a day's labor of twelve
hours under the enervating sun of our climate. Several times the
peons have tried to associate themselves together in divisions against
the iniquitous proceedings of their employers, but the owner of the
estates, if he did not happen to be a political boss, would call upon
one of his friends to denounce to the Governor- General the existence
of an alleged secret society, conspiring against the integrity of the
Kingdom, with the result that the civil guard would be charged to
persecute the suxDposed conspirators with inhuman torture, as if they
were wild beasts. Persons thus persecuted frequently paid for their
attempts at organization by many years of imprisonment in Ceuta or
Chafarinas (penal settlements off the coast of Africa) for no other
crime than defending themselves against the unmeasured avarice and
sel fishness of a few soulless persons.

NO CLOTHES TO COVER NAKEDNESS.
STATEMENT OF MANUEL M. PUYOLS.

Mayaguez, January 10, 1899.
The same wages as paid in the United States should be paid here,
from the teacher to the lowest laborer. Up to the present we have
not earned sufficient to buy even food enough. There are in the
towns and country districts of my country real working people who
do not dare to venture out of their houses, as they are completely
naked and have nothing to cover their bodies with, although their
labor is necessary to the progress of the country.

CIGAR MAKERS IN CAYEY.

Cayey, P. R., February 2, 1899.
We belong to the working classes, who, up to the present time, have
been ill treated by our eternal oppressors and the exploitation of our
labor. The cigar-making industry in this country has dragged out a
miserable existence, and the owners of factories have had no other end
in view than the oppression of the artisan. A cigar maker in Porto
Rico has never been able to enjoy a life of comfort, as the manufac-
turers, taking advantage of an honest class of workers, have not lost

765

an opportunity to exploit them, preventing them from attending- to
their many necessities. That the whole world may know what means
have been employed for this oppression, we have written you this
letter, in which we state the plain truth.

This industry was started in the island by persons of capital who
saw a profitable field of investment. It is needless to say that they
were Spaniards. Many fathers of families rejoiced, thinking that
they saw a future for their sons, and went to the factories with the
purpose of obtaining work. We can not deny that the industn7 has
made much progress in these latter years, but the progress was not
for the benefit of the workmen, as when the number of workmen was
increased the factories diminished the price which they paid for the
work. The American invasion raised great hopes in our breasts.
We thought that by belonging to a nation of such progressive instincts
the condition of the honest laborer would change, but up to the
present this has not been the case.

The transitory period which we are now going through has seen
no change at all, but we do not lose hope that a radical change will
come soon, which will be the means of our being able to attend to our
most urgent needs. As a proof of the exploitation to which we have
been subjected, we would inform you that we are made to work on
certain cigars which, by merely changing their name, are paid at a
less price to the workmen without being sold at a reduced price to the
consumer. The commissioners which have the honor to inform you
about our needs were not speaking the truth when they said that the
cigar makers earned 2 pesos a day. These commissioners were
telling about what they earned and spoke unduly for the whole body.
That you may see the truth of what we state, we give you the follow-
ing data: In this town the number of cigar makers is 120; of these,
10 or 12 earn 2 pesos daily; 20 or 25, 1 peso, and the rest onby earn
from 50 to 62 centavos. They do not make this amount daily, as there
seldom passes a week in which they have work for six days; neither
do they work all the year round. They lose at least two or three
months, in which they are not able to earn bread for their children.

Judge of what our condition is, therefore, when we add that our
bosses are not always what they should be in their treatment of the
honest worker. We wish also to draw your attention to the fact that
education, which is the basis of all society, is entirely neglected
among us, owing to the oppressive system, whose object was always
to keep us in ignorance so as to make their exploitation more easy.
We want the American Government to help us with schools, and
schools, and schools, for if educated we would be more worthy of
consideration.

SCHOOLS OF ARTS AND TRADES.
STATEMENT BY SENOR JOS^ AMADEO, M. D.

Patillas, P. R., March, 1899.
Population increases rapidly, there being more laborers for agricul-
ture than can be employed at present. The number would be still
greater were it not for the unhealthiness of certain places, the want
of food, bad lodging, lack of education, and the vices, all of which
prematurely kill and make unfit for work a portion of our laboring
class. The American Government will not fail to see this, and to-day,

766

more than ever, it is necessary to better the physical and intellectual
qualities of our workmen. By increasing public works all over the
island and giving impulse to agriculture by the introduction of Ameri-
can capital there is no doubt that wages will rise. The laboring man
to-day is suffering under the laws of demand and supply, which
affect labor just as they affect merchandise.

All the young men, and even the women and children of the work-
ing class, make for the cane fields. Very few give any attention to
trades which would produce better salary. This is owing to the want
of schools of arts and trades. There are towns of 6,000 inhabitants
where it is impossible to find a shoemaker or an artisan who could
repair a lock or a trunk. It is necessary to think of Porto Rico's
future and to better the social and hygienic conditions as far as pos-
sible, recognizing that our working class are a living force of general
wealth in the province.

We should study calmly and intelligently all the plans tending
toward this end. Among these may be counted that of grouping
together in villages or colonies the persons who at present live isolated
in the country, who thus enjoy none of the benefits of mutual help or
other advantages of a social life. We should also extend to these
groups the benefits of elementary education, in which direction char-
itable societies could lend their assistance. Increase saving institu-
tions and mutual assurance, banks and cooperation stores, also build-
ing societies, which would allow poor people to acquire their homes
by paying for them in small amounts, spread over long periods, with
a mortgage as guaranty to the society.

These are the means which should be employed, and which in other
countries have resulted in the welfare and prosperity of the working
classes, accustoming them to contract habits of economy and order
instead of giving themselves over to dissipation and vagrancy. With
the concentration of our disseminated population, and with the efforts
of influential persons, the moral state and the material condition of
the individual and the family would improve in Porto Rico. Our
working classes, which are among the most constant and hard-working
in all the West India islands, are well deserving of it. Political
reforms are useless while the greater number of citizens are groaning
beneath the yoke of misery, with their families and homes in a con-
dition which conduces to immorality and other unfortunate evils.

DEMAND FOR FREE COMMERCE WITH THE UNITED STATES.

FREE ENTRANCE FOR SUGAR.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arecibo, P. R., January 14-, 1899.
Mr. Manuel Ledesma, a Spanish merchant and owner of a large
estate.

Mr. Ledesma. Sugar and tobacco, which to-day pay heavy duties
in the United States, I think should be allowed free entrance, because
as soon as the money is changed here plantation owners, who now pay
their labor in silver, will have to pay in gold, and they will not be able
to continue business under those conditions. If the estates close
down many peons will be thrown out of work, and if that state of
affairs comes about you will see a serious conflict here, because the

767

sugar estates give work to three-fourths of the people of the island.
Tobacco, with even more reason, should be given free entrance in
the United States, because, while sugar is in the hands of a few per-
sons, anybodj^ can grow tobacco, and then the poor could be made
small proprietors if tobacco were granted this concession in your
markets. I understand that the United States consumes about
100,000 tons of sugar a month. The most Porto Rico can produce is
100,000 tons a year, and I don't think that the United States would
miss by granting the concession of free entry to our sugar.

A FREE MARKET FOR INSULAR PRODUCTS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Arbcibo, P. R., January 14, 1899.
Jose Ramon Rivera, a druggist and property owner:

Dr. Carroll. I understand that this is a great center for the sugar
industry and also for distilleries.

Mr. Rivera. Yes ; it is.

Dr. Carroll. What are the other industries represented here?

Mr. Rivera. As things are to-day, the most important crop of Are-
cibo is coffee; after coffee, sugar, and after sugar, tobacco.

Dr. Carroll. What special difficulties, if any, do coffee planters
labor under?

Mr. Rivera. In the first place the present low price of coffee, and
in the second place the destruction of some of the estates at the time
of the American occupation.

Dr. Carroll. What are the chief markets for the coffee?

Mr. Rivera. The United States, France, Italy, Germany, Austria,
and England.

Dr. Carroll. You don't send much coffee to Cuba now, do you?

Mr. Rivera. Hardly any.

Dr. Carroll. There is quite a tariff there on coffee, and I suppose
it has shut out the more common grades that you used to send to Cuba.

Mr. Rivera. Absolutely all mercantile transactions with Cuba in
tobacco and coffee have been interrupted by the war and have not
been resumed.

Dr. Carroll. You speak of the low prices of coffee. In the United
States the prices have been the same to consumers for at least ten
years. I have not paid less than. 32 cents per pound, gold, but I think
it is not Porto Rican coffee.

Mr. Rivera. Not a great quantity of Porto Rican coffee has been
sent to the United States; and although Italy is a large consumer of
coffee, it does not appear so, because much of it has gone through
Marseilles.

Dr. Carroll. Do you still keep up- your shipments to Spain?

Mr. Bahr (a planter). There is not a great quantity shipped to-day.
What there is is shipped to Barcelona, and I think this quantity even
will be reduced, because the change of sovereignty has of course
made us a foreign country. Formerly, owing to the fact that Porto
Rico was a Spanish colony, they were allowed to export goods at 10
per cent duty. The interchange naturally drew the bulk of the pay-
ments toward Spain. But this has doubtless undergone a change, as
we will be discriminated against by the Spanish tariff.

768

Air. Rivera. In spite of that, coffee was shipped to Spain in pay-
ment for goods which we brought here under the 10 per cent tariff,
and the removal of that condition of affairs has led to their having a
serious stagnation in the coffee business here.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any attempt being made to find another
market for it?

Mr. Rivera. The whole country would like to have its only mar-
ket in the United States for sugar and coffee.

Dr. Carroll. Coffee is admitted free into the United States.

Mr. Rivera. If you can only add to the coffee sugar and tobacco,
the result would be very beneficial to property owners, laborers, and
others.

Dr. Carroll. So far as coffee is concerned, it is proposed to remove
all export duties on it.

Mr. Rivera. I know a merchant who has 3,000 quintals of tobacco
in Germany, and has sent for it, counting on concessions as to the
admission of tobacco into the United States. It is not that this man
is alone in looking forward to the time when the United States shall
give a free market to our products, and thus tend to relieve the agri-
cultural distress throughout the island.

Dr. Carroll. That would naturally come when the island is given
its territorial form of government, if such shall be the wisdom of
Congress.

THE GOLDEN DREAM OF PORTO RICANS.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San German, P. R., January 26, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. Have you any suggestion to make with reference to
what the Government might do to alleviate the distresses from which
you say the sugar interests are laboring?

Mr. Joaquin Cervera. The only remedy for our ills is that sugar
and tobacco shall be admitted free into the United States. It is the
capital argument. In my opinion I will add that if that is not granted
we are all lost. There is no possible salvation.

Dr. Carroll. How are you going to save coffee? The concession
to coffee has already been made.

Mr. Cervera. I repeat again that unless our products — sugar and
tobacco — can go free into the States they are lost forever. These
sugars can not compete with the European beet sugar, owing to the
fact that the European manufacturers have large capital, advanced
machinery, intelligent workmen, and low wages.

Dr. Carroll. The difficulty about admitting sugar and tobacco
free is only to be settled when the form of the future government of
Porto Rico is settled. There is, I understand, a commission now in
the United States advocating the independence of Porto Rico. In such
a case the United States would maintain its tariff as against Porto
Rico, and Porto Rico would maintain its tariff as against the United
States.

Mr. Cervera. That question has not been discussed in Porto Rico
by anj^ considerable number of people. Porto Rico, in my opinion,
must depend upon some outside government. We do not want inde-
pendence.

769

A FREE MARKET IN THE UNITED STATES.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Caguas, P. R. , February 27, 1899.

Dr. Carroll. What measures would you suggest that the Govern-
lnent should take to relieve the agriculturists?

Mr. V. Mtjnoz (ex-mayor of .Caguas). By providing them with
money through agricultural banks on long terras, and a further reduc-
tion in the import tariff.

Dr. Carroll. On what?

Mr. Munoz. Food stuffs. We also need to have a free market given
us in the United States, or one that will enable us to compete with
other countries.

Mr. Sola (brother of the mayor). Before, although we had to pay
clearly for our food, we had a market for our produce. Now we have
cheaper food, but no market for our produce, so we have nothing to
buy with.

Dr. Carroll. As far as sugar is concerned, you have about as
good a market as before the war. You had to pay big prices to get
your sugar into Spain.

Mr. Sola. While it is true that formerly commerce exploited agri-
culture, the agriculturists had a market for their products and lived,
even though it was miserably that they lived, but to-day conditions
are changed. How is it possible for the agriculturists to obtain from
the merchants the assistance which they had in former days when the
agriculturists have no markets in which to dispose of their crops?
Formerly they had the Spanish and Cuban markets for coffee, tobacco,
and sugar. These they have lost through the change in government.
Cuba to-day imposes a tax of $5 a pound on tobacco and $12. 50 on
100 quintals of coffee, and Spain has put such a duty on sugar that
anybody who sends a shipment of sugar thereto-day must send money
along to cover the duty alone; Spain has done the same thing as
regards coffee and tobacco, leaving us without a market for these
three products, by means of which we used to obtain money to meet
our obligations.

Dr. Carroll. That being so, why are you raising so much more
tobacco this year than last year?

Mr. Sola. We have sown less this year than last, but we have been
sowing with the hope of having a market.

Dr. Carroll. If you are shut out of Cuba by the tariff, as regards
tobacco, on the other hand, Cuban producers are shut out of Porto
Rico. Is that not a benefit?

Mr. Sola. In part; but it is not sufficient to give life to the indus-
try, because we can only manufacture enough for home consumption,
whereas exports should be greater than home consumption.

Dr. Carroll. But hitherto all the cigarettes smoked in the island
were imported from Cuba or somewhere else ; now they are made here.

Mr. Sola. That helps, but not sufficiently. There are only two
factories here, and they do not work full time.

Dr. Carroll. Don't you export to Europe outside of Spain?

Mr. Sola. We export to Germany, but only the very cheap and com-
mon grades. If the industry had to depend on the German market, it
would not pay us to do so.

Dr. Carroll. You will have to look to the United States for a mar-
ket for your coffee and tobacco.
1125 49

770

Mr. Sola. That is what we ask for, and we have gotten up a peti-
tion from several towns of the island to send to Washington asking
to have the markets opened to us. I was going to explain why less
tobacco has been sown here this year than last. I speak of this dis-
trict, but my remarks can be applied to the whole island. We have
in our warehouse the greater part of last year's tobacco crop. The
merchants are unable to dispose of the crops, and consequently are
unable to assist the agriculturists. This is one of the reasons why
there is no money circulating in the island ; we have our money locked
up in our warehouses in the form of tobacco. You must look at the
question also from the humanitarian point of view. There are hun-
dreds of people through the country who make a living out of the
tobacco industry. I call attention to this and the other reasons I
have stated as grounds for asking you to cooperate with us in our
memorial to the President, in which we ask that he grant us free
coastwise trade with the United States, so that the country may enter
into an era of prosperity, of development, and of growth, if not in a
very high degree, at least to an extent which will take us out of our
present state.

AN OPEN MARKET IN THE UNITED STATES.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 4, 1899.

A Planter. The only market we had for our tobacco crop has been
taken away from us, owing to the heavy rate which has been imposed
on the tobacco in the island. There are towns in the island which can
only grow tobacco, because their land is not fit for anything else, and
for the want of a market these lands are valueless.

Dr. Carroll. You have lost the Cuban market, but, on the other
hand, the Cubans have lost the Porto Rican market. Is not that an
important gain? You have your own market for cigarettes.

A Planter. The quantity that came here was insignificant in pro-
portion to the crop that was raised.

Dr. Carroll. According to the reports that you made here in Ponce
last April for the reformation of the tariff, these importations from
Cuba were of very great importance.

A Planter. But the amount imported was very small as compared
with the amount produced here. Statistics will prove that. We want
to know if we can get an open market in the United States.

Dr. Carroll. It is impossible to say until the new Congress meets.
The only power that can change the tariff of the United States is Con-
gress, and the old Congress dies to-day.

A Planter. At least, we want the matter kept in mind, so that
when the opportunity comes for legislation it may then be acted upon.

THE QUESTION OF CABOTAGE.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Yauco, P. R., March 6, 1899.
Mr. Jose G. Torres. I think that I voice the opinion of the people
of Yauco, and I may say of the whole island, when I say that every-
body wants the Territorial form of government ; and if we have asked

771

for the suppression of direct taxes, it is only as a temporary measure
and until we shall have a civil government.

Dr. Carroll. But if you suppress direct taxation, do you not stop
the wheels of municipal government?

Mr. Torres. We call direct taxation only what we pay to the state,
and not what we pay to the municipalities.

Dr. Carroll. How can you expect the state to improve your
public schools and improve your roads and conduct your prisons
unless it has nioney with which to do it?

Mr. Torres. We asked for this because we were informed by the
insular government that when the United States had paid the expenses
of the Army out of the proceeds of the custom-house they would use
the balance for what you have stated.

Dr. Carroll. The troops are paid out of the Treasury at Wash-
ington, and not a cent from Porto Rico is devoted to that object.

Mr. Torres. What are the custom-house receipts used for?

Dr. Carroll. They are used for the purposes of the insular gov-
ernment; a large amount goes to the improvement of your roads —
$250,000 perhaps for the use of the roads alone — and you must remem-
ber that the tariff has been revised, and that the rates have been very
much reduced on many articles used, on food stuffs, on cotton goods,
etc. , for the benefit of the country, and therefore you must expect
less proceeds from the custom-house than formerly.

Mr. Torres. Formerly the budget of the island was from three to
three and one-half million dollars, which was paid almost exclusively
by custom-house receipts. Now that the expenses that you speak of
are removed, the budget ought not to be much more than $1,000,000.

Dr. Carroll. Your budget for 1897 was about 5,000,000 pesos, and
you have been getting over 3,000,000 from custom-house receipts.
Then your tax system has been modified a great deal. For instance,
the system of cedulas, stamped paper, and the income from lotteries
have been cut off, and the land tax has been reduced, and the tax on
city property has been considerably reduced.

Mr. Torres. I understand that perfectly well. Granting that the
custom-house did produce 3,000,000 before, if under the new tariff it
produces only 1,000,000, it ought to cover fully all the expenses of the
insular government.

Dr. Carroll. I have serious doubts of that. Of course I do not
know what the estimates are for the present year, but if any improve-
ments are to be made a large amount of money is necessary, and it
seems to me that it is of vital necessity, if the prosperity of the island
is to be increased, that schools and roads must be greatly improved.

Mr. Torres. The country only asks for this suppression of the taxes
owing to the financial crisis it is passing through; but now that it
knows that the money collected in the island is for the benefit of the
island, and will be expended in the way you mention, we are per-
fectly satisfied to pay them. I think that if Porto Rico is granted a
Territorial form of government and enjoys all the benefits of it, the
country, which is now passing through a crisis, will be able to meet
all its interior expenses. Therefore, with the hope of being declared
a Territory early in December or next year, we will go on paying con-
tributions, although it will be hard for us to do so; but the hope held
out to us of entering into all the advantages of American citizenship
will lighten the burden. The whole country wants to be a Territory.

772

THE OUTLOOK OF PORTO RICO.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Ponce, P. R., March 7, 1899.
' Mr. Felici, Mr. ACOSTA.

Mr. Felici. There are about 500,000 quintals of coffee produced in
Porto Rico, the greater part of which is good coffee.

Dr. Carroll. I don't see why it should not have a good market in
the United States.

Mr. Felici. Perhaps it may after Americans come here and get
used to it.

Dr. Carroll. Have yo u a good European market for the finer
grades?

Mr. Felici. They sell very well in Austria, Italy, France, and
Russia. The hope of the coffee planters here is that the United States
will put a duty on other coffees, on the ground that coffee is now pro-
duced in a part of the United States.

Dr. Carroll. I don't think it will come right away. When the
bonds are drawn closer between Porto Rico and the United States it
may come, but that naked proposition would now look like putting a
tax on 70,000,000 of people in the United States to benefit 1,000,000
people here.

Mr. Felici. But that would mean a good income to the United
States, because Porto Rico could not produce all the coffee used
there.

Dr. Carroll. It may be that by the time Congress is in session
again, next December, the situation will be very much relieved in
Porto Rico. You may be getting such prices for your coffee that you
will not need to have them increased. A short crop of coffee in the
rest of the world would, of course, raise the prices. AY hat is the best
price of sugar that you have had in the last ten years.

Mr. Felici. Before the war we sold sugar for 6 cents a pound.

Dr. Carroll. I mean the sugar that you shipped.

Mr. Felici. About 5 cents a pound.

Dr. Carroll. What j^ear was that.

Mr. Felici. About 1893 or 1894.

Dr. Carroll. Did you get that in the United States':'

Mr. Felici. In the United States and Spain.

Dr. Carroll. What was the cause of the high price that year?

Mr. Felici. The scarcity of sugar elsewhere.

Dr. Carroll. Do your crops vary much here?

Mr. Felici. No.

Dr. Carroll. If your planters got that they would feel pretty well
satisfied, wouldn't they?

Mr. Felici. Oh, yes.

Dr. Carroll. But the average has been about 4 and 44 cents for
centrifugal sugar?

Mr. Felici. Yes; and muscovado would be in proportion. We
make a muscovado here that used to sell in Spain for almost the same
as centrifugal sold there. We sell some in the United States now,
provided it does not go beyond 16 degrees, in which case it would be
classed as refined sugar.

Dr. Carroll. Everywhere I have gone they have said to me that
what the island needs is a free market in the United States for sugar
and tobacco, and I have been obliged to say to them that they could

773

not get a free market until Congress takes action, and that the ques-
tion of free trade between Porto Rico and the United States depended
upon what form of government is given Porto Rico. If you get the
Territorial form of government, cabotage will follow as a matter of
course ; but if you get the colonial form of goverment, then there would
probably be some tariff between the two countries — that is, you would
have a tariff as against the United States, and the United States
would maintain a tariff as against Porto Rico.

Mr. Acosta. I think the country will be able to supply sufficient
money for its own needs, if it does not have to pay for the army and
navy and clergy, and much more reasonably could we expect to do
that if we had a free market, because with a free market the farm-
ers could contribute their share ; also, if articles of consumption come
in free from the United States, prices will be reduced considerably
and farmers will be able to grow their coffee with less expense, and
even with present prices of coffee they would realize a profit which
they do not now have. If taxation were justly distributed, as it never
was, because in the old days rich persons were almost exempt from
taxation, it would be much better, and the poor people are to-day
making the complaints that are heard in the island, because they do
not know that taxation is to be justlj7 imposed. Sugar estates here
produce 6,000 hogsheads a year and pay less taxation than the mer-
chants. I think a Territorial form of government will be the salva-
tion of the country.

GREAT ISSUES DEPENDING ON CABOTAGE.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Caguas, P. R., March 9, 1899.
Mr. Jose Bernitez, an estate owner of Vieques.

Mr. Bernitez. You must know that all around the island the sugar
crop begins to be harvested in January ; that sometimes it is harvested
a month earlier, as is the case with my crop this year. At this
moment I have a ship anchored in my port and I am loading her with
5,000 sacks of sugar. When the treaty was ratified I, as well as all
agriculturists, expected that there would be a rebate of duty on
sugar in the United States. We paid a duty of $1.68 on centrifugal
sugar in the United States and $1.40 on muscovado, and having to pay
this duty, agriculturists are not able to give their peons more than
50 centavos a day.

Dr. Carroll. No change can be made in the United States tariff
except by Congress, and Congress adjourned on the 4th of March.
The treaty had not yet been ratified, and Congress could take no
action before the treaty was ratified.

Mr. Bernitez. I understand that the President of the United States
is authorized to rebate from 20 to 25 per cent.

Dr. Carroll. That is only with those countries with which a reci-
procity treaty is concluded — that is, with foreign countries.

Mr. Bernitez. I am not making this statement in my behalf,
because, fortunately, I will be in a position where I do not require it,
because I have made money by my labors during many years; but I
can not see how the agriculturists can improve the position of their
peons until they have some assistance in the matter of duty, not only
on sugar, but on tobacco also. I think that some of the disturbances
going on in the island, such as the burning of estates, are due to the

774

fact that the peons believe that the proprietors are able to pay them
higher wages than they are paying now. In Vieques we have not had
any disturbances of any description whatever. We are in a different
position from the agriculturists on the main island, because we have
better machinery. There are better plantations, and cattle to help us
out in dry weather.

Dr. Carroll. They pay better wages in Vieques, I believe.

Mr. Bernitez. Yes; we pay better, because of the form in which we
pay. I spend $1,500 a week in grinding and $1,000 for other expenses.
I don't do the grinding work as they do it here. I do it by giving the
peons an interest in the work. The more they grind the more they
earn, and they make from 80 centavos to $1.25 a day during the grind-
ing season. The reason I can do that is because I have my machinery
well mounted. In Porto Rico that is not the case, and the machinery
that is not well mounted and well handled can not give good result.
Here the principal defect is that everything is not in proper relation.
Some have good machinery, but bad oxen; some have good machinery
and good oxen, but not sufficient cane planted. That is owing to the
fact that during all these years there have been only two banks here,
the Agricultural Bank and the Spanish Bank, and they are not able
to help out all the agriculturists. For instance, I am one of the
board of the Agricultural Bank. When the agriculturist borrows
money he does not receive money but bonds of the bank, and as
these bonds are not quoted anywhere they are worth only what the
agriculturist can get for them in the market. If later they can be
quoted in the United States, it will be different. If agriculturists try
to borrow money from the Spanish Bank, they have to do so on such
exacting conditions that the remedy is worse than the disease. As a
whole, Porto Rico has the conditions necessary for becoming very
prosperous, if there are only established here syndicates and banking
institutions to lend money to agriculturists.

Dr. Carroll. If you have the banking sj^stem of the United States
you will have no difficulty in borrowing money, probably.

Mr. Bernitez. No.

Dr. Carroll. You will then have a bajak in Isabela.

Mr. Bernitez. That will be magnificent. I am not looking out for
myself in this matter. By force of work and application I have been
able to go ahead, but I am thinking of others.

Dr. Carroll. What part of Vieques is under cultivation?

Mr. Bernitez. In former years, when they went in for very small
crops, Vieques was a port. They used to sow plantains, potatoes, etc.,
and sold them in St. Thomas. To-day only cattle and cane are raised.
There are about 3,500 cuerdas under cultivation in cane, with four
central factories. When they have bad cane crops by reason of
drought the cattle help them out.

Dr. Carroll. Is the land nearly all quite good?

Mr. Bernitez. No; only from the town to Punta Arenas; that is
the port opposite Humacao, and belongs to me. From Ilumacao to
Punta Arenas is one hour by steamer.

Dr. Carroll. Is there much land which might be used for the rais-
ing of other crops?

Mr. Bernitez. Some small parts of it, but not much.

Dr. Carroll. Do you have much of a dry season?

Mr. Bernitez. Yes. I have asked General Henry to establish a
small steamboat service between Humacao, Vieques, and Culebra. It
would not only be a good thing for the island, but for the Americans
as well. A ship of 100 tons would be sufficient to make a voyage

775

there and back from Humacao to Vieques and to Culebra and back.
Then, also, the small island is a magnificent port. It is necessary to
give the poor people living there facilities for communicating with
other places, not only on the people's account, but for the sake of the
government itself. The government can not possibly know what is
going on in Culebra, because they have no cable or any other means
of communication. As a ship of 100 tons would be so useful for tak-
ing mails and government officials, and would cost so little,, it would
be very desirable. It would be a good thing for police reasons also.
A ship could go from there to St. Thomas and take on wood and fish
there, and nobody know anything about it. Even if it were only for
the pur pose of vigilance it would be desirable.

Dr. Carroll. How many inhabitants are there in Culebra?

Mr. Bernitez. I think about 600; but it is worth while helping
them. Under Spanish rule I can understand why all these things
were not attended to, because Spain was a poor nation; but I do not
understand such neglect under the United States.

Dr. Carroll. You must remember that it has been only a few
months since the United States came into possession of Porto Rico,
and is not yet in full civil possession of the island. I think a great
many things have been done since we have been here, considering the
time and circumstances.

Mr. Bernitez. That is all right; but has the ratification of the peace
treaty put us in a better position?

Dr. Carroll. A great many things that need to be done for Porto
Rico can only be done after a civil government has been installed here.
You only have an ad interim government now. After you get a civil
government you may look for many things that are not possible at
present.

Mr. Bernitez. I don't think what you say alters my opinion in
regard to what I remarked before. Agriculturists would not be in a
very much better position if they had a rebate on sugar and tobacco,
but they would be in a position to help the peons, and I want you to
be thoroughly impressed with that information. I know specially that
there are factories to-day that have been grinding cane, but are being
forced to stop because they have not the money or can not sell their
sugar. A rebate of one-half of the duty to-day would be very favor-
able for the agriculturists, not for me directly, but for the people.

Dr. Carroll. This is not a difficult position simply, it is an impos-
sible one. The President of the United States has power over the
tariff of Porto Rico and has changed it in the interest of the poorer
classes, but he can not change the tariff of the United States.

Mr. Bernitez. I feel it very much, because if only a part of the
duty could be removed it would help to tranquillize the country.

Dr. Carroll. The conditions in Porto Rico respecting these mat-
ters have been made known again and again to the Government at
Washington, and the Government feels the deepest sympathy for those
who are suffering here under present conditions ; but it has no- way of
applying a remedy until Congress meets, next December.

Mr. Bernitez. The position of the peons to-day is a desperate one,
and it is not due to the agriculturists not desiring to help them.

Dr. Carroll. You will have to try to struggle through the present
conditions the best you can and hope for better times. I wish I could
assist you, but there is no governmental power by which that can be
done.

Mr. Bernitez. I wish to state, as it may interest you, that I pay
$4,500 a year taxes.

776

THE MOST VITAL ISSUE.
STATEMENT OF DELEGATION FROM PONCE.

Ponce, P. R., November 8, 1898.
The most vital, urgent, and necessary measure that should be taken
in Porto Rico, if the ruin of this rich island is to be prevented, is the
free importation into the island of the products of the United States,
and vice versa.

WHAT IS EXPECTED.

MEMORIAL OF MERCHANTS AND BANKERS.

Mayaguez, P. R., November 16, 1898.
To establish free trade between Porto Rico and the United States
of America. The island is confidently expecting the " cabotage," i. e. ,
free trade between the United States and this island, will be granted,
to give a fresh impulse to the agriculture of sugar and tobacco, which
form most important factors of our production and whose existence
is in imminent danger Avithout their free importation into the United
States from the moment the United States money becomes our cur-
rency, as the laborers will not be willing to work at the. reduced wages
at whatever may be the rate of change; this also being the reason
why we request that the change of money and free import should be
effected simultaneously.

ACTION OF BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES. AND

COMMERCE.

San Juan, P. R., December- 6, 1898.
It was voted that the American Government be memorialized, ask-
ing for the establishment of free coasting trade, and in case important
interests in the United States be thereby endangered, that a reduc-
tion of 90 per cent on the tariff paid by other nations be granted.
This was based not only on the fact that Porto Rico has become an
integral part of the United States, but also that its former market has
closed its doors to our products by imposing high rates of duty against
them, and that aforesaid measure would help to lift the island from its
present state of prostration and decadence, for which reason the free
introduction of agricultural machineiy and implements is requested.

(Signed by the president and secretary.)

FREE TRADE BETAVEEN THE UNITED STATES AND PORTO RICO.
STATEMENT BY L. M. CINTRON.

I am of the opinion that the trade between the United States and
Porto Rico should be considered coastwise and that this reformation
should be introduced simultaneously with the change of money. The
daily wages of a laborer have fluctuated always between 40 cents and
50 cents, colonial money. He has never been able to obtain more than
that from the agriculturists for various reasons, among which is the
disproportion existing between the rate of interest paid by the agri-
culturists on mone}'' borrowed and the low price obtained for their

< i i

crops. A satisfactory proof of this disproportion is the disappearance
of many sugar estates and the slow and languid existence of those
which remain, dying gradually by reason of their heavy liabilities.
The wage of the field hand is quite insufficient. He can only obtain
for himself the most absolutely necessary things and can never aspire
to the degree of well-being enjoyed by the workmen of the United
States and the greater part of European nations. Neither can he
hope to put aside anything for his old age or ill-luck which fate may
bring him. To this miserable wage the universal ignorance of the
poor classes can be ascribed; but, being naturally intelligent, they
understand the benefits of education. Their extreme poverty forces
them, in order to add to their daily income, to send their children at
a very early age to work instead of sending them to school. For this
reason the authorities who have been charged with the duty of inspect-
ing public education have been obliged to be very lenient with regard
to compliance with the school regulations. To remedy these difficul-
ties it is necessary to increase the salary of the field hand by paying
him in gold what he to-day receives in silver. .

This improved rate of wage, however, is entirely beyond the means
of the agriculturists, and will be impossible until the adoption of free
coastwise trade between the new metropolis and Porto Rico. It
might be argued that the loss of the duties collected on articles
imported into this market would deprive us of an important amount
necessary for our budget, but it can be stated that there would be
sufficient to pay all the expenses of this unfortunate island, which, up
to the present, has had to bear the expenses of a war not undertaken
in its interest with the receipts of customs dues on imports from for-
eign markets of the same nature as that in force in the United States
and with direct local taxation.

Fajardo, P. R., November 4, 1898.

FREE TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES.
By Messrs. A. Hartmann & Co., Merchants.

As we firmly believe that the United States will give this island all
the privileges that all the Territories enjoy under the Constitution,
we have very little to say on the subject. Certainly, when free trade
is established, the resources of this island will develop in a wonder-
ful manner, which will mean more profitable transactions for the
citizens of the United States and result in increased profits to the
American shipping trade.

Free trade between the United States and Porto Rico will also
stimulate greater loyalty to the Union, for it was one of the greatest
complaints of the Porto Ricans that they were denied free trade with
Spain and treated almost as if Porto Rico were a foreign country.

Arroyo, P. R., November 7, 1898.

FREE TRADE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND PORTO RICO.
STATEMENT OF UNITED STATES CONSUL PHILIP C. HANNA.

I am thoroughly convinced that the tariff question is the all-impor-
tant question in this group of islands. Porto Rico can never become
prosperous until she can buy bread for her people without paying

778

enormous revenue duties for the privilege of bringing that bread into
the island. It seems reasonable to me, as an American, that the peo-
ple of this newly adopted country should be allowed to purchase the
products of the United States and land them on their own shores with-
out paying tribute to any government whatever. I believe the island
should have absolute free trade with all parts of the United States.
I believe in making Porto Rico as thoroughly American as possible
from the very start, and we can not make it so unless we treat Porto
Ricans as we do other Americans. They should be allowed to buy
Minnesota flour and Dakota wheat and every product which the
farmer of the great Northwest has to sell, and lay them down in their
own country on the same terms that the man in New York receives
the same products. The people in the island are strongly in sympathv
with the United States. They are enthusiastic over the fact of their
becoming Americans. They long for the introduction of our institu-
tions, of our school system, of our factory system, and our agricul-
tural sj7stem.

There is evidently a great longing among the laboring class of the
island for an opportunity to rise to the rank of an American laborer.
They realize that toil and honest work in the United States are honor-
able; that the man who toils in any part of the United States is
looked upon with respect; that the laborer of the United States has
an ambition to become better situated, to be the owner of his own home,
to educate his children, and to properly provide for old age. They are
aware that many people of the United States who were once laborers
have become wealthy, and already the ambition of the laboring class
of the island is being stimulated; they are becoming encouraged by
the prospects of the future; they believe that the dawn of a new day
for them is at hand, and our Government has it within its power to
continue to inspire this people with the laudable ambition to make
something of themselves, and I believe that the whole question con-
cerning the laboring man of Porto Rico very largely depends upon
free trade between the island and the United States. During the
past two months I have received several thousand letters from all
classes of business men in all parts of the United States concerning
this island, very many of them asking me when the proper time will
arrive for them to invest capital in Porto Rico. Several of them have
said, "We propose to establish factories in this .densely populated
island and teach the people there, who have been accustomed to labor
at very low wages, to labor in the factories that we shall establish.
We hope to be in position," most of them say, "to pay them better
wages than they have ever received in the past. We understand that
they are not a class of people acquainted with strikes, and by giving
them better wages than they have had heretofore and making labor
respectable among them we believe our factories can be successfully
conducted in Porto Rico." Such is the tenor of hundreds of the let-
ters I have received. But with the present high rates of duty upon all
building material, machinery, and all kinds of goods coming from the
United States to Porto Rico, it would be impossible for these men to
establish their factories here for the benefit of and the uplifting of
the Porto Rican laborer.

There are nearly a million people in this group of islands. It is
said to be the most densely populated portion of the globe. The
greater part of the people are poor, but I believe they are more
inclined to work and earn an honest living than the people of any other
Latin-American country that I was ever in. When the duties are

779

entirely taken off of American products, so that American manufac-
turers can have branch factories in Porto Rico, thousands of these
people will be educated in the factory. Thej' will be inspired with
the desire not only to make their living but to become home owners,
as many of our workmen are in the United States.

Crime, as a result of the people having no work, will be greatly re-
duced throughout the country, for the greater part of the crimes in
the past have been committed by persons who had nothing to eat and
no work whereby they could obtain money for food. Our people, in
establishing here factories and shops and improving the land of the
island, in opening up sugar plantations and coffee estates and in
developing the undeveloped parts of this group of islands, will be
giving these people a great practical moral lesson, for I believe that,
as a rule, if Porto Ricans had a chance to earn their living they
would labor and be content, and that the petty thefts which have been
quite common throughout the island in the days of Spanish rule
would cease almost entirely. I have closely studied the subject of
crime in Porto Rico, and nearly all of the crimes of the island consist
in petty thieving, and in almost every case when a boy or girl is
brought before the justice accused of stealing, the starved look in his
or her face and the half naked body, which was never clothed decently,
give a striking emphasis to the plea, "I was very hungry and no one
would employ me, and I took this article of food to keep me from
starving."

Porto Ricans are not bad people. Remove from them the terrible
temptation produced by enforced hunger and nakedness ; give to these
people an opportunity to earn an honest living; teach them that toil
is honorable ; build for them factories instead of forts ; teach them to
handle tools instead of bayonets, and we shall produce upon them a
moral effect which the Spaniards failed to produce and make of them
a people whom we shall not be ashamed to recognize as fellow-citizens
of our grand Republic.

In other words, free trade between the United States and Porto Rico
is a moral question. It is practical religion, and our people can never
supply the missing link in the moral education and religious training
of this people without giving them an opportunity to earn a living
and without treating them as we treat other Americans. I see no more
justice in compelling Porto Ricans to pay for the privilege of handling
American bread on Porto Rican shores than I do in compelling the
people of Massachusetts to pay for bringing Iowa wheat or Iowa pork
into the State of Massachusetts. The only difference is that the people
of Massachusetts are more capable of paying such duties at the pres-
ent time than the poor people of Porto Rico are. Our 80,000,000 of
people have complained of the unjust burdens placed by Spain upon
her subjects in these islands during all the years of the past, and now
it is the opportunity of our people to prove that Americans are better
than Spaniards, and to give them a sort of kindergarten object lesson
by giving them cheap bread and cheap clothing to wear, by placing
before them an opportunity to earn a living and by encouraging every
enterprise calculated to make them a better people.

I find that there is only about one-tenth of the land of this group
of islands under actual cultivation at the present time. The heavy
taxes which Spain placed upon the people of her colonies have
crushed the once prosperous farmer, and the heavy 'additional war
taxes which Spain placed upon this island during the past year
have sent into bankruptcy a very large number of the men of the

780

island. All through Porto Rico to-day stand the ruins of once valua-
ble sugar estates. The great sugar factories have fallen down, the
machinery has been eaten by rust, and the land has passed into the
hands of those who held the mortgages. If our people in the United
States would- take an unselfish interest in dealing with these people
in accordance with the golden rule and receive in exchange for our
products which we have to sell to this island the products of Porto
Rico on the very same terms that one State receives the products of
another State, without charging duty for admission, this fertile island
would again bloom and blossom and prosper as it never before pros-
pered, and the whole civilized world would observe the success of our
glorious American institutions in lifting up a downtrodden people
and bettering their moral and financial condition.

This island being small, its products which may be shipped to the
United States will not be of sufficient amount to materially affect the
rich producers of our great country. We should not look upon the
Porto Rican producers of sugar, tobacco, and coffee as our compet-
itors; we should regard them as our newly adopted brothers, who have
been imprisoned for four hundred and six years, in whom we all have
a common interest. We should show to the world that we delight in
their uplifting, in their prosperity, in their becoming respectable
laborers, and in their becoming intelligent Americans. We should
insist upon them enjoying the same blessings and advantages that
the people in every part of our great country enjoy.

FREE TRADE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND PORTO RICO.

STATEMENT OF RUCABADO & CO., MERCHANTS OF CAYEY.

Although our commerce is in a state of comparative well-being, it
still feels the necessity of establishing coastwise trade between this
island and the new metropolis. This measure alone would suffice to
bring about a greater degree of prosperity. It would even be a mat-
ter of political convenience for the Government of the great Republic
to establish this system, which would harmonize the moral and mate-
rial interests of both countries, whose destiny is united in an indis-
soluble bond.

THE RELATION OF THE TARIFF TO THE HONEY QUESTION.

STATEMENT OF CONRADO PALAN, A DIRECTOR OF THE SPANISH BANK OF

PORTO RICO.

It is my judgment that, simultaneously with the change in the money
system, there should be some resolution of the tariff problem adopted,
as our agriculturists would be seriously prejudiced if they had to pay
salaries and other expenses in better money without a better market
for their products. A compensation for any loss in the custom-house
receipts would be obtained by the agriculturists in coastwise trade
with the United States, as with the free introduction of our products
there production would increase, on account of the confidence which
an assured market would inspire. Articles of food would be lower in
price, owing to the free entry here of American goods — much to the
benefit of the working classes, and this fact would remove from the
day laborers all pretext for demanding higher wages. The only pre-
text which they can advance to-day for such a demand is the low pur-

781

chasing power of the money in which they are paid and the high prices
of articles of food, drink, and fuel, the high prices of which articles
are due to high customs duties. Coastwise trade therefore is, in my
opinion, most convenient to both countries. It is the only way in
which the prosperity of Porto Rico can be completely assured.

Were it possible to have' introduced here, free of duty, machinery
and other manufacturing implements, agricultural industries and
industries derived therefrom would be given a great impulse.

As against other nations, a special tariff might be fixed, or even the
same tariff in force in the United States, with certain modifications, as
regards several articles necessary for our consumption and which it
would be desirable to import from other countries. Some of these
articles are the produce of the old metropolis (Spain), and it occurs
to me that without prejudicing the new one in any way, it would be
well to allow these articles a moderate tariff charge, and in exchange
for this favor claim from Spain a reduction of the duties levied by
her on some of our nroductions.

FREE TRADE WOULD SAVE THE SUGAR INDUSTRY.
MEMORIAL OF JOStf V. CINTRON, PLANTER.

The confusion of exchange has always tended to the prejudice of
the price of the product, while benefiting the ring of bankers, who
have thus made fortunes.

I sent last year to the house of A. M. Seixas, of New York, a con-
signment of 420 bags and 86 hogsheads of sugar (muscovado) in the
"month of May, and at the highest market prices, according to the
account sale, obtained $3.75 per quintal, or $3,837 net, or $1.6396 per
quintal, United States currency. It is absolutely impossible to pro-
duce sugar at this price. But the compensation of the exchange has
kept up our sugar-growing industry. When I sold iny bills on the
United States at 100 per cent premium I saw my sale price in New
York doubled.

The exchange of United States currency for colonial money at 100
per cent, and the payment of contracts at that rate would, assist in
freeing from pawn the great number of properties under mortgage,
and they would thus recover from the exploitation of which they have
been the victims.

But the exchange alone, if not accompanied by free coasting trade
with the metropolis, would simply sentence the sugar industry to
death, and would cause the ruin of many families and cause a pro-
found disturbance by throwing many men out of work.

YABTJCOA, February 2, 1899.

FREE TRADE WOULD GIVE AN IMPULSE TO COMMERCE.

By successors to A. J. Alcaide.

We believe that commerce and free trade with the United States
must be established; that is, free entrance through our custom-house
for all American products, and the same privilege to be extended to
Porto Rican products in the custom-house of the Union.

782

Free trade between the two countries will give a tremendous impulse
to commerce, will stimulate our agricultural interests, for it opens for
our principal products — sugar, molasses, coffee, and hides — a sure and
profitable market, and free trade would naturally bring Porto Rico
nearer to the United States politically, making the people grateful to
the American flag.

In our opinion free trade with the United States would make of
Porto Rico the richest island in the world, for its lands are so fertile
and its resources so great that with American capital, well directed,
there is no telling of the results.

The opening of the American market free to us will ' surely start
many minor industries, such as the planting of bananas, oranges,
cocoanuts, pineapples, and other tropical fruits, which would quite
soon be another source of wealth, and, as a consequence, the enlarged
mercantile movement would extend its benefits to American shipping.

Arroyo, P. R., November 4, 1898.

FREE TRADE BETWEEN PORTO RICO AND THE UNITED STATES.
By Arthur F. Odlin, of law firm of Odlin & Pettingill.

The proper thing, to my mind, is to make trade absolutely free
between all ports of the United States and Porto Rico. This must be
so when the Territory shall be established. The merchants and manu-
facturers in the States are doing practically no business here now for
the reason that nearly all the large houses here are intensely pro-
Spanish in their sympathies, and of course they buy from Spain when
the products of their old sovereign come to the island on the same
terms with goods from the States. An official of the local board of
trade here in San Juan (which is an organization consisting entirely
of Spanish) stated to a Porto Rican who had been present at the
meeting that said meeting would amount to nothing because the board
of trade had decided to send a cable to the President asking the status
quo here to be retained and nothing done at present. In my judg-
ment the continuance of the tariff would not only injure the people
in the United States who are eager to do business here, but it retards
the proper and sanitary improvement of the island. As proof of
my position I will give you two instances within my own personal
knowledge.

First. In my adopted State of Florida, where I resided for over
twelve years, are many expert growers of tropical fruits who have
become discouraged by reason of the frequent freezes there of late
years, and who wish to come here and engage in the growing of lemons,
oranges, pineapples, and similar fruits. Here they will find a soil
that will need no fertilizer and a climate where frost never comes.
Consul Hanna tells me that in spite of the fact that there are nearly
800,000 people on this island not over 10 per cent of the land is under
cultivation ; and yet I read in the papers printed in the States that
Porto Rico, is overcrowded. Remove the tariff so that an agricul-
turist can bring anything he wants from New York to Porto Rico, just
as he brings it now from New York to Florida, and I will guarantee
100 expert fruit growers from one county in Florida.

Second. In this island are scores of large cities or large towns in
urgent need of modern water supplies, partly as a protection against

783

fire, but more pressing is the demand for sanitation and public health.
I have knowledge of responsible Americans who are willing to come
here and build modern systems of water supply for these places at
rates which will give them a fair interest on their investment, the
municipalities to fix the rates, etc. , but they can not and will not come
when all the material they bring is dutiable. Meanwhile the continu-
ance of a tariff tends to postpone the Americanizing of the natives
here, who are already learning that commerce is free between the
States and Territories, and who now feel that the promised improve-
ment of their condition, after four hundred years of Spanish dominion,
is something of an unfulfilled promise. Again, this island will never
be Americanized without Americans, and they will not come here in
any considerable numbers under existing conditions.
San Juan, P. R. , December 4., 1898.

FREE IMPORTATION OF RAW MATERIALS.
By M. Grau & Sons, Manufacturers.

We are merchants and manufacturers, with an established house
of business in this city, at Nos. 68 and 70 Concordia street, owners
of a spirit distillery and of a match factory. We respectfully inform
you that to-day our partners, Don Primitivo and Don Pedro Grau,
attended the meeting called by Messrs. Fritze, Lundt & Co. , in which
these gentlemen proposed that all crude material for the use of man-
ufacturers should be allowed free entry into the island and that houses
importing them should pay no duty whatever. This proposition was
passed by the meeting.

These gentlemen further proposed that coastwise trade between
Porto Rico and the United States should be instituted, as the heavy
duties now imposed constitute a burden upon industries, making them
entirely impossible ; that not only should raw materials be allowed
free entry into the country when coming from the United States, but,
when destined for manufacturing purposes, the same liberty be granted
to articles coming from any other country. Only in this way can we
save ourselves from the strong competition which we would have to
suffer; if this is not granted, all our industries will be wiped out.

The present tariff does not specify the duty to be paid on match,
boxes, which up to the present have been classified under Article 248,
as match sticks. We beg that if free entry be not given these articles
they be continued under the same classification, as being of the same
nature.

Mayaguez, P. R., November 5, 1898.

FREE TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES.

STATEMENT OF MERCHANTS, BANKERS, AND PROPRIETORS OF MAYAGUEZ.

We want free trade between Porto Rico and the United States of
America. The island is confidently expecting the ' ' cabotage " — i.e.,
free trade — between the United States and this island will be granted,
to give a fresh impulse to the agriculture of sugar and tobacco,
which form most important factors of our production and whose exist-

784

ence is in imminent danger without their free importation into the
United States from the moment the United States money becomes our
currency, as the laborers will not be willing to work at the reduced
wages at whatever may be the rate of change ; this also being the reason
why we request that the change of money and free import should be
effected simultaneously.

The foregoing proposal represents the views of thirty-two firms of
Mayaguez, comprising all the large firms and most of the smaller ones.

Mayaguez, P. R.

A QUESTION OF EXPEDIENCY.

San Juan, P. R,, October 27, 1898.
Pedro Jose Arsuaga, of Sobrinos de Esquiaga.

As regards the sugar industry, for instance, this industry will be
favored by the new state of things if, as the sugar planters expect,
they will be given a free market in the United States ; and although
the amount of sugar produced here is insignificant as compared with
the amount produced in Cuba, our product would nevertheless be in
a much better position.

As regards coffee, we lose the market of Spain and lose the market
of Cuba and will have no market in the United States, because there
they use the Brazilian coffee, which is much cheaper. The coffee
which used to be sent from here to Cuba was ordinary coffee, but now
in Cuba they say they are going to import the cheaper Brazilian coffee
instead of the coffee of Porto Rico. The best coffee produced here
goes to Europe. The coffee industry here is an extremely important
one, and the general feeling here is that, if possible, we should obtain
free entry for our coffee in Cuba. As it is at present, a considerable
duty has to be paid on entering it there, which very greatly reduces
the margin of profit.

As regards the establishment of free trade between the United
States and Porto Rico, that is a question which depends upon the
ulterior question, namely, whether there will be sufficient funds to
meet the expenses of the island without the imposition of duties on
articles imported from there. Under Spanish rule there was not abso-
lute free trade between Spain and the island. There was a duty
amounting to about 10 per cent imposed upon every article. It seems
natural that there should be absolute free trade between the United
States and this island, but whether it is expedient or not is a question
of statistics.

REMOVE DUTIES FROM NECESSARY ARTICLES.
STATEMENT OF MANY CITIZENS.

Isabela, P. R., February 15, 1899.

We think free coastwise trade should be immediately declared
between Porto Rico and the United States, not only for the benefits
resulting to commerce and agriculture therefrom, but because of the
new bonds of sympatlry that it would cause between the two countries.

The poor people's food and clothing call for the protection of the
government. In no part of the world has the laboring class suffered

785

more than it has here, owing to the abandonment of their interests by
the monarchial government, whose policy was repression and not pro-
tection. This has brought about the lamentable condition of the
peasant, who not only has not enough to eat, but whose miserable
hut does not offer him any of the decencies of life. The government
should, therefore, remove the duties from all articles of prime neces-
sity and start public works to give employment to the poor who do
not ask for charity, but for work and instruction.

PROSPERITY DEPENDING ON FREE TRADE.
STATEMENT OF RUCABADO & CO.

Cayey, P. R., March 4, 1899.
Although our commerce is in a state of comparative well-being, it
still feels the necessity of establishing coastwise trade between this,
island and the new metropolis. This measure alone would suffice to
bring about a greater degree of prosperity. It would even be a matter
of political convenience for the Government of the great Republic to
establish this system, which would harmonize the moral and material
interests of both countries whose destiny is united in an indissoluble
bond.

FREE TRADE WITH THE METROPOLIS.

STATEMENT OF MAYOR CELESTINO DOMINGTJEZ.

Guayama, P. R., January, 1899.
The tariff should facilitate commerce, agriculture, and manufactur-
ing so that the island can recover from the prostration into which
it has fallen since the termination of the Spanish rule. Our prin-
cipal products have always suffered. They were kept out of Spain
by prohibitive tariffs and had to seek a market in foreign coun-
tries, where similar products, Taised under more favorable condi-
tions in other lands, competed with them. The United States, there-
fore, became our principal market and bought our sugars, the largest
crop of the island. By reason "of the inferior value of our money, by
reason of the want of conscience of the local exporters, who from time
immemorial have exercised a monopoly, by reason, perhaps, of sugars
from other countries enjoying privileges not granted to us, by reason
of the trusts, so common in our new country, and many other causes,
the price of sugar has fallen so low as to produce a state of despair
among our cultivators, many of whom have let their lands run to
grass. The island of Porto Rico has immense plains which thirty
years ago were covered with magnificent sugar plantations and to-day
are pasture fields. Every now and again the chimney of an aban-
doned sugar mill may be seen, the ruins of which announce the past
of an industry once nourishing but now dead. What is wanted,
therefore, is decided protection for our principal crops — sugar, coffee,
tobacco, rum, cacao, etc. A low tariff for the importation of foreign
goods and free coasting trade with the metropolis would solve the
question of prosperity. The income from the custom-house alone
would cover all expenditures for internal government.
1125 50

786

FREE TRADE WOULD GIVE IMMEDIATE RELIEF.
STATEMENT OF TWENTY MERCHANTS AND PLANTERS.

Yauco, P. R., March 6, 1899.
Taking into account the terrible economic state of the island, due
to the paralyzation of credit, the high cost of imported goods during
the past year, and the low price of our crops at the present time, a
step must be taken which shall give decided protection to out agricul-
ture, the principal source of our wealth. This measure can be syn-
thesized as follows:

(1) Free coasting trade between the United States and Porto Rico,
as a radical measure, the benefits of which would be felt immediately;
until this decree be issued, the free entry of our products into the
ports of the Union. It is logical to suppose that by depriving the
central treasury of the benefits to be derived from the imports of
sugar it would be prejudiced, but to make up for this loss we suggest
a duty be levied on coffees from other countries imported into the
Union.

(2) The establishment of territorial banks, which shall lend money
for long terms and low rates of interest in order to be able to raise
the mortgages from our farms and attend to their cultivation.

(3) Removal of import duties from articles of every-day consump-
tion, such as rice, flour, codfish, lard, bacon, etc. ; also from all classes
of agricultural machinery and tools until " cabotage" be declared.

(4) The construction of good roads and railroads, in order to facili-
tate transportation, which to-day is very expensive.

With regard to manufactures, to-day almost unknown in this coun-
try, they should be stimulated. This will settle the question of our
laborers, at present almost entirely without occupation, and will bring
into use our raw material, which at present is unused or else exported
with no gain whatsoever.

As to commerce, its welfare would be guaranteed if in addition to
protection to agriculture it could count on a conscientious customs
tariff and stability of exchange until the monej^ question be finally
settled.

OPINIONS OP THE PEOPLE ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS OF REFORM.

CONGRESS OF PORTO RICANS.

Mr. Special Commissioned of the. United States to Porto Rico :
The four political parties which existed here having been dissolved
by the fact of the cession of Porto Rico to the United States of Amer-
ica, as agreed upon in the peace protocol, a number of public men who
figured in the direction of the old parties, desirous of promoting the
general welfare, came together to studjr the actual social-political sit-
uation of this island and to give it an adequate solution in the general
policy of the North American nation.

The idea prevailed unanimously of calling the country together in
an assembly which should discuss and }3ass solutions of the various
problems of our local life, for presentation to the Federal Government
with the stamp of the consent of the greatest number possible of per-
sons representing Porto Rican public opinion. While the assembly
was being convoked, in the manner stated in the printed slip hereto

787

adjoined, these public men held meetings to discuss political, eco-
nomic, and social matters which might serve as a guide to the assem-
bly for its definite deliberations, and it was agreed that the meeting
should be open to all inhabitants of Porto Rico accepting United
States citizenship and identified with the aspirations of the country,
to propose and defend every question they might think of benefit to the
general welfare.

The assembly was held in the Theater of San Juan, on Sunday,
October 30, and had numerous attendants, representing all social
classes of the manj^ towns of the island. After the undersigned
opened the session and explained the object of the meeting, all pres-
ent, in the midst of enthusiastic acclamations, rose to their feet to
swear and promise obedience and fidelity to the Constitution of the
United States. Deliberations were at once begun and the following
conclusions carried by unanimous vote :

POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL MATTERS.

• Porto Rico, to fill her necessities, to satisfy her aspirations, and
develop her activity, begs of the Congress of the United States that it
may be declared a Territory of the Union, ending at once the military
and beginning the civil government.

As a consequence of this, the Federal Constitution, the general laws
of the Union, and the special laws which Congress may vote will begin
to have force here as general laws. This would give us the laws com-
mon to all the Territories, with the following .modifications :

In the legislative assembly, the high chamber or senate to renew its
members as to a third of their number every two years, the chamber
of representatives to renew its entire number in the same period.
Qualifications: A senator to be 30 years of age and a representative
tive 25 years.

All citizens of 21 years residing in the Territory to have the right to
vote; all persons who, during the first two years, do not prove that
they know how to read and write to lose the right to vote.

To occupy any position obtained by election it shall be necessary to
know how to read and write.

Courts of justice to be organized as follows: One supreme court,
three district courts, judges of first instance and instruction for civil
and criminal matters, and justices of the peace, by popular elections.
Each court to have one fiscal.

As it is a part of the duty of the legislative assembly, under the
Territorial system, to vote local laws, the following reforms are of
urgent necessity:

IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE BRANCH.

The greatest simplicity in procedure, to facilitate the immediate
dispatch of business by skilled employees, who shall continue in office
while faithfully performing their duty.

IN THE JUDICIAL BRANCH.

The jury for all classes of crimes.

A single trial for oral and public suits in civil business within the
jurisdiction of district courts.
Public declaration of sentences.

Criminal and civil judges and their employees to be held responsible.
Advocates to form a college and draw up the necessary statutes.

788

Liberty in the exercise of the profession of procurator.

Liberty in the exercise of the profession of notary, which profession
may also be practiced by abogados.

Procurators and notaries to give bond to the tribunals for the proper
discharge of their official duties.

Reorganization of the registry of property, with one office only in
San Juan, with trained employees on salary, subject to categorical
rules, in order to prevent all classes of abuse, to facilitate rapidity
and to cheapen registration.

IN THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH.

Harmonize and unify the. present laws, so as to avoid conflict between
them and those of the Union, and enact the following reforms :

Simplify legal procedure in suits and actions and also limit the
pleadings in lawsuits to bill and answer; statement of evidence to be
offered, and list of witnesses to be examined, and in suits to make
public the summary for the defense of the accused from the com-
mencement of the suit, and to limit the temporary imprisonment in
absence or default of bonds to the exclusive guarding of the prisoner
(mere detention).

Modification of the penal code, so as to do away with perpetual
imprisonment, and increase fines in punishment of crimes against
property, and to limit to two periods of seven years each imprison-
ment for personal injuries which may be considered as crimes (crime
against the person to be punished seven or fourteen years).

Authorizing justices of the peace to perform the marriage cere-
mony.

The suppression in the hypothecary law (of mortgages) of the
so-called " information of possession" (the form of proof of owner-
ship now in vogue).

IN THE MUNICIPAL REGIME.

To sanction the autonomous form of government, with mayors and
councilors elected by public vote.

IN THE ECONOMICAL AND FINANCIAL BRANCH.

To reform the tributary system by establishing a territorial tax on
the basis of capital (valuation instead of income).

Allowing the present levies on commerce and industry to remain,
but abolishing those on professional men and on industries which,
lacking in capital, are carried on by personal efforts only.

The suppression of the taxes called "internal passports" (cedulas),
stamped paper, stamped paper used in. making payment to the state,
excise stamps used in making payment to the state, excise stamps on
drafts and promissory notes, lotteries, taxes on raffles, and medias,
annatas, bulls, and mandaspias (ecclesiastical taxes).

To preserve the right of patents of inventions.

To impose taxes on all capital invested in articles of luxury, such as
estates (extensive private parks, etc. ) cultivated for private pleasure.

To suppress the consumption tax and not tax in any way whatever
articles of food, drink, or fuel, even those which are now subject to
duties in the custom-house.

Lots and waste lands which now belong to the State should pass to
the ownership of municipalities, so they could make use of their
products.

789

Free and reciprocal commerce with the American Union for the
entry of products in all ports without payment of export or import
duties.

Reformation of the tariff, to put on a just basis fiscal dues and not
make impossible commerce under foreign flags.

Reformation of the custom-house regulations in favor of commerce,
suppressing the obnoxious fines, in which employees of that department
have a share.

Suppress the monopoly of emission of bank notes enjoyed by the
Spanish Bank of Porto Rico, and establish full liberty for banks, sav-
ings and other credit institutions to emit their notes when fully guar-
anteed.

Effect the exchange of the money system immediately in the form
which the Government may consider most convenient after hearing
all social classes interested in the matter.

In order to assist agriculture there should be established the legal
regimen of homestead ; the free importation of agricultural machinery
and tools ; the imposition of a tax on each acre of land which remains
uncultivated for one year; the assuring of agricultural credit on agri-
cultural movable property; the establishment of a school of agricul-
ture, where agriculturists shall be given free instruction and training
in technical matters ; the teaching of elementary practical agriculture
in the country schools ; the establishment of warehouses for agricul-
tural products; the release of the Agricultural Bank of San Juan
from the payment of all taxation during five years.

As regards public education, the best means of advancing our peo-
ple would be kindergartens and normal schools as established in the
United States. Our elementary and superior schools should be trans-
formed and graded according to modern pedagogic methods. Sec-
ondary instruction should be a continuation of the primary and a
preparation for the superior and collegiate. Universal education
should be introduced on the best models of the United States. There
should be established schools for adults, Sunday schools, schools of
arts and trades, libraries, museums, academies of fine arts, and literary
clubs.

Education must be obligatory and gratuitous, and it must be com-
pulsory on every municipality to sustain its own schools, the number
being fixed by law with reference to the population. If the munici-
pality be unable to sustain all the schools, the state should establish
the necessary ones.

Grades of instruction to be three — the fundamental, or that given
by the public schools; the secondary, which should give positive
notions on scientific, civil, and technical subjects; the professional,
which comprehends the knowledge of jurisprudence, medicine, engi-
neering, and technology; the universities to diffuse general knowledge
of science for purposes of high culture.

For the formation of a competent body of teachers, it is necessary
to establish normal schools for teachers of both sexes; normal schools
for professors; normal schools for university teachers, and military
and naval schools.

SOCIAL ORDER.

To procure the betterment and dignifying of the working classes,
there should be:

Establishments where the workingman can educate himself and
acquire knowledge appropriate to his trade.

790

Savings banks; insurance societies, especially to insure against acci-
dents resulting to workmen while engaged at their work.

The creation of communities for the purpose of educating workmen
and encouraging them to live hygienically.

Limiting of the hours of labor to eight hours a day.

Obtaining employment for workmen out of labor.

Fixing minimum salary.

Prohibiting the employment of children under the age of 15 years.

A plan to facilitate the establishment of soup kitchens.

Correctional establishments for children. Also reform in the pres-
ent penitentiary system by introducing into it educational facilities.

The prohibition of begging in public and substituting therefor the
care of poor people by the establishment of almshouses.

The severe punishment of drunkenness; chronic alcoholism to be
treated in hospitals; the imposition of a heavy tax on alcoholic drinks;
the absolute prohibition of the sale of harmful drinks and the sale of
drinks to children under the age of 18.

To alleviate the conditions of our women, the professions compat-
ible with their sex should be open to them.

It is necessary to formulate a law which shall cover all the questions
having relation to hygiene, as follows:

The creation of boards charged to see that their orders are com-
plied with; construction of public schools; medical inspection of
children in schools; sanitation of the cities; scientific inspection of
articles of food and drink; the creation of a veterinary school; the
supply of water for towns, gardens, parks, trees, and everything con-
tributing to public health; the creation of a bacteriological institution.

The assembly voted that all the preceding conclusions should be
given officially by a commission, which it designated, to the special
commissioner, that he might present them to the President of the
United States.

Manuel F. Rossy,
President of the Assembly.

San Juan, P. P., November 9, 1898.

A TERRITORIAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October 31, 1898.
Francisco Mariano Quinones and Dr. Jose C. Barbosa :

Dr. Carroll. Do you think many of the Spaniards in the island
will become American citizens'?.

Mr. Quinones. Before the invasion of Porto Rico I met a promi-
nent Spanish gentleman in Ponce, who said: "If you think that the
American invasion will do us harm you are much mistaken. We are
perfectly convinced that our mother country is now in too weak a state to
be able to continue a government here beneficial to merchants or to the
country in general." Therefore I think that a great many Spaniards
will accept, with good will, American citizenship, and will remain in
the country, exploiting their own wealth and the riches of the country.

Dr. Carroll. Will it be the policj7 of the autonomists or the f union-
ists to make it as easy as possible for these Spanish gentlemen to
become American citizens?

791

Mr. Quinones. I can only answer that question with regard to my
own feelings. If my opinions had any weight with my party, I would
tell them, us I have frequently counseled them, that it is good politics
not to let personal feelings tend toward exclusiveness, but to take
into consideration personal moral qualities, aptitude of the men for
work and for adding to the benefit of the country, and to let that be
their only guide as to whether they will receive others as one of them.

Dr. Carroll. That is a very honorable programme.

Mr. Quinones, That comes more from my heart than my head. I
can never become a partisan to exclusiveness in politics or in anything
else.

Dr. Carroll. I suppose if anyone has occasion to feel hatred for
the Spaniai'ds it is you, and if you feel so liberal at heart toward
them, it is to be hoped that the rank and file of the radical part y will
adopt a similar attitude.

Mr. Quinones. If you will read what is in that book (Mr. Quinones's
notes on the Componte), which is not falsified in any particular, you
will see that the execrable Spanish conduct was enough to make us
irreconcilable, but I consider that as circumstances change so can the
conduct and character of people change, and I see no reason why,
under new circumstances, the Spaniards should not become good, loyal
citizens. I have alwa3^s thought that American institutions were
potent to change the bad qualities of a man if a man did not have too
vile a character to be affected by good institutions.

Dr. Carroll. I have heard several times since I came to Porto
Rico that the Porto Ricans would be divided among themselves not
only on grounds of difference of view as to what is really needed for
Porto Rico from the United States, but also on irarely party grounds,
and that in the course of a month or two there would be a strong con-
flict, an internal conflict, among themselves on party grounds. I ha ve
as yet seen no evidence in support of those views.

Mr. Quinones. There never was such hatred between men as there
was witnessed in the political struggle in Porto Rico, with brother
against brother, and, in truth, never with more reason.

Dr. Carroll. What was the reason?

Mr. Quinones. The reason was that they expected from their
brothers a policy of far greater liberality than that which they prac-
ticed when they came into power, placed there by Sagasta, who granted
autonomy, turning the island over to one political party, his own, which
had the effect of sowing dissension among Porto Ricans of a lasting
and bitter kind. Sagasta, when he made the pact with our repre-
sentatives, said, ' ' Join yourselves to my party and send me representa-
tives of my party; follow my politics and I will deliver over to you
the civil list of the island, and with that you have everything." That
is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Mr. Earbosa. Sagasta sent fifty names for deputies, and those
names had to pass through the ballots, and those opposed to them
had no power to defeat the election. The Porto Ricans were always
opposed to such a policy and were always against such corrupt means
of conducting an election, but the election came, and Porto Rico gave
them the Spanish deputies, the names sent from Spain being all
elected — names we never heard of before.

Mr. Quinones. When the government was placed in the hands of
Munoz Rivera — and I am sorry to have to say it, because he is not here
to hear me, but I have said it to him before the Captain-General of the
island — he took over the portfolio of the minister of the government, I

792

being president of the board of ministers. He immediately named in
all of the cities mayors who were merely his creatures, ready to carry
out his instructions; and I regret to say most of these mayors have
been retained in power and are in office to-day. Under these persons
the elections previoushy referred to were conducted so infamously that
even Sagasta expressed his displeasure with them: and I have letters
from Labra, in Spain, informing me of the discontent of Sagasta, and
stating that he would likely express himself in that respect. As
regards administration, I think what is needed is that the United
States grant Porto Ricans a Territorial form of government. I consider
that the municipal regulations as set forth in the Territorial laws would
be suitable to this country. I have lived in the United States in one
of the small towns and have seen the great simplicity with which they
are conducted and the very little governmental machine ry that is used.
I was only about 18 years old at the time, but I remember being
impressed by the fact that things were carried on so quietly it hardly
seemed that there was any administration at all.

Dr. Carroll. The giving of a Territorial form of government to
Porto Rico, with the changes in nomenclature, in the character of the
posts, in the titles of officers, etc., might be looked at from the Spanish
standpoint as somewhat radical, and the question might be asked,
Are the people of Porto Rico ready for such radical changes, and do
they not wish to retain some of their customs so far as they do not
infringe the freedom of thought and speech?

Mr. Quinones. In order to overcome any objections which might be
raised of that kind it will be necessary to commence at once to edu-
cate the people, so that they may be in a position to enjoy the liber-
ties granted by the Constitution of the United States. They have
been living under a tutelage. They were told, " Go that way," and
they went, even if it led to a precipice. As a result of this tutelage
the people are not now in a position to protect themselves or their
property.

Dr. Carroll. One important question has been raised already in
my investigation, and that is the question of trial by jury. You are
not accustomed to trial by jury here, whereas under our Constitution
no man can be tried and condemned except by process of law under
jury trial. It would seem, therefore, necessary to introduce jury
trials here, at least in important cases; but a gentleman here yester-
day expressed the opinion that the people are not prepared for it; that
it would be difficult to find jurors, in many cases, who would be com
petent to pass upon such cases.

Mr. Barbosa. Under the Spanish regime we were opposed to the
jury, because under the Spanish law the jury would be appointed by
the central Government, and that would prove a new weapon in the
hands of the officials of Spain, because they could appoint men who,
when they came to judge, would be swayed by political passions.
Then it was a danger; but to say, as some do, that in a population
like that of this city you would not be able to find more than 50 or 100
who could serve as jurors and give an honest, intelligent verdict is
not in accordance with my views, and a person who makes such a
statement mistakes the functions of the juror. It is only necessary
for a man to be able to appreciate the circumstances of a case and to
be able to say whether or not a crime was committed. I think the
jury system is a very helpful thing for a country, and there must be
a time when we shall do it for the first time. If I had not practiced
on my first patient, I could never have practiced at all.

793

Mr. Quinones. When the Americans came here, coming as they
do with the intention of giving this country a government which
would regenerate it, and found that the country was suffering from
internal dissension, and that that dissension did not disappear as it
ought to have done, the moment the Americans arrived they should
have said, "Until we understand the island and its affairs better we
will put in our own men from top to bottom."

Dr. Carroll. Are there any persons who think that statehood
should be given Porto Rico?

Mr. Quinones. Yes ; a few fools think so.

Dr. Carroll. Is there any party that asks for statehood?

Mr. Quinones. The platform of the Fusionist party expresses aspi-
rations for statehood, but only after a prior Territorial government.

Dr. Carroll. But there is no political party that thinks statehood
should be given immediately?

Mr. Barbosa. The Territorial law will be a good thing because
there will not be so many officers here. One of the worst things here
is that so many people want to get into the administration.

Mr. Quinones. 1 do not accept the views of my companion that the
jury at first will show itself to be thoroughly competent. Some little
time must pass before that can be.

END OF MILITARY RULE DESIRED.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., October SI, 1898.
Dr. Veve. I wish to make clear that the feeling of Porto Ricans
toward the United States had birth in the fact that some time before
present events happened they understood that of themselves they
would never acquire their independence, and they looked toward their
neighbors in the north as their natural saviors, and from this fact
dates our admiration, respect, and consideration for that great country.
But we must ask in return from them their consideration and attention,
so as to finish the work of redemption already begun by them. We
wish that the United States would direct its attention to this country as
soon as international questions now pending are completed, putting
an end at once to the military government, destroying completely all
traces of the unwise Spanish administration, and establishing here a
Territorial system under the general Territorial laws applicable to all
Territories in the United States, with such changes as the special con-
ditions in this island may call for; that within the limits of these Ter-
ritorial laws everything should be done to advance agriculture, free
mercantile transactions, and all that will tend to increase the pros-
perity of the island.

SELF-GOVERNMENT FOR PORTO RICO.
[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

San Juan, P. R., November 8, 1898.
United States Consul-General Hanna:

This island has been called, on account of the richness of its soil,
the Pearl of the Antilles. Under the blessing of' God and with the
application of our laws and free schools and the uplifting influences

794

of our institutions, we can make this island the pride of the whole
country. We can cause this island to be the Pearl of the Antilles, not
merely because of. the richness of its soil, but because of the advance-
ment of its people morally, intellectually, and financially. We can
make it the diamond of the United States, and the Almighty will hold
us responsible if we neglect to adopt the proper measures to make it
such. i

One year ago we never dreamed of owning Porto RicoTp In the
providence of God she is ours to-day; she will be ours forever, and
there is no country nor people on the face of the earth which could
afford the United States a better opportunity for showing the world
the power of her institutions in developing a people and country
than this island of Porto Rico. She never gave Spain trouble. No
large army was ever required to maintain order here. The people
are quiet, well-behaved, and naturally good. During the whole year
I have not seen a drunken Porto Rican. Our people who have visited
the island have been astonished at the good behavior of these people.
It is true that most of them are in the habit of drinking a little wine
or a little rum where they can afford it. It is common for them, in
company with their families, to enter a cafe after their day's work is
finished. Some will call for rum, some for wine, others for coffee or
chocolate, and so quietly do they engage in this pleasure that no one
can tell who has drunk the rum and who the coffee. In fact, on lines
of temperance, they are already capable of exerting a moral influence
upon many of our American people.

The subject of education is one over which most of the people of the
island to-day are very enthusiastic. Even the uneducated men and
women of the island come to us and beg us to use our influence with
the United States to establish the American school system throughout
this country for the education of their children. The education of the
poorer class has been sadly neglected. There are but few schoolhouses
in the island. Even in the towns and cities most of the schools are
kept in rented buildings. About the only school buildings worthy of
the name belong to the church. The child of the poor man has had
no opportunity to procure an education. The common laborer, who
had employment only a small part of his time and who was only able to
furnish food for his family, has not been in the past able to clothe his
children properly for the schoolroom nor to pay for the tuition. About
the only schools established in the island for the poor, in which the
very poor children have had attention, are conducted by the various
orders of sisters of the Catholic Church. The Mothers of the Sacred
Heart, who have a large house at San Turce, in addition to conduct-
ing a school for the better and wealthier class, have a school for the
poor, where they teach about eighty destitute children. They are
now teaching these children, or most of them, the English language.
They also teach the girls how to sew, how to make their own clothing,
and otherwise to be useful; but this class of schools is very limited in
the island and reaches only a small proportion of the poor.

I have had numbers of delegations from different parts of the island
come to see me upon the school question. What concerns them most
is the education of the poor, and, to my mind, what is most needed in
Porto Rico in the line of education is the introduction of our public-
school system. Good schoolhouses should be erected in all the cities
and towns. Children should be compelled to attend school. Country
schoolhouses accessible to all of the populated parts of the island
should be erected, and special attention should be given to educating

795

the. rising generation concerning the Government of the United States
and our system of self-government. Spain has given the people
morros, fortifications, cannon, bayonets, and expended millions of
dollars of the people's money on such things instead of on schoolhouses
and the employment of teachers to educate the youth. We should
reverse the plan and make the education of the people foremost, and
the rising generation will rise up to love and honor the great country
that educated them.

Without doubt, at present a military government is necessary, but
there is no necessity whatever for a prolonged military government in
Porto Rico. If continued for a long period, it would make a bad
impression upon the people here, who are looking forward eagerly to
real self-government at the hands of the United States.

The Territorial form of government, without doubt, is well adapted
to this island. We have here a people more capable of becoming
good Americans than thousands of persons whom we have in niany of
our large cities of the Union. Toughs, hard cases, and criminals are
comparatively few in this country.

The recent reports concerning the burnings of plantations since our
troops landed in the island are probably true substantially, but these
burnings have mostly been committed by laborers who for year's have
been compelled to work at starvation wages on the plantations of the
island. I have investigated many of the cases, and almost every case
of burning of a plantation is traced to the hired men on the planta-
tion. Old grudges, the memories of persecution and low wages and
of a condition worse than slavery have caused these people, at this
time of change of governments, to give vent to their wrath and resent-
ment and to try to get even with their masters.

The man who owned a large plantation employed men at the lowest
price possible, and instead of giving them money he gave them an
order on his grocery store, which he generally kept in connection with
his estate. At the end of the month, after having fed their families,
they found themselves invariably in debt to the man for v/hom they
worked. They were always in debt; they were virtually the slaves of
the estate owner and in a worse condition than ordinary slaves, for the
slave owner had a personal interest in his slaves because they were
his property, but in these laborers the landlord had no personal inter-
est. He knew that they were compelled to work at starvation wages,
and when they died he did not bury them. Nearly every case of crime
which has been committed by persons of this unfortunate labor class
has been committed out of revenge. I believe, under ordinary cir-
cumstances, even this class of men would be law-abiding citizens. I
believe, further, that with an opportunity to labor at fair wages, crime
in the island would be reduced to as low a percentage as in any State of
the Union. The crime of murder in the island is very rarely heard of.

I am sorry to say that the standard of morality here is not as high
as we could wish for. Among the poorer classes it is verj^ common
for men and women to live together and raise a family without being
formally married, but I look with charity upon this class of people.
The fees incidental to a marriage ceremony are usually enormous,
and no couple can have what is considered a respectable wedding
without possessing considerable cash. A poor man falls in love with
a woman and desires to make her his partner for life. He sees that
nearly all his earnings, if he has been fortunate enough to save a
little money, will be exhausted if he should be married in church or
before a magistrate; and he realizes that the amount which he has

796

saved will become very convenient in establishing a little home, so
the man and the woman agree to dispense with the marriage ceremony
and they simply join hands and live together. As a rule these poor
people are devoted to each other, and, although their union was never
legally recorded, the man supports his family as sacredly as though
they had been joined by authority of the church or state. Marriage
among the poorer class is much like it was among the blacks of the
Southern States in the days of slavery, and their failure to recognize
the ceremony of the church as well as that of the state in their mar-
riage union is hardly chargeable to them as an act of gross immor-
ality. I believe that under the American law all of these irregularities
will be easily regulated in the future. I do not believe that what
would be commonly regarded in the United States as gross immorality
represents among these people deep-seated depravity; it is simply
that their poverty and the existence of complicated matrimonial
machinery have driven them to resort to the simple method of falling
in love and living together.

The better class of married people in the island were legally joined.

There are some phases of immorality, such as exist in all Spanish
countries, which our people will find very distasteful, and yet I
believe that among the people of Porto Rico all the more gross types
of immorality will soon become largely abolished and the condition
of society among the poor within a short time become equally as good
as that in many parts of the United States. The examples of mor-
ality set by those who should have been the molders and teachers of
the people in moral things, I fear, have not always been what the}'-
should have been in this island. Place a few thousand respectable
Americans in Porto Rico, and their influence will lift the standard of
morality to where it should be. Take away their poverty, make
morality easy for them, surround them with good influences, properly
educate the rising generation, and the future generations of Porto
Ricans will scarcely show a trace of the immorality of to-day.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Guayama, P. R. , February 3, 1899.

Mr. Antonio Grau (depositary). Representing the opinions of the
whole of Guayama, I wish you to state to the Government in Wash-
ington that we wish an end of the military government; that we wish
a civil government, civil laws, a civil status, and to be made citizens
of the American Republic.

In the second place, I wish the Government to give a solution to
economic problems, especially the money question, and that in resolv-
ing this problem they try to consult all interests, so as not to harm
any of them in the least possible degree. To effect this, I suggest
that free entry be given in the ports of the United States to the prod-
ucts of Porto Rico, so as to enable them to exist, because under the
present monetary system these products enjoy a premium, which the
introduction of the new coinage would remove, and agricultural inter-
ests, especially the sugar interests, would disappear. I understand
that in the United States Porto Riean sugars pay $1.76 a quintal.
There was a reason for these duties when Porto Rico was a Spanish
colony, but to-day, as it forms an integral part of the United States,

797

it should disappear. Our coffee and tobacco have no market in the
United States because of the heavy duties that they pay there, and
as commercial bonds bring closer the bonds of fraternity and sympathy,
I ask that these bonds be allowed now, so as to bring Porto Rico into
closer relation with the mother country.

With regard to municipal government, I had the pleasure of pre-
senting to the council an article on the economic side of the question,
which I will now read. This paper treats specially of municipal tax-
ation and the manner of making municipal taxation applicable to the
villages. Municipal taxation is what at present is causing the greatest
harm to taxpayers. In Guayama the tax levied by the state amounts
to $12,000 or $13,000. As you have seen, municipal taxes here exceed
$50,000. This taxation was previously divided, a portion of it being
saddled onto articles of first necessity, called a consumption tax.
This tax bore heavily upon poor people and gave rise to a large
amount of commercial immorality. The government, with good inten-
tion, did away with this species of taxation, and to-day municipalities
have to exact a direct tax, which falls very heavily upon the taxpayers
without yielding a sufficient amount for municipal needs. Our munici-
palities are taxed beyond their abilities. For instance, they have
been charged with the expense of keeping up prisons and for the
expense of keeping up courts of justice. The support of public
instruction also falls to the share of the municipalities and costs
them very much, and they attend to it very badly. Turning from
this basis, I propose a method of taxation which will make it lighter
for the municipalities, and I will have the honor to present you a copy
of it.

Dr. Carroll. Mr. Grau, in speaking about bringing to an end the
military government of the island, let fall the remark that Porto Rico
is a part of the United States. This is not the exact fact of the sit-
uation. Porto Rico is a conquered and occupied province, but the
sovereignty of the United States has not yet formally been estab-
lished according to international law. Until the treaty of Paris has
been signed and ratified and comes into operation, Porto Rico is not
a part of the United States. Therefore it would not have been pos-
'sible for Congress to have taken up the subject of legislation for
Porto Rico at its session beginning early in December if it had de-
sired to do so. But in my view it was not desirable that Congress
should take up the matter of the government of Porto Rico at that
early date.

If you are to start upon a new epoch of government and prosperity,
if you are to have American institutions, as most of you have said you
wanted to have, it is important for you that you should make a right
start; that any system of government given to you shall be as nearly
perfect as it is possible to make it; and therefore the postponement
of this matter of decision as to how you shall be governed in future
until next December gives ample time in which to study all problems
presented here and in which to resolve upon a system of government,
municipal and insular, that shall be as free from faults as possible.

Now, this question of free trade between the United States and
Porto Rico is, as I recognize, an extremely important one. It can not
be decided now. That is a question that will be involved in your
future system of government, and when that is decided this will be
decided. Mr. Grau has spoken of having coffee and sugar go free
into the United States. Coffee already goes in free; nobody pays
any duty on coffee. The President, as Commander in Chief of the

798

Army and Navy, has a great deal of power with regard to the internal
affairs of Porto Rico, but he has no power under the Constitution of
the United States to remit the duty on sugar and sa}^ that sugar shall
come free into the United States. That is a matter that can only be
legislated on by Congress.

I think that it is very important that the gospel of patience should
be preached to the people of Porto Rico. I know perfectly well that
the interests of this people lie upon the heart of the President of the
United States and that the people of the United States are devising
large and liberal things for you in their hearts. I know that General
Henry, the present military commander of this island, has your inter-
ests at heart. He has brought you relief at a great many points, and
he is prepared to go on from point to point, making changes in your
system and making things easier for you, and bringing prosperity to
you in every way that is possible for him, but any true reform, as you
will all recognize, marches forward step by step and not by great leaps.

CITIZENS, NOT SLAVES, OF THE UNITED STATES,

[Hearing before the United States Commissioner.]

Cayey, P. R., February 28, 1899.

Mr. Luis Munoz (notaiy of Cayey). I desire to say a few words,
not as the representative of any political party. We wish to have
the military occupation to terminate as soon as possible; not that we
have felt here the rigors of military occupation, because we have not.
In other parts they have felt them. We wish to become a part of
the United States, but not slaves of the United States.

Dr. Carroll. It seems proper for me to say in response to that
statement that a good deal has been done under the military govern-
ment in this island in the way of correction of abuses and improve-
ment of conditions. It is not possible, even if it were considered
entirely desirable at Washington, to bring the military rule to an end
at once. This matter of the future government of your island is as
important to you as it is to the United States, and more so. You have
been under a government for several centuries that you have deemed
hard and oppressive and unsuitable to the prosperity of the island.
I had been led to believe that you wanted an entirely new sj^stem
under the American flag, and I told the President, therefore, that I was
not prepared, on so short an investigation, to recommend any system
whatever.

Even if I had been ready to recommend a system of government, the
President probably would not have brought it to the attention of
Congress, for the reason that the present session of Congress is a
short session, beginning in December last, and ending, according to
the Constitution, on the 4th of March. The calendar was already
overcrowded for so short a session. This matter of the future gov-
ernment of Porto Rico could not have been taken up by Congress for
another reason. The treaty of peace which was negotiated at Paris
has not even yet been fully ratified, and until it is fully ratified and
becomes effective Porto Rico does not formally become a possession
of the United States. Porto Rico is, in fact, territory of the United
States, but not in name, according to international law. It is alto-
gether probable that the treaty will not be ratified before the present
session of Congress closes. You see, therefore, gentlemen, there is
abundant reason why nothing could be done at the present session of

799

Congress with reference to the civil government of Porto Rico, and I
feel that that is a matter upon which I ought to congratulate you.
You can afford to wait a few months in order that you may have a
government which, when it is instituted, will be the kind of govern-
ment you want. You do not want to start on your new career with a
crude system of government, and surely twelve months is not too long a
time to consider all the measures that are to be provided for you,
and I feel that the gospel of patience ought to be preached to the peo-
ple of Porto Rico. When I remember what has been done in the very
brief time since the American flag was raised in Porto Rico, I feel
that your position has been bettered in many things.

We understand perfectly that the people of Porto Rico are not a
military people, and it is the intention of the President of the United
States that you should have a military system only so long as is nec-
essary in order that the matter may be brought to the attention of
Congress, when Congress meets in session next December, and a well-
arranged system given you. I am sure that the President has the
prosperity and good of the people of Porto Rico at heart; he told me
so.' He has considerable power as commander of the Army and Navy,
and he told me that he would use it, so far as it was necessary, to cor-
rect abuses and to relieve conditions which might be found intolerable
by you.

I hope, therefore, in view of these things, that you will not become
restive under military government, remembering that it is only for a
short time, and that it is only a bridge from a bad state to a better one.

A NEW COAT DESIRED.

San Juan, P. R., October 31, 1899.
Prof. Leonid as Villalon called upon the commissioner and stated
that he is a professor in the institute; that he is 73 years old, and
extremely interested in the coming of the Americans. He stated that
he was exiled three times from Porto Rico, had lived in the United
States, and there had learned how to become a man. He thought the
best thing that could happen to Porto Rico would be that it should
be under the direction of the Government of the United States for
some time to come; that it would be well for Porto Rico to take off
the old coat and put on one entirely new. Let the chief offices be
filled by Americans, who could inaugurate the Territorial government
that would be best for the Porto Ricans.

WHAT WORKING MEN WANT.

San Juan, November 4, 1899. '
Santiago Iglesias, president of league or union of gremios:

In reference to the necessities and aspirations of the working class
and of the gremio of carpenters in particular, I beg you to read the
following resolutions :

Are we annexationists? Yes ; if fully convinced that so being will
not prejudice our country. We are annexationists because the Ameri-
can Republic incloses in its breast and has already put into practical
government an administration so equitable, so just, and so scientific
that there is no idealist in this country who can even in theory better
its government. ' Therefore it is our only wish and desire to reach and

800

to struggle for the establishment in the least possible time of those
forms and proceedings that will bring benefit and progress to our land
so dearly beloved.

Do we want economy? Yes; and also the reform of all sorts of old
conditions. The administration should not squander the people's
money on employees without first being convinced of their real utility.
Protection — very much protection — for the poorer classes; free com-
merce with the free Republic ; cheap bread, and very cheap. Articles
of prime necessity should be greatly lowered and enterprises should
be established to give the poor, unfortunate laborer and workers in
general a chance to obtain them, and this could easily be done if all
hindrances to free commerce were removed and usurers hunted down
like wolves.

What are the social reforms required? We are not going to fix any
reply as regards instruction, as the United States possesses rules so
radical and scientific that we do not think we could better them.
What we do ask is that improvements or reforms in the direction of
public instruction be instituted as soon as possible, which we are sure
we shall not have to wait long for, as it is well known that the Ameri-
can Republic sustains its greatness by the diffusion of its system of
instruction by every means possible, and, as well as dedicating enor-
mous sums of money to that end, its laws punish fathers or guardians
who do not comply with the necessary obligations of sending their
children to school. But as regards the economic situation of the poor
man in his agitated and excessively fatiguing life, we wish to declare
that his work consumes the greater part of that life with a day of
labor far too long. Therefore we claim that the municipalities and
even the laws should fix the day of labor in all industries at eight
hours.

Another law is required to suppress immediately and completely in
the whole island the odious consumo tax on the necessaries of life;
another prohibiting the working of women during state of preg-
nancy, and her maintainance by the state six weeks before and six
weeks after her confinement ; another that the state or municipality
be obliged to give occupation to poor classes who have no work, or
that it procure them work ; the fixing of a minimum wage for the
worker, both adult and youth ; absolute prohibition to work of chil-
dren of less than 15 years of age; the creation of schools for children
of both sexes and of all social classes ; reformation of scholastic col-
onies at certain seasons of the year; the establishment of economic
kitchens, so that working people of scant means could go to them for
food ; and, lastly, we will struggle for these reforms and betterments so
as to accredit our country before the civilized world as a humanitarian,
generous, progressive, pacific, and industrious one, because the pres-
tige of a country in the eyes of the world is worth more than the
riches which it may possess.

We salute you, and we wish you liberty, union, and fraternity.

FIT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT.
STATEMENT OF CELESTINO MORALES.

Gurabo, P. R., November 7, 1898.
My opinion is that this people, owing to their docility, culture, and
other favorable advantages, should be allowed self-government as far

801

as compatible with the Federal laws of our new rulers. A proof of
our fitness is the granting by Spam, a nation so inimical to freedom
in its colonies, of the autonomous system we enjoyed a few days
before the war. Even if this system is deficient, it points out, coming
from where it did, that we are worthy of still greater liberty.

STRONG RULE NECESSARY.

Mr. W. S. Marr, manager of the sugar estate "Canovas," near
Carolina, an Englishman, who has been in the island three and a half
years, expressed the opinion that it would be best not to make any
change in the currency until other changes had been made. He
believed that the adoption of the gold basis before free trade is
declared would cause strikes among the laborers. There was a strike
among them last spring, the first, he believed, that ever took place in
Porto Rico. It was after the introduction of the system of autonomy,
which they understood meant a larger degree of liberty for them.
The strike was unsuccessful; the employers could not afford to give
more wages. They were giving 50 cents a day. This is the lowest
amount paid, so far as he knew, in the island.

Men only are employed. The women do not work in the field.
They will do washing, but will not work in the fields, as they do in
the English colonies. He could not even get women to scrub his
house; he had to get men.

He thought the island should be ruled with a strong, firm hand.
Americans ought to hold the reigns of power and administer the
affairs of government. It would not be safe to trust the natives with
office. They would dwell on politics, which had been the curse of
the island, and would so run affairs as to benefit their own party.
The island was not ready for home rule ; it might be educated up to
that point, perhaps, in fifty or sixty years. If they had the power of
assessment of property, for example, they would levy ruinous rates
on classes against whom they had grudges. Mr. Marr thought for-
eigners were in a position to give unbiased judgments.

It was important that the duties on machinery should be lowered.
Asked if he thought that if the duties were removed from importa-
tions from the United States they might not be retained as against
other countries, he replied that it would be well to reduce them also
on machinery coming from England, at least for a short period, as
orders had already been placed in England which could not now be
recalled, and it would be well if some relief could be granted.

NOT CAPABLE OF SELF-GOVERNMEJST.
STATEMENT OF A. HARTMANN & CO.

Arroyo, P. R. , November 7, 1898.
We are under the firm conviction that until more of the American
element is introduced into the island and the people better educated,
the Porto Rican is incapable of self-government, either as a Territory
or a State.

We think, owing to the lack of education in the right way, that the
right to vote should be only given to those who can read and write
and also pay a certain amount of tax — say $10 per year municipal tax.
1125 51

802

We think the schools should be paid and managed by the State, and
that the schoolmasters should be Americans, or else obliged to know
and teach the American language, as this would instill in the risiug
generation more patriotic ideas of the United States, and also that the
obligation of children being taught the Roman Catholic religion in the
public schools should be abolished.

The Government should strictly prohibit Sunday being used for
such immoral purposes as cock fighting, gambling, drunkenness, etc.,
as has been done up till now; and also prohibit on that day public
amusements, as theaters, balls, etc.

The judicial management at present in the island has had the
germs of corruption nourished in it so many years that it is in such a
flourishing state of development that it is impossible to exterminate
this noxious germ without sweeping measures. From the highest to
the lowest the whole should be put in the hands of Americans, and
justice should be administered and courts created like those of the
United States. The jails or penitentiaries should be, sustained and
managed by the State.

FULL AUTONOMY.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR ETJSTAQTJIO TORRES.

Guayanilla, P. R. , November 7, 1898. .

Should Porto Rico not be declared a State of the Union, governed
by the same laws, it should at least be granted the full autonomy
merited by the good sense and culture of its people. Spain had lately
recognized this, in proof of which is the insular constitution, decreed
November 25, 1897, which, although not having given all the results
desired, owing to not having been applied to its full extent because of
the war, still was inspired in the spirit of ample liberty as regards the
province as a whole and the municipalities in particular.

The disturbances taking place actually might be considered a motive
for restricting this liberty ; but it would neither be just nor reason-
able to judge a whole country by the acts of a few disturbers of the
peace, who, taking advantage of such a propitious occasion, are satis-
fying their desire for vengeance for the outrages and attacks of which
they were formerly the victims.

With these few exceptions the island has retained its reputation for
gentleness ; and it is well to remember that the few towns which have
experienced these disorders were the ones formerly subjected to sim-
ilar treatment. The want of an armed force, like the Spanish civil
guard, which, besides doing military duty, helped the civil authori-
ties, conducted prisoners, and guarded the rural districts, is one of
the causes of these disorders.

When that body was disbanded certain unruly elements which are
never wanting in any country had full liberty to give rein to their per-
verse instincts, committing disorders which the guards had formerly
held in check. It is not untimely, therefore, to suggest that the Gov-
ernment should utilize one of the military bodies to perform this serv-
ice either for Federal or provincial account.

It would be well to make the Spanish language a requisite for service
in this corps, and it would be convenient to study the regulations of
the Guardia Civil (civil guard).

Under the shadow of a really autonomous government by Porto

803

Ricans, initiative would be quick to awake, and the economic prob-
lems which to-day seem most difficult of solution would soon find a
resolvent.

I think, therefore, that- the insular government should be left just
as found, with no further changes than those indispensable to a change
of sovereignty.

As regards the provincial deputation, a body useless as soon as the
respective secretaries assume the functions which were formerly per-
formed by it, it should be suppressed as unnecessary, and with it will
disappear the heavy burdens of such a costly body.

As regards the municipalities, they should enjoy the same autonomy
as the province in their relations with the metropolis, and while the
chambers legislate on insular matters, all affairs relating purely to
local municipal life should be administered bjT the municipality.

AMPLE AUTONOMY.
STATEMENT OF ANTONIO SANCHEZ RUIZ.

Agitada, P. R., November 12, 1898.

The great North American Republic, to which we to-day belong,
being a purely democratic nation, with liberty as its only goal, it is to
be hoped that the military government now existent will be of short
duration and that it will be replaced by an ample autonomy, as its
people, being sensible and mild, are easily governed. Later their
legitimate desires would be satisfied by declaring Porto Rico a State
of the Union.

It is superfluous to state the beneficial results to be obtained by
granting the municipalities an administration free from all hindrances;
that is to say, the attention to their local disbursements. This would
evade useless assignments in the national estimates and would be
beneficial in its results to the taxpayer.

VARIOUS REFORMS.

STATEMENT OF MAYOR CELESTINO DOMINGTJEZ.

Guayama, P, R., January, 1899.
One of the most important matters for Porto Rico is the change to
be made in taxation. Direct taxation is very burdensome, especially
for the poor. Remove worship and clergy, pensions, colonial minis-
try expenses, war and navy, which almost make up the whole budget.
Improve the system of sugar milling, by establishing central mills all
around our coasts and plains, opening roads and constructing the belt
railroad; give us a free market in the United States and introduce our
produce there. Construct the irrigation works in Guayama for which
we have been so long waiting and which would bring us prosperity
and could be easily carried out with the help of the Government.
Some lines of steamships plying direct to'the mother country and
calling at our coast ports, bringing us northern products free of duty,
about completes the programme.

804

MEMORIAL OF AN AGRICULTURIST.

First. All tools and agricultural machinery to be admitted free of
all tribute.

Second. That the property owners (agricultural) pay as little as
possible. That merchants come from the United States to settle in
Mayaguez, as those established here are restricting their operations.

Third. That the same wages as paid in the United States be paid
here, from the teacher to the lowest laborer. Up to the present we
have not earned sufficient to buy even food enough. There are in the
towns and country districts of my country real working people who
do not dare to venture out of their houses, as they are completely naked
and have nothing to cover their bodies with, although their labor is
necessary to the progress of the country.

Fourth. Not to allow to remain in official position persons of bad
faith without compelling them to comply with their duties. To make
the weight of the wise laws which govern 70,000,000 felt here, from
the highest functionary to the lowest laborer.

Manuel M. Puyols,

Native of Porto Rico.

Mayaguez, January 18, 1899.

MILITARY RULE SHOULD CEASE.

STATEMENT OF MANY CITIZENS.

Isabela, P. R., February 15, 1899.
The country does not merit the rigors of a militaiy occupation.
Porto Rico received the Americans with open arms, as sons of liberty
whose coming brought them light and progress, and therefore there is
no fear that the country will try to emancipate itself from the Ameri-
can sovereignty. On the contrary, Porto Rico desires to be always
attached to its new nationality. We think, therefore, that the military
government should cease and a civil government be instituted, which
would consolidate American sovereignty, provide for all public needs,
and start the country on its road to progress. We think also that a
small garrison would suffice to insure that sovereignty and preserve
order. The removal from office of many employees, owing to the nec-
essary decentralization of government, has thrown many natives out
of work, leaving them without bread. We think the creation of a
corps of militia would open a road for their employment. This would
save the government much money and would open a career for those
wishing to serve their country and their fellow-citizens.

SIMPLIFY THE LAWS.
STATEMENT OF RUCABADO & CO., MERCHANTS.

Cayey, P. R., March 4, 1899.
Reforms in the law should be undertaken by expert legislators.
Our law of civil procedure is so complicated that the conduct of any
trial requires months and even years for its conclusion. So costly
is the process of litigation that it is better to allow oneself to be
injured and one's interest to be trodden under foot than to have

805

recourse to the tribunals of justice. The first consideration of reforms
of our present laws should he toward their simplification. Clerks of
the courts, judges, and municipal secretaries should have salaries for
moral reasons. In this way only could responsibility he exacted of
them, as their salary would provide them with equitable means of
support and just compensation for their labors. It is irony to exact
responsibility from employees who owe the bread that they eat to the
contingency of their vocation. If the positions were salaried ones,
the municipal judges would be men of title who, with real knowledge
of their mission, would administer justice properly and would free
society from the ridiculous spectacle of seeing lawsuits settled by
persons who hardly know how to sign their names.

REFORMS NEEDED.

REMARKS ON THE OFFICIAL GUIDE OF PORTO RICO, BY DR. HERMINIO DIAZ,

SECRETARY OF JUSTICE.

A careful perusal of the above-named work will show at first glance
that during Spanish rule a superabundance of employees fed on the
treasury, making necessary the high taxation ruling in order to cover
their salaries. It is absolutely necessary that these offices should be
swept away, more especially as the Territorial law of the Union will
make them unnecessary, as public services can be performed with a
much smaller number of employees than are now in the various
offices, always assuming that they are intelligent, hard working, and
honest.

BOARD OF AUTHORITIES.

This board, which figures in page 25 of the "Guide," will have no
reason to exist in the future. Neither was there any reason for its
existence under Spanish dominion, its character being purely advis-
ory, the Governor-General having the power to resolve questions on
his own authority after consulting the board, even if his resolutions
were contrary to those adopted by them.

COUNCIL OF ADMINISTRATION.

This council was created by royal order of December 31, 1896, when
the colonial minister, Seiior Castellanos, reformed the legislative pol-
icy of this island. It is referred to on page 27 of the ' ' Guide. " It
was composed then of the persons indicated on page 27, and its duty
was to give information on general estimates of receipt and expendi-
ture which were approved or disapproved by the chambers; also on
general accounts which had to be rendered to the intendencia every
year; on affairs connected with Patronato de Indias; on resolutions
of the provincial deputation which might be contrary to the laws or to
the general interest of the nation ; on petitions for legislative reforms
which might emanate from said provincial deputation; on the dis-
missal or removal of mayors, assistant mayors, and regidores, and on
all other questions of administrative character which the general gov-
ernment might think it convenient to inquire into. This council was
composed of the Governor-General as president, the bishop, the
lieutenant-governor, the principal commandant of the navy, of the
president and prosecutor of the supreme court of the island, of six

806

provincial deputies, and of six other persons, who were required to
possess certain qualifications and who were named by the government.

On the promulgation in Porto Rico of the constitution of November
25, 1897, wrongly called autonomous, as self-government was no part
of it, this council was suppressed pursuant to the royal order of Decem-
ber 31, 1896, creating it, and two insular chambers were created, called
the council of administration and the council of representatives,
respectively. The council of administration was composed of fifteen
persons, of whom eight were elected b}^ popular election and seven
were named by the Governor-General representing the Crown. As a
part of the parliament or congressional insular system this council
had jurisdiction either before or after the action of the chamber of
representatives, according to the class of matter treated; that is to say,
on matters referring to worship and justice, government, treasury, and
interior — this latter in its three branches, public works, instruction,
and agricultural industry and commerce ; also, on questions of a purely
local character affecting colonial territory — as, for instance, territorial
division, provincial, municipal, judicial, sanitary, maritime, territo-
rial, public credit, banking, and the money system.

As an integral part of the insular parliament or congress, its duty
was to establish regulations for the administration of the laws voted,
by the insular parliament on matters expressly confided to its care;
also, do adjudicate the electoral matters, census matters, qualifications
of electors, and the management of the suffrage; also, to dictate regu-
lations or propose to the central government methods to facilitate the
income, conservation, and promotion in the legal tribunals; also, on
the formation of legal estimates and on tariffs.

This council of administration once in session named its president,
vice-president, secretaries without salaries, deliberated a few days,
and then had to suspend because of the war. On the termination of the
war and the military occupation by the Government of the United States
the chambers have been considered virtually dissolved ; and if the laws
common to all the Territories of the United States should be implanted
here, the governor, named by the President of the United States, will
not have to name the personnel of the legislature, but only those who
will form a board of advisers for passing on the electoral capacity of
the inhabitants, the time, place, and method of verifying the first
election on electoral division, etc. Therefore it is clear that the em-
ployees of the council of administration will be useless.

PROVINCIAL DEPUTATION.

This body, referred to on page 30 of the "Official Guide," was
created under the Spanish rule and according to the royal order of
December 31, 1896, issued by the colonial minister, Mr. Castellano.
It is composed of 12 deputies chosen by popular election for four years,
the half to be renewed every two years. Its duties are the following:
To formulate and approve each year the provincial estimates; to
approve or disapprove the accounts which, under this estimate, shall
be rendered each year; establish and preserve the special services
which might have for their object the comfort of the inhabitants of
the island and the furtherance of their interests, both material and
moral; also to pass on the propriety of public works, jjostal and tele-
graphic communication, maritime and territorial works, agricultural

807

industry, commerce, immigration, colonization, public instruction,
first authority on sanitation, meetings and expositions ; also to admin-
ister provincial events ; to decide on questions relating to the consti-
tution of municipalities or municipal corporations; to resolve, also, on
the limit of municipal properties.

This provincial deputation was rendered unnecessary under the
decree of November 25, 1897, conceding autonomy to Porto Rico.
There is no reason why it should continue to exist, as all its attributes
and services should have been undertaken by the secretaries to the
insular chambers created by that decree. It can be conceived that
this body could have continued in existence if Porto Rico, like Cuba,
had consisted of various provinces, but as this country was considered
as a single province the deputation became perfectly useless and gave
rise to serious conflicts in matters of jurisdiction, as well as being an
enormous charge on taxpayers, as the estimates for its maintenance
reached the enormous sum of $1,217,700. This body should be sup-
pressed absolutely, and I understand that it is the intention of Gen-
eral Brooke to do so, doubtless in accordance with instructions received
from Mr. McKinley. The suppression of. this body will wipe out of
existence the employees included on pages 31 to 42, inclusive.

As regards the posts named on page 43, all should be sustained
except that of chaplain or minister of the Catholic religion; but when
the provincial deputation is suppressed these posts should pass under
the management of the various secretaries. These positions treat of
matters affecting the insane orphan children and refer to their educa-
tion and their training in some trade.

secretary's department of the general government.

1. Technical inspection. — There is no reason for the continuance of
the employees named in pages 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49 under the law of
the territories, or under military occupation. Many of the positions
held by these employees are suppressed and were so during the
Spanish war.

2. Local administration. — The employees named on pages 50 and
51 ceased to be such on the implantation of the autonomous govern-
ment.

Regional delegation. — The autonomous government suppressed the
regional delegation, created by decrees of the Colonial Minister, and
to-day it is nonexistent.

Gentlemen, holders of the Grand Cross.— These gentlemen, as noted
on page 55, have no claim on the provincial estimate. They carry
their cross, but don't get any pay for so doing.

Diocese of Porto Rico. — The Catholic religion having ceased to be
official in this island, all its ministers will have to live on donations
of their congregations, and must be removed entirely from the civil
list. Their names are included in pages 56 to 81.

Castilian titles. — They are included on page 82. They receive
nothing.

Administration of justice. — All the employees named in pages 83 to
133, inclusive, and who exist at the present time, have been named
by virtue of the organized form of tribunals of justice of this island.
While the Territorial law is being implanted here the number of
judges of first instance and instruction should be reduced from twelve

808

to nine. Those that should be retained are two in San Juan, Cagnas,
Huniacao, Guayama, Mayaguez, Aguadilla, Arecibo, and Ponce.

In this matter of the administration of justice there is one verj' im-
portant question which should be immediately resolved. I will give
some instances, so that this will be better understood. The laws
which are in force here exact that civil questions shall be passed on
first by judges of instruction and first instance. The litigant who is
not content with this sentence may appeal from this tribunal to that
of the territorial audiencia of San Juan, which tribunal can confirm
or vacate the sentence of the judge. In criminal cases the judges of
instruction and first instance prepare the indictment. This is taken
to the audiencia in San Juan or Ponce or Mayaguez, according to the
district to which the judge of first instance may belong, and the audi-
encia passes sentence. From any of the sentences on criminal mat-
ters or judgments in civil cases pronounced by the audiencia it was
possible to appeal to the supreme tribunal in Madrid. Now that
Porto Rico has been separated from Spain, and as civil laws still re-
main in force, the right of litigants to appeal is in abeyance. My
opiniou is that Mr. McKinley should order that while the reform in
the laws is being made the audiencia should have full power as a
court of last resort, or he should appoint three functionaries who
understand our law in Washington and formed out of the Supreme
Court of the Union.

Registrars of property. — These functionaries, noted in page 134, can
not be suppressed for the moment, as they are very necessary; but
what should be done immediately is to pay them a fixed salary to avoid
the great abuses and spoliation to which thej^ subject the people,
owing to their right to extract whatever they like for the registrations
that are made.

College of lawyers. — This institution, referred to on pages 135 to 140,
was created for purely economical reasons and to defend provincial
interests. Its object is to see to it that no persons enter into the pro-
fession unless they are duly titled. It is very useful and its members
receive no compensation of any description.

College of notaries. — Pages 141 to 146 refer to this college. These
gentlemen are not in receipt of salaries and charge only for the docu-
ments which they draw up the fees allowed by law. Our law allows
only persons to practice as notaries who hold the necessary title, but
as abogados study the same laws more fully, it is to be hoped that the
American Government will permit, as is done in the United States, all
lawyers to practice indiscriminately either of the branches.

Procurators. — Pages 147 to 151 treat of these. They are persons
who hold the power of attorney and represent litigants in judicial
matters. Our laws in certain cases do not allow the litigant to take
charge of his own case, but exact the naming of a procurator, who is
paid according to the legal tariff. This is highly unjust, as it pre-
vents persons from carrying on their own litigation, obliging them to
incur unnecessary expense. I think that this matter should be
entirely free and should be left to the will of the litigant to name or not,
as he pleases, procurators to take charge of his litigation in the courts.

809

SUSPENSION OF THE LAW OF FORECLOSURE.

[Copy of a resolution passed by the Ayuntamiento of Utuado in session extraordinary, attended
also by several property owners who are rate-payers, and signed by the alcalde and. many
others.]

(1) That agriculture is the principal source of the wealth of Porto
Rico.

(2) That coffee is the most valuable crop of the island;

(3) That in consequence of the Spanish- American war, of the scan-
dalous fall in prices, of the absolute closing of credit, and the unmer-
ciful exactions of the commercial houses, agriculturists rfind them-
selves in a condition of complete ruin.

(4) That real roads do not exist from the interior to the coast ; that
only tracks, dangerous even to travelers, are available, preventing the
development of the country and sapping its life more each day.

(5) That the greatest wealth of Porto Rico is situated in the towns
round about Utuado, Lares, Yauco, Ciales, and Adjuntas. That for
all these and other weighty reasons, which it would be prolix to state,
this council and the undersigned ratepayers beg Mr. H. K. Carroll to
request from Washington the following saving measures :

First. Suspension of judicial proceedings in the whole island for
the time it may think fit.

Second. Concession of every class of facilities for the establishment
of agricultural banks.

Third. The use of all or part of the proceeds of tne custom-houses
for the construction of roads, railroads, etc., distributing the money
among the municipalities in the proportion of the inhabitants of each
one.

THE GOVERNMENT, COURTS, ETC.
STATEMENT OF ME. ALRIZU, PONCE, P. R.

The government of the island should be constituted thus : A gov-
ernor, an attorney-general, a secretary of treasury, a secretary of
interior, a secretary of public works. This is to be the cabinet and
advisory board of the governor. The first secretary to be the presid-
ing officer of all the courts of the island and to superintend the man-
agement of public justice. The courts of the island should consist of
justices of the peace, judges in civil suits, magistrates of criminal
courts, and the court of appeals at San Juan — this to be the highest
law court of the island, to be presided over by the most eminent and
honest lawyers of the island, and to have a judge-advocate of the same
kind.

The courts of the island' should be allowed to continue with the
same division of territory assigned to each and the same number of
judges, magistrates, and other officials appertaining to the service.

Second. A secretary of treasury, named by the President of the
United States, to be an American ; an assistant secretary, a Porto
Rican, who should know both English and Spanish ; two clerks and a
-cashier to run the office, all to be named by the President. The treas-
ury of the island should have charge of the collection of customs
duties, internal-revenue, registry, industry, and commercial taxes.
For this purpose the island should continue divided into seven
departments.

The custom-house is the central collecting office of each department

810

and where accounts are to be kept and rendered monthly to the sec-
retary of treasury. Offices in each town for the collection of inter-
nal-revenue and other taxes should continue for the present under
the inspection of the custom-house of each department.

The internal-revenue taxes should be on agriculture, real-estate
property, and pasture lands — 25 per cent of the municipal tax assessed
by the council of each town. On industries and commerce the same
as it is now,' which is done by a schedule according to the importance
of the trade.

The registry tax on transfer of property and on all other deeds or
documents of any kind running through the registrar's office should
be reduced by one-third of its present rate.

The head tax called the "cedula" should be entirely abolished.

The tariff on imports from United States should be 25 per cent of
that assigned to foreign imports. This measure is needed so as to be
able to provide cheap foods for our laboring classes. Porto Rico has
a very large population that is fed from outside markets. The best
producing lands of the island are taken by sugar and coffee planta-
tions, thus leaving the poor lands for corn and vegetables for home
consumption. Until the country gets roads to the interior that will
fetch all sorts of eatables cheap to the shores the laboring classes
must now depend on the imports for their food ; therefore the reduc-
tion recommended is a just and politic measure.

The legal tender of Porto Rico should be the American dollar. A
law should be enacted at once establishing this, and the peso should be
exchanged at 2 for 1 in the treasury of each department. All exist-
ing debts should be settled at that ratio. The exchange should be
made in one month at the head custom-house of each department;
after that time the circulation of the peso is prohibited.

The secretary of the interior should be a man from Porto Rico
conversant with the present system of government. He is the president
of all the municipalities of the island. Our municipal laws are good;
we only desire their enforcement, and that every man should do this
duty. The election of members of the council should be as it is now.
On the secretary of the interior rests the duty of seeing that the laws
are obeyed. All the budgets of the municipalities should be sent to him
tor approval. Public instruction is also to be in his charge. He is to
provide for all the deficiencies of the present system, with the approval
of the governor. This is one of the most important matters of our
administration. After one year the municipalities of the island should
elect four members in each department, thus making twenty-eight
members, who will form a convention to discuss and approve any
changes that they may think fit to propose to the governor, who will
sanction them if he thinks proper; or in case he does not, he will
submit them to Washington for decision.

The municipalities should manage their own affairs and have their
own police. Order is to be enforced by those vested with the author-
ity, and only in emergencies may they call on the general government
for assistance.

The secretary of public works should direct all the improvements
of the island. All works of general character pertaining to the
municipalities are to have his superior wisdom. He is to study and
report on all the changes and improvements that the island requires,
so that the governor may decide and order the execution of those
that he may deem necessary at present. There is so much to be done

811

on the island that it requires a man well posted on the general neces-
sities to be placed in this office.

The registrars' office of the island should be provided with a head
man to superintend their work, to be selected by the attorney-general,
as presiding officer of the individual department.

TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT AND SUFFRAGE.

Successors of A. J. Alcaide, merchants, Arroyo, P. R.

We believe that as soon as possible the Territorial form of Govern-
ment should be established.

The right to vote should be extended to every citizen born in Porto
Rico and naturalized American who is 21 years of age and knows
how to read and write.

We propose, also, an electoral tax of $1 or $2, as exists in some of
the States. The income so derived to pay for election expenses and
be turned over to the provincial treasury. People to vote directly
for Congressmen and Senators, as also locally for mayor and aldermen.

.THE NEEDS OF AGRICULTURE.
MEMORIAL OF MAYAGUEZ PLANTERS SUBMITTED TO THE SPECIAL COMMISSIONER.

We, the undersigned, property holders and agriculturists in the
department of Mayaguez, being desirous of cooperating as far as our
scanty forces allow for the welfare of this island, beg to state :

That the coffee growers of Mayaguez, Las Marias, and Maricao some
years ago began their work anew, rising out of the prostration to
which the industry had been for some time subjected. At this date
the plantations are in very good condition, owing to the fertility of the
soil and the careful work which has been bestowed on them; but
as the merchants of Mayaguez have absolutely cut off credits, the only
source on which we count for the development of agriculture, the day
may arrive (and it is not far off) when the coffee industry may die for
lack of funds with which to attend to its needs. As the poor classes
live on the work given by the agriculturist, if that work be suspended
they will be reduced to the utmost misery. For a year this condition
has been threatening, and cases of starvation have already occurred
and will occur frequently for want of work. To save the situation,
a sad one for both owner and workman, to combat the tyranny of the
speculator and usurer, to place the coffee industry on a footing of
progress, to free the laborer from his condition of ansemia and enable
him to earn enough, to buy food with the wages of his honest labor,
and to lift the agriculturist from the penury which overwhelms him
and enable him to meet his obligations and his social duties, there is
urgent need —

First. That the money question be settled, giving the pesos a value
of 50 cents.

Second. That agricultural banks be established by* American cor-
porations, to loan money at low rates and for long terms on mortgages.

Third. That full freedom be given for Americans, our fellow-coun-
trymen, to establish themselves so as to introduce competition and put
an end to Spanish and German monopoly, which, owing to lack of

812

competition, sells its merchandise dear and scourges agriculture by
the low prices paid for produce. The merchants are interested only
in sending their capital to their respective countries, leaving our coun-
try bare, greatly to our prejudice.

Fourth. That lawyers, notaries, and court clerks' fees be limited to
rates made generally known by a published tariff.

Fifth. That every citizen be allowed to conduct his own litigation,
without obligatory recourse or procurators, as these, together witli
"shysters," whose only idea is to draw the agriculturists into litiga-
tion, with or without reason, cause great prejudice to agriculturists.
■ Sixth. That agricultural tools and machinery be exempted from all
duties.

Seventh. That the so-called "cuota imponible" be annulled for a
number of years, owing to the onerous state of present conditions.

Eighth. That the ayuntamiento of this city, together with General
Henry, work for the annexation to the district of the neighboring ones
of Maricao and Las Marias, as those districts impose heavy taxation
to meet the salaries of their unnecessary employees, to the exclusion
of important work, such as roads and education; and that preference
be given to these branches, so completely neglected.

(Signed by many persons.)

MUNICIPAL TAXES TOO HEAVY.
STATEMENT OF MUNICIPALITY OF SABANA GKANDE.

Taxes should be proportionate to the wealth of the locality and to
the benefits bestowed by the state. It is completely arbitrary that a
town like Sabana Grande should have to paj" $4,000 besides the pro-
vincial contingent, which reaches almost the sum of $1,500, when it
possesses only one telegraph station, with no post-office, no roads, and
no armed force to guarantee security to life and property.

As regards industries, we aspire to the greatest possible liberty, so
that our industries may acquire a rapid and steady growth. It seems
anomalous that in the midst of an age of light and progress in dividual
initiative should have been strangled and the establishment c . indus-
trial centers prevented.

Agriculture and commerce constitute almost the only sources of our
wealth, but have been confined until now to a narrow sphere by the
nation which has just been defeated by the American Army. There
are very few estates not heavily mortgaged, owing to th want of
equilibrium between expenses and production. ^

REFORMS IN GOVERNMENT.

OPINIONS OF SEftOR JOSE L. F.ERRI0S, ALCALDE OF PATILLAS.

If Porto Rico is to obtain a high grade of prosperity, it needs —
(1) The establishment of strong credit institutions, lending money

for long terms, in the form of insular banks with a basis of Porto

Rican capital, assisted by the insular treasuiy.

813

(2) The complete annexation of the island to the United States
without losing its personality (individuality) in its government. You
are aware that home rule is the true American and democratic doc-
trine, the best known to civilization for the welfare of nations.

(3) Modification of the courts of justice. Municipal judges should
disappear, and their functions should be intrusted to the alcaldes.

(4-) Reconcentration of rural population in villages. In this way
the methods of education and culture find easier application.

As secondary measures tending to the better conduct of the munici-
palities are —

(1) That sugar and tobacco enter free into the United States.

(2) That rural schools only be supported by the municipalities,
which should have liberty to institute examinations, engagement and
removal of teachers, and the adoption of a system of teaching.

(3) Reality of municipal autonomy, not as to-day, when the alcaldes
do not know what laws to obey, as neither American laws have been
introduced nor Spanish laws annulled, and there are points in the lat-
ter incompatible with the present government.

(4) Modification or suppression of the present tariffs under which
pharmacists have to supply drugs to the poor for account of the
municipality. Annual inspection of drug stores, so as& o insure a stock
of medicines made imperative by the science of mf^^e.

(5) That the government advance to tM ™~ umcipaiitie&a sum suffi-
cient tcTcover their debts, saW -— - ^o be returned ma number of
years proportionately to tfc - «»f * ™ ^f^ . ,

(6) That vicinage V Vd? be P^t m order by the insula* treasury,
their repaUhere^Ger t0 be borne b^the municipalities.

FORMS DESIRED BY THE AYUNTAMIENTO OF CAYEY.

XV-C/

i entry for coffee, sugar, molasses, and tobacco, and a duty

^ posJT on foreiSn coffees entering into any port of the Union of at

"last $4.

1' Free export.

Agricultural banks with branches in the most important towns of
the island.

That education be obligatory, free, and attended to>by the state,
and that schools for poor children and adults be established in every
town of the island.

TTF-!e!rCasting trade with every P°rt of tne Union; introduction of
United States currency as soon as possible.

Administrative decentralization for city councils. That the whole
of the income from territorial taxes be given to the municipalities f or
tneir expenses, as long as the state has an income from customs, as
tne presort system will make it impossible for the municipalities to
cover ■ mses.

jrers will be thrown out of work as soon as the tobacco crop
ceases, ,nd it is necessary to start public works to give them employ-
ment and the means of earning food for their families.
* That the military government be terminated.

>JXa)t t

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Full text of "Report on the island of Porto Rico; its population, civil government, commerce, industries, productions, roads, tariff, and currency, with recommendations"

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